Background: The Biological Field Station of Paimpont (Station Biologique de Paimpont, SBP), owned by the University of Rennes and located in the Brocéliande Forest of Brittany (France), has been hosting student scientific research and field trips during the last 60 years. The study area of the SBP is a landscape mosaic of 17 ha composed of gorse moors, forests, prairies, ponds and creeks. Land use has evolved over time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite extensive research, the origins and functions of behavioural laterality remain largely unclear. One of the most striking unresolved issues is the fact that laterality generally occurs at the population-level. Why would the majority of the individuals of a population exhibit the same laterality, while individual-level laterality would yet provide the advantages in terms of improving behavioural efficiency? Are social pressures the key factor? Can social pressures induce alignment of laterality between the individuals of a population? Can the effect of social pressures overpass the effect of other possible determining factors (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Present day distributions of Palearctic taxa in northern latitudes mainly result from populations having survived in local patches during the Late Pleistocene and/or from recolonizing populations from southern temperate refugia. If well-studied Mediterranean and eastern European refugia are widely accepted, some recent biogeographical assumptions still remain unclear, such as the occurrence of multiple glacial refugia in Iberia and cryptic refugia in northern Europe during the last glaciations. The Lusitanian snail Elona quimperiana has a remarkably disjunct distribution, limited to northwestern France (Brittany), northwestern Spain and the Basque Country.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present work provides the first broad-scale screening of allozymes in the land snail Helix aspersa. By using overall information available on the distribution of genetic variation between 102 populations previously investigated, we expect to strengthen our knowledge on the spread of the invasive aspersa subspecies in the Western Mediterranean. We propose a new approach based on a centre-based clustering procedure to cluster populations into groups following rules of geographical proximity and genetic similarity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUsing ecoethology of bats and statistical methods, we anticipate the evidence of specific species of spinturnicids associated with Myotis myotis and Myotis bechsteinii (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae) mixed colonies are unknown. Traditional description of this new crpytic species Spinturnix bechsteini, parasite of M. bechsteinii, is done.
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