CONTENT - International Society of Zoological Sciences

S17 ICZ2008 - Abstracts
Mammalian (Human) oral tactile imprinting
Elsie Mobbs
Department of Perinatal & Infant Mental Health Service, Liverpool
Hospital and The University of Sidney, The Children’s Hospital at
Westmead Clinical School, PO Box 36 Westmead, 2145 NSW,
Australia
In the situation of maternal deprivation in the newborn critical or
sensitive period, across the mammalian spectrum body part
sucking as displacement of the oral imprint on the maternal nipple
or teat can be observed. Without human intervention in this
pathological state the newborn dies.
Calves are recorded as orally taking to the genitalia of other
prematurely weaned calves and ingesting urine during sucking
which upsets the digestive system. Kangaroo joeys generally take
to digits, tail or the cloth of their human replacement pouch or
swaddling. Monkeys, being more flexible than human primates,
also take to their tails or penis as well as digits. The imprinted
sucking object, a reaction to a decoy stimulus feature chosen by
the infant to replace the maternal nipple/teat, often becomes
excoriated and in the case of the penis especially, gangrenous.
Sucking is used by infant mammals to form an emotional
relationship with the mother rather than it being a need to suck. In
human infants this relationship is directed towards a stimulus
feature, either the mother's nipple, an inanimate object such as a
provided dummy/pacifier, or on to the self as in body-part/thumbsucking
which often becomes intractable.
1. Mammalian oral imprinting is on a stimulus feature of the
mother.
2. Attachment is when the infant can visually differentiate,
recognize and follow the mother (lambs approximately 12
hours and zebras about a week).
3. Bonding is what adults do.
4. All three states are linked by the seeking of the object of
affection and emotional distress by its absence.
Can pill bugs (Armadillidium vulgare, Isopoda, Crustacea)
estimate cliff depth with reference to length of antennae?
Tohru Moriyama
3-15-1 Tokida, 386-8567, Ueda, Japan
The length of the antennae of pill bugs in the test group was
extended by attaching Teflon tubes. Each individual was placed at
the top of a set of stairs consisting of five steps. The distance
between the steps was 5, 10, 15 and 17 mm, in order from the first
to the fifth step. The distance between the third and fourth steps
(15mm) was the ! critical distance that the extended antennae
could just reach. Two other groups were also tested: A free-walk
group, in which the antennae were also extended, but they were
allowed to move in an arena before placing them on the stairs, and
a control group, in which the antennae were not extended. Most of
individuals in the test group descended to the fourth step and the
median maximum reachable step was 4.0. However, most
individuals in both the free-walk and control groups failed to
descend to the fourth step, and the median maximum reachable
steps were 2.0 and 2.5, respectively. Statistical tests showed that
the value for the test group was significantly larger than both the
others. These results suggest that individuals in the test group
reached the fourth step because they depended on mechanical
stimulation from the extended tubes, while those in the free-walk
group didn’t reach the fourth step because they were aware of the
length of the extensions to their antennae du! ring free-walking in
the arena and could estimate that the distance was too great to go
down without falling.
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Selective forces driving latitudinal clines in Iberian Calopteryx
damselflies
David Outomuro and Francisco J. Ocharan
Departamento de Biología de Organismos y Sistemas, University
of Oviedo, Oviedo, E-33071, Spain
Latitudinal morphological clines in ectotherms are generally
caused by natural selection. However, in the species in which
sexual selection plays a major role in specific divergence, these
clines might be deeply modified, especially regarding to secondary
sexual traits (SST). Calopteryx damselflies are an excellent model
to study these processes, since their SST are strongly influenced
by intra- and interspecific sexual selection, and due to its wide
distribution, they are exposed to a variety of environmental
conditions.
Three metapopulations of sympatric Calopteryx virgo meridionalis
and Calopteryx xanthostoma were studied in the Iberian Peninsula,
located at three different latitudes. Using principally discriminant
analyses, latitudinal differences in size variables and SST were
found. Size showed an increase southwards, although a slightly
decrease was observed in the intermediate population. Regarding
to SST, males showed an increase of wing spot southwards, C.
xanthostoma females showed a decrease of pseudopterostigma
corrected length northwards and meridionalis females showed an
increase of wing pigmentation intensity southwards. Moreover,
males and meridionalis females showed broader wings
southwards.
An environmental hypothesis better explains size clines, based on
a converse Bergmann’s rule, as an adaptative response to
latitudinal change of temperature. Clines in SST for both sexes are
better explained by a balanced interaction hypothesis, which
involves a balance between intra- and interspecific sexual
selection forces. This hypothesis is explained by latitudinal
differences in relative abundances, in such a way that the most
abundant species would displace the other one. An ecological trait
displacement would be produced in order to reduce reproductive
effort costs.
Predation of Honeybees by hornets
Agnès Rortais 1 , Alexandros Papachristoforou 2 and Gérard Arnold 1
1
Laboratoire Populations, Génétique, Evolution CNRS, UPR 9034,
Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
2
Laboratory of Apiculture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
Greece
Hornets are predators of honeybees worldwide. They attack
colonies for proteins (bees) and carbohydrates (honey). However,
as a result of co-evolution, honeybees which live in sympatry with
such predators have developed efficient strategies to defend their
nest. Conversely, species that have not evolved with these
predators may be at risk when exposed to them as illustrated by
the case of imported Italian honeybees (A. m. ligustica) to Asia
(Ken et al. 2007).
This study describes a case-study of co-evolution between the
Cypriot honeybee Apis mellifera cypria and the oriental hornet
Vespa orientalis. While thermo-balling has been described as a
strategy developed by Asian honeybees (A. cerana) to kill their
predator, V. mandarinia and V. simillima, another strategy namely
asphyxia-balling has been found in Cyprian honeybees and is
further presented (Papachristoforou et al. 2007).
In the light of this study, discussion is made on the case of V.
velutina which recently invaded France (Villemant et al. 2006),
exposes honeybee colonies to great levels of predation, and may
have an impact on colonies because local and naïve honeybees (A.
m. mellifera) did not evolve with this predator. A better
understanding of the way such prey-predator couples (A. mellifera
spp-V. velutina) operate is necessary to prevent further honeybee
colony losses in Europe.