Ribeiroia ondatrae causes limb abnormalities in a Canadian amphibian community

2012 ◽  
Vol 90 (7) ◽  
pp. 808-814 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.D. Roberts ◽  
T.E. Dickinson

A parasitic flatworm ( Ribeiroia ondatrae Price, 1931) is known to cause severe limb abnormalities and high mortality levels in American amphibian populations. The distributional pattern of this parasite—its main dispersal agent being birds—correlates with the boundaries of migratory flyways in the USA. Yet thus far, R. ondatrae have not been found in Canadian amphibians, which is surprising, considering that said flyways extend well into northern Canada. In this study, we report on a lake in British Columbia that is known to support amphibians with abnormalities similar to those induced by R. ondatrae. To determine if the parasite was present and if it was the cause of the abnormalities, we collected and necropsied metamorphs of the Columbia Spotted Frog ( Rana luteiventris Thompson, 1913) and the Pacific Chorus Frog ( Pseudacris regilla (Baird and Girard, 1852)), and we set up field enclosures to protect larvae from R. ondatrae. Abnormality levels were high in both species (>20%), with the vast majority being found in close proximity to the metacercariae of R. ondatrae. Moreover, the types of abnormalities closely matched those previously recorded in field and laboratory exposures of amphibians to R. ondatrae. Finally, larvae that developed in the same lake, but were protected from R. ondatrae by an enclosure, did not develop abnormalities. Collectively, these results demonstrate that R. ondatrae are both present in an amphibian community in Canada and responsible for causing limb abnormalities.

Entomologia ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. e3 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.V. Rossi Stacconi ◽  
A. Grassi ◽  
D.T. Dalton ◽  
B. Miller ◽  
M. Ouantar ◽  
...  

Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae) is a destructive crop pest native to Southeast Asia that recently invaded countries in Europe and North America, severely impacting commercial fruit production in its new host range. Here we report the results of a survey aimed at determining the presence of indigenous D. suzukii parasitoid populations carried out from May to October 2012 in two areas negatively affected by this fruit pest: Trento Province, Northern Italy, and Oregon in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. We conducted field and laboratory studies in order to determine the status of biological control agents utilizing D. suzukii as a host. Our study sites included a range of commercial soft fruits and natural non-commercial habitats. In each site, sentinel traps were baited with either D. suzukii or Drosophila melanogaster Meigen (Diptera: Drosophilidae) larvae in different food substrates. The generalist parasitoid, Pachycrepoideus vindemiae (Rondani) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), was collected from both D. suzukii and D. melanogaster pupae in traps deployed in a selection of these sites. This report of P. vindemiae in 2012 represents the first identification of D. suzukii parasitoids in Europe. A successive parasitism efficacy test was set up under controlled laboratory conditions confirming the ability of P. vindemiae to attack D. suzukii pupae. In addition, an historical digression with analysis of the original documents in the Italian archives has been provided in order to unravel the correct species name. We finally discuss the possible practical implications of this finding for the biological control of D. suzukii.


2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. J. Gill

In December 1884 Charles Francis Adams (1857–1893) left Illinois, USA, by train for San Francisco and crossed the Pacific by ship to work as taxidermist at Auckland Museum, New Zealand, until February 1887. He then went to Borneo via several New Zealand ports, Melbourne and Batavia (Jakarta). This paper concerns a diary by Adams that gives a daily account of his trip to Auckland and the first six months of his employment (from January to July 1885). In this period Adams set up a workshop and diligently prepared specimens (at least 124 birds, fish, reptiles and marine invertebrates). The diary continues with three reports of trips Adams made from Auckland to Cuvier Island (November 1886), Karewa Island (December 1886) and White Island (date not stated), which are important early descriptive accounts of these small offshore islands. Events after leaving Auckland are covered discontinuously and the diary ends with part of the ship's passage through the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), apparently in April 1887. Adams's diary is important in giving a detailed account of a taxidermist's working life, and in helping to document the early years of Auckland Museum's occupation of the Princes Street building.


2001 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross W. Jamieson

As one of the most common artifact categories found on Spanish colonial sites, the wheel-made, tin-glazed pottery known as majolica is an important chronological and social indicator for archaeologists. Initially imported from Europe, several manufacturing centers for majolica were set up in the New World by the late sixteenth century. The study of colonial majolica in the Viceroyalty of Peru, which encompassed much of South America, has received less attention than ceramic production and trade in the colonial Caribbean and Mesoamerica. Prior to 1650 the Viceroyalty of Peru was supplied with majolica largely produced in the city of Panama Vieja, on the Pacific. Panama Vieja majolica has been recovered from throughout the Andes, as far south as Argentina. Majolica made in Panama Vieja provides an important chronological indicator of early colonial archaeological contexts in the region. The reproduction of Iberian-style majolica for use on elite tables was symbolically important to the imposition of Spanish rule, and thus Panamanian majolicas also provide an important indicator of elite status on Andean colonial sites.


Author(s):  
Kenneth McK. Norrie

This chapter explores the world-wide movement at the turn of the 20th century towards specialist juvenile courts to deal with children who commit offences. Following the lead of the juvenile court movement in the USA and Australia, the Children Act 1908 set up juvenile courts in both Scotland and England, though in Scotland these courts quickly acquired jurisdiction over both young offenders and children in need of care and protection. Originally little more than a separate set of procedural rules to be followed in the sheriff court dealing with children, an effort was made in the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Acts 1932 and 1937 to give better effect to the idea of a separate court presided over by specialist judges. Though never nation-wide, these new, enhanced, juvenile courts took on many of the characteristics that were later adopted by the children’s hearing system, including the processes to be followed, the involvement of the children, the requirement to look at the child’s wider environmental circumstances (including the child’s welfare), and the outcomes available to the court.


1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 495-498
Author(s):  
Frank Glendenning

L. B. Cebik, Glenn C. Graber and Frank H. Marsh (eds) Advances in Bioethics: Volume 1: Violence, Neglect and the Elderly. JAI Press Inc., Greenwich, Conn. 1996, 240 pp. £62.50 Hbk ISBN 0-7623-0096-5.This book appears to be the first volume of a series, although it is not clear what additional volumes will follow. The price alone suggests that it is aimed at academic libraries, although serious researchers into elder mistreatment may decide that it is a necessary addition to a personal library as a book of reference.The Preface explains the origin of this series on Advances in Bioethics: ‘The magnitude of violence in the United States has become an increasingly grim reality for many Americans’. Walker and Maltby (1997), in their presentation of European research on ageing, recently drew attention to the sense of fear of walking out at night that older people have in all the member states of the European Union. The same appears to be true in the USA as well. The preface catalogues figures for 1992: 207,000 rapes, over 20,000 murders and 690,000 robberies. This has led the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to focus attention on violence and health, seeking to understand violence-related behaviour and its consequences. In 1993, the NIH set up the Panel of NIH Research on Antisocial, Aggressive and Violence-related Behaviours and their Consequences. The Panel included experts on ethics, criminal justice, medicine, behavioural and biological research, public health, epidemiology, anthropology, nursing, sociology, psychology and psychiatry. The Panel's purpose was to ‘evaluate the NIH research portfolio in terms of its relevance, adequacy and responsiveness to social and ethical concerns.’ It has been necessary to give this background in order that the book may be seen in context.


1992 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
M de Smidt

The complicated pattern of foreign direct investments (FDI) is analyzed for the Single European Market. There are huge FDI flows from the USA and Japan. The Japanese are newcomers: they already made financial transactions through Luxembourg and are building up their logistic operations in the Netherlands. A new division of labor is presented, which includes the United Kingdom as a prime host country for reasons of language and low labor costs. Ireland, Catalonia, and some East German Lander may be the exception to the rule that investments are made in the core regions. A shift was seen in FDI during the 1960s to the Pacific Rim, the USA being a prime host country for FDI during the 1970s.


2001 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-22
Author(s):  
Catherine Tranmer

Originally set up in 1988, ARCLIB has become a lively pressure group involving not only architecture school librarians in the United Kingdom but also those in other European countries and the USA. National conferences have provided an annual focus and these are listed in the appendix, but there have also been active international contacts over the years, the current hosting of the ARCLIB discussion list in Venice being one example. ARCLIB also publishes its own Bulletin, which reports on the Group’s activities and keeps members in contact with one another.


Nematology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 539-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Smiley ◽  
Guiping Yan ◽  
John N. Pinkerton

Abstract The cereal cyst nematode, Heterodera avenae, occurs in at least seven western states of the USA and reduces grain yield in localised regions and in selected crop management systems. Virulence phenotypes for H. avenae populations in North America have not been reported. Nine individual assays in six experiments were conducted to determine the reactions of barley, oat and wheat cultivars to five H. avenae populations in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Three populations were evaluated for virulence to 23 entries of the 'International Test Assortment for Defining Cereal Cyst Nematode Pathotypes', plus selected local cultivars and entries representing a greater diversity of resistance genes. The virulence phenotype(s) for populations of H. avenae in the PNW did not correspond to any of the 11 pathotypes defined by the Test Assortment. Five PNW populations exhibited affinities with Group 2 but were not defined by pathotypes Ha12 and Ha22. Reproduction was prevented or greatly inhibited by barley carrying the Rha3 resistance gene and by most carriers of Rha2 resistance, and by selected oat cultivars with multigenic resistance. Wheat cultivars carrying the Cre1 resistance gene were highly effective in suppressing H. avenae reproduction. Current PNW wheat cultivars do not carry the Cre1 resistance gene. Crosses between Ouyen, an Australian bread wheat with Cre1 resistance, and several PNW wheat cultivars were resistant. The CreR gene also prevented H. avenae reproduction in the trial where it was tested. Intermediate levels of reproduction occurred on wheat cultivars carrying the Cre5, Cre7 and Cre8 resistance genes, each of which was considered useful for pyramiding into cultivars with Cre1 resistance. This research identified genetic resources of value in PNW cereal crop breeding programmes.


A little over two hundred years ago a number of serious and learned men in Copenhagen, London, Paris, St Petersbourg, Stockholm and elsewhere, men who were academicians, Fellows of the Royal Society, Lords of the Admiralty, politicians and the like, had been thinking seriously and learnedly about the behaviour of Venus, not, of course, about Venus as represented coldly and chastely by the marble statues being imported from Italy or more warmly in the paintings of Boucher and his contemporaries, but about her far distant planet which was calculated to pass across the disk of the Sun in 1769 and not to make another such transit until 1874. Observations of the 1769 transit at widely separated stations would provide, it was hoped, the means of calculating the distance of the Earth from the Sun. The Royal Society in London, having set up in November 1767 a sub-committee ‘to consider the places proper to observe the coming Transit of Venus’ and other particulars relevant to the same, presented a memorial to King George III outlining possible benefits to science and navigation from observations made in the Pacific Ocean and received in return the promise of £4000 and a suitable ship provided by the Royal Navy (8).


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