Foraging diurnal lizards are well known for their use of visual and chemical cues to detect prey. We already showed that the Balearic lizard is able to detect prey using visual and chemical cues, even from airborne odors. In this study we carried out a field experiment to test if lizards can detect prey using acoustic cues. Our results show that Podarcis lilfordi is able to detect flies trapped inside opaque cups, only using acoustic cues. To our knowledge, this is the first known case of phonotaxis of a diurnal lizard. Thus, P. lilfordi can detect, from far away, current pollinators trapped inside floral chambers of the dead horse arum, Helicodiceros muscivorus. This is another behavioral trait displayed by the Balearic lizard during its complex interaction with the dead horse arum.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2020.104217 | DOI Listing |
Ecol Evol
January 2025
National Trust for Nature Conservation Lalitpur Nepal.
Maintaining a healthy population of common leopards, a highly adaptive felid, requires updated information on their spatial occurrence. In Nepal's Tarai region, leopards coexist with tigers, which are well-studied felid throughout its range. However, knowledge is very scarce on the patterns of leopard occupancy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Morphol
January 2025
Department of Biology, California State University, Northridge, Northridge, California, USA.
A major goal of evolutionary ecology is to understand the interaction between ecological differences and the functional morphology of organisms. Studies of this type are common among flying birds but less so in penguins. Penguins (Spheniscidae) are the most derived extant underwater flying birds using their wings for swimming and beak when foraging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntegr Zool
January 2025
Department of Entomology, University of Georgia, Tifton, Georgia, USA.
Selection on body size tends to favor larger males that outcompete smaller males to mate with females, and larger, more fecund females. For many web-building spiders in the Nephilidae family, reproductive success increases with body size, which in turn, is related to diet. The diet of female spiders may overlap with males who share her web, but diet patterns could depend on size if certain males have better access to prey ensnared in the web.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnimals (Basel)
January 2025
Engineering of Mineral Resources, Materials and Environment Department, North University Centre of Baia Mare, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 430083 Baia Mare, Romania.
Heavy metal pollution has complex impacts on terrestrial ecosystems, affecting biodiversity, trophic relationships, species health, and the quality of natural resources. This study aims to validate a non-invasive method for detecting heavy metals (Cd, As, Zn, Cu, Cr) in micromammalian prey, which constitute the primary diet of the common genet (), a mesocarnivore sensitive to habitat degradation. By focusing on prey remains (hair and bones) rather than entire fecal samples, this approach leverages the genet's selective feeding habits to assess the bioaccumulation of contaminants in its preferred prey.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBraz J Microbiol
January 2025
Virus Bioinformatics Laboratory, Centro de Biotecnologia e Genética, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, 45662-900, BA, Brazil.
Parasitoid wasps act as natural biological control agents for several harmful insect species. However, there is a lack of information regarding the exogenous RNA viruses that infect parasitoids and may contribute to the success of their parasitism strategies. This study aimed to investigate the presence, abundance, and replication of known exogenous viruses in two parasitoid wasp species and their corresponding preys.
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