Underlying and proximate drivers of biodiversity changes in Mesoamerican biosphere reserves.

Protected areas are of paramount relevance to conserving wildlife and ecosystem contributions to people. Yet, their conservation success is increasingly threatened by human activities including habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and species overexploitation. Thus, understanding the underlying and proximate drivers of anthropogenic threats is urgently needed to improve protected areas' effectiveness, especially in the biodiversity-rich tropics.

Knowledge and use of edible mushrooms in two municipalities of the Sierra Tarahumara, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Background: The Sierra Madre Occidental of Chihuahua in Northern Mexico is inhabited by indigenous Raramuris, mestizos, and other ethnic groups. The territory consists of canyons and ravines with pine, oak and pine-oak forests in the higher plateaus. A great diversity of potentially edible mushrooms is found in forests of the Municipalities of Bocoyna and Urique.

Delivery of Duvernoy's secretion into prey by the brown tree snake, Boiga irregularis (Serpentes:Colubridae).

Many colubrid snakes, like the more venomous elapid and viperid snakes, can produce and inject an oral secretion that is toxic and may present a human health risk. However, colubrid oral toxins are produced in a Duvernoy's gland and delivered not through a hollow fang, but instead by long, often grooved teeth under low pressure. The possible role of Duvernoy's secretion in functions other than rapid killing of prey make it important to know how and where this secretion is delivered during a feeding strike.