Download or read book Behaviour and Ecology of Spiders written by Carmen Viera and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-11-02 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within the last few decades, arachnology in the Neotropical region has experienced a great development filling the knowledge gap in one of the most diverse regions of the world. Nevertheless, large geographical areas remain poorly sampled, especially within the Amazon, and new genera and species have been continuously discovered, even in urban areas. In congruence with the recent improvements in research, several aspects of the ecology, behaviour and natural history of spiders, such as interactions with other predators and parasitoids, social interactions, dispersal patterns, habitat requirements, mating behaviors, among others, are being carefully investigated. These recent contributions incorporate substantial information on the preexisting knowledge on these subjects every year. Our main objective with this book is to present a summary on these new researches and on the currently knowledge on the main subjects involved in the general theme, emphasizing the contribution of the rich fauna of the Neotropical region to the research of behaviour and ecology of the spiders.
Download or read book Arachnida and Myriapoda of the Seychelles Islands written by Justin Gerlach and published by Siri Scientific Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Evolution of Primary Sexual Characters in Animals written by Janet Leonard and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-07-19 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Primary sexual traits, those structures and processes directly involved in reproduction, are some of the most diverse, specialized, and bizarre in the animal kingdom. Moreover, reproductive traits are often species-specific, suggesting that they evolved very rapidly. This diversity, long the province of taxonomists, has recently attracted broader interest from evolutionary biologists, especially those interested in sexual selection and the evolution of reproductive strategies.Primary sexual characters were long assumed to be the product of natural selection, exclusively. A recent alternative suggests that sexual selection explains much of the diversity of "primary" sexual characters. A third approach to the evolution of reproductive interactions after copulation or insemination has been to consider the process one of sexual conflict. That is, the reproductive processes of a species may reflect, as does the mating system, evolution acting on males and on females, but in different directions.In this volume, authors explore a wide variety of primary sexual characters and selective pressures that have shaped them, from natural selection for offspring survival to species-isolating mechanisms, sperm competition, cryptic female choice and sexual arms races. Exploring diverse reproductive adaptations from a theoretical and practical perspective, The Evolution of Primary Sexual Characters will provide an unparalleled overview of sexual diversity in many taxa and an introduction to the issues in sexual selection that are changing our view of sexual processes.
Download or read book Cryptic Female Choice in Arthropods written by Alfredo V. Peretti and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-05-25 with total page 525 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely book revisits cryptic female choice in arthropods, gathering detailed contributions from around the world to address key behavioral, ecological and evolutionary questions. The reader will find a critical summary of major breakthroughs in taxon-oriented chapters that offer many new perspectives and cases to explore and in many cases unpublished data. Many groups of arthropods such as spiders, harvestmen, flies, moths, crickets, earwigs, beetles, eusocial insects, shrimp and crabs are discussed. Sexual selection is currently the focus of numerous and controversial theoretical and experimental studies. Selection in mating and post-mating patterns can be shaped by several different mechanisms, including sperm competition, extreme sexual conflict and cryptic female choice. Discrimination among males during or after copulation is called cryptic female choice because it occurs after intromission, the event that was formerly used as the definitive criterion of male reproductive success and is therefore usually difficult to detect and confirm. Because it sequentially follows intra- and intersexual interactions that occur before copulation, cryptic female choice has the power to alter or negate precopulatory sexual selection. However, though female roles in biasing male paternity after copulation have been proposed for a number of species distributed in many animal groups, cryptic female choice continues to be often underestimated. Furthermore, in recent years the concept of sexual conflict has been frequently misused, linking sexual selection by female choice irrevocably and exclusively with sexually antagonistic co-evolution, without exploring other alternatives. The book offers an essential source of information on how two fields, selective cooperation and individual sex interests, work together in the context of cryptic female choice in nature, using arthropods as model organisms. It is bound to spark valuable discussions among scientists working in evolutionary biology across the world, motivating new generations to unveil the astonishing secrets of sexual biology throughout the animal kingdom.
Download or read book Zoogeography of Arachnida written by Petar Beron and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-07-27 with total page 995 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume merges all geographical and paleogeographical data on all groups of the arachnofauna. The book features topics such as the ecological factors, climate and other barriers that influence the distribution of arachnida. It also elaborates on the characteristics of the distribution such as arachnida at high altitude (e.g. Himalaya), in caves, in polar regions and highlights differences between the arachnofauna of e.g. Mediterranean regions vs Central Europe, West African vs Indomalayan and more. Furthermore, amongst other topics the volume also includes chapters on the systems of arachnida, fossil orders, dispersal and dispersion, endemics and relicts, regional arachnogeography, cave and high altitude arachnida.
Download or read book African Biodiversity written by Bernhard A. Huber and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-04-29 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In May 2004, the Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum hosted the Fifth International Symposium on Tropical Biology. This series was established at the ZFMK in the early 1980s, and has variably focused on systematics and ecology of tropical organisms, with an emphasis on Africa. Previous volumes are those edited by Schuchmann (1985), Peters and Hutterer (1990), Ulrich (1997), and Rheinwald (2000). The symposium in 2004 was organized by the Entomology Department under the direction of Michael Schmitt. The intention was to focus on Africa rather than on a particular taxon, and to highlight biodiversity at all levels ranging from molecules to ecosystems. This focus was timely partly because of the currently running BIOTA Africa programmes (BIOdiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa). BIOTA is an interdisciplinary research project focusing on sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity in Africa (http://www.biote-africa.de). Session titles were Biogeography and Speciation Processes, Phylogenetic Patterns and Systematics, Diversity Declines and Conservation, and Applied Biodiversity Informatics. Each session was opened by an invited speaker, and all together 77 lectures and 59 posters were presented. There were over 200 participants and it was gratifying to us to meet colleagues from 26 nations, including Russia, Ukraine, Japan, USA, and ten African countries. We thank all participants for their valuable contributions.
Download or read book Field Guide to the Spiders of California and the Pacific Coast States written by Richard J. Adams and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2014-01-28 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A user-friendly guide to identifying and understanding the spiders of the Pacific Coast. There are 67 families of spiders found in North America, and 59 of them can be found in California. This field guide will cover all 59 of those families, including introduced species and common garden spiders--those will be given extra coverage. Each family is reviewed including details of their identification, taxonomy, distribution, and natural history. There will be a full color plate for each of the families."--
Download or read book Pholcid Spiders Araneae written by Zhiyuan Yao and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five genera and 26 species belonging to two subfamilies Arteminae Simon, 1893 (one genus and one species) and Pholcinae C.L. Koch, 1850 (four genera and 25 species) are reported from northern Vietnam, including 19 new species of three genera: Belisana babensis sp. nov. (male, female; Bac Kan), B. cheni sp. nov. (male, female; Bac Kan), B. clavata sp. nov. (male; Ha Giang), B. curva sp. nov. (male; Vinh Phuc), B. decora sp. nov. (male, female; Ninh Binh), B. halongensis sp. nov. (male; Quang Ninh), B. phungae sp. nov. (male, female; Bac Kan), B. pisinna sp. nov. (male; Quang Ninh), B. triangula sp. nov. (male; Phu Tho), B. vietnamensis sp. nov. (male, female; Ninh Binh), B. zhengi sp. nov. (male; Vinh Phuc), Khorata dangi sp. nov. (male; Bac Kan), K. huberi sp. nov. (male, female; Bac Kan), K. protumida sp. nov. (male, female; Quang Binh), Pholcus bifidus sp. nov. (male, female; Quang Binh), P. caecus sp. nov. (male, female; Quang Binh), P. hochiminhi sp. nov. (male, female; Quang Ninh), P. phami sp. nov. (male, female; Bac Kan), and P. zhaoi sp. nov. (male; Ninh Binh). One genus Khorata Huber, 2005 and five species Belisana schwendingeri Huber, 2005, B. sepaku Huber, 2005, Khorata digitata Yao & Li, 2010, Leptopholcus podophthalmus (Simon, 1893), and Pholcus bangfai Huber, 2011 are reported from Vietnam for the first time. Additional new records are given for two species Leptopholcus huongson Huber, 2011 and Physocyclus globosus (Taczanowski, 1874).
Download or read book Spider Research in the 21st Century written by David Penney and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The result is a great increase in multi-disciplinary research and novel avenues incorporating spiders as model organisms.
Download or read book Spider Webs written by William Eberhard and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-12-22 with total page 679 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lavishly illustrated, first-ever book on how spider webs are built, function, and evolved, William Eberhard provides a comprehensive overview of spider functional morphology and behavior related to web building, and of the surprising physical agility and mental abilities of orb weavers. For instance, one spider spins more than three precisely spaced, morphologically complex spiral attachments per second for up to fifteen minutes at a time. Spiders even adjust the mechanical properties of their famously strong silken lines to different parts of their webs and different environments, and make dramatic modifications in orb designs to adapt to available spaces. This extensive adaptive flexibility, involving decisions influenced by up to sixteen different cues, is unexpected in such small, supposedly simple animals. As Eberhard reveals, the extraordinary diversity of webs includes ingenious solutions to gain access to prey in esoteric habitats, from blazing hot and shifting sand dunes (to capture ants) to the surfaces of tropical lakes (to capture water striders). Some webs are nets that are cast onto prey, while others form baskets into which the spider flicks prey. Some aerial webs are tramways used by spiders searching for chemical cues from their prey below, while others feature landing sites for flying insects and spiders where the spider then stalks its prey. In some webs, long trip lines are delicately sustained just above the ground by tiny rigid silk poles. Stemming from the author’s more than five decades observing spider webs, this book will be the definitive reference for years to come.
Download or read book Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History written by and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 856 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bulletin Institut royal des sciences naturelles de Belgique written by Institut royal des sciences naturelles de Belgique and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Spiders of Great Britain and Ireland written by Michael John Roberts and published by Brill Archive. This book was released on 1985 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Phallacy written by Emily Willingham and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wry look at what the astonishing world of animal penises can tell us about how we use our own. The fallacy sold to many of us is that the penis signals dominance and power. But this wry and penetrating book reveals that in fact nature did not shape the penis--or the human attached to it--to have the upper...hand. Phallacy looks closely at some of nature's more remarkable examples of penises and the many lessons to learn from them. In tracing how we ended up positioning our nondescript penis as a pulsing, awe-inspiring shaft of all masculinity and human dominance, Phallacy also shows what can we do to put that penis back where it belongs. Emphasizing our human capacities for impulse control, Phallacy ultimately challenges the toxic message that the penis makes the man and the man can't control himself. With instructive illustrations of unusual genitalia and tales of animal mating rituals that will make you particularly happy you are not a bedbug, Phallacy shows where humans fit on the continuum from fun to fatal phalli and why the human penis is an implement for intimacy, not intimidation.
Download or read book A History of the Enduring Washoe People written by Guy Nixon and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2013-07-23 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The original inhabitants of the Lake Tahoe Basin the Washoe are a fascinating people. With a history in the Sierra Nevada stretching back 9000 years they are the oldest tribe in California. They have a fascinating history before and after the coming of the Americans. In American history the Washoe guided Kit Carson and Charles Fremont through the Sierra Nevada, later they were the first to bring food to the stranded Donner Party. The Washoe have tribal lore that speaks of the Si Te Cah tribe, long believed to be just an ignorant savage fantasy, recent discoveries have proven they are true. The Si Te Cah otherwise known as Sasquach or Bigfoot truly did exist and their mummified re-mains have been found in several locations. From a population numbering approximately 1,500 people whos homeland stretched from Mono Lake in the South to Honey Lake in the North the Washoe were reduced to only 500 people in 1866 with no land to call their own. They persevered and are still living in their homeland as friendly, hardworking, creative American citizens.
Download or read book Field Guide to South African Spiders written by Ansie Dippenaar-Schoeman and published by Penguin Random House South Africa. This book was released on 2014-02-20 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first-ever field guide to provide information on a vast spectrum of spider species based on their morphology, behaviour and distribution. It’s the first book to introduce all 70 South African spider families including 370 major genera and more than 860 of the more common species. It includes illustrations of all of the families, genera and species as well as more than 2 000 colour photographs and 843 maps. - A thorough summary of morphology, biology and habitat requirements is provided - Species with medical importance are discussed - The morphological characters of all known spider families from South Africa are provided and illustrated with notes on their behavior as well as further reading material - Short morphological data with notes on behaviour and distribution of 370 major genera and 860 species is provided This field guide’s purpose is to enable observers to identify spiders in the field. One of the difficulties facing a spider-watcher is that a large number of spider species are small and extremely well camouflaged and are therefore not easily seen. For some genera you will need a magnifying glass or microscope to be able to identify the specimen to generic or species level. Many species can only be identified by a specialist who has access to a good microscope and the relevant literature. Most of the spiders were photographed alive in their natural settings and only some rare and smaller species were photographed using a camera mounted on a microscope. The illustrations and descriptions make it easy for an inexperienced spider-watcher to identify many of the common species encountered in and around the house. The spiders were divided according to the free-living species and those that build intricate webs to catch their prey. The free-living spiders were further divided according to those found on the vegetation and those living on the ground. Spiders are an abundant, diverse and highly successful group of animals. They are commonly found on farms, in gardens and also in houses. They are important predators in all terrestrial ecosystems and are regarded as the “best friends” of gardeners and farmers in sustainable agriculture because they have the important task of regulating the numbers of potentially harmful insects and mites. However, they are feared and maligned because of the venom they produce. We hope this field guide will help save the lives of a few spiders. It will be valuable for the man on the street, researchers, conservation agencies, students, gardeners, farmers, as well as spider-watchers and photographers.
