Colour learning when foraging for nectar and pollen: bees learn two colours at once.

abstract：:Trophically transmitted parasites often alter their intermediate host's phenotype, thereby predisposing hosts to increased predation. This is generally considered to be a parasite strategy evolved to enhance transmission to the next host. However, the adaptive value of host manipulation is not clear, as it may be asso...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Seppälä O,Jokela J

更新日期：2008-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:In group-living mammals, the eviction of subordinate females from breeding groups by dominants may serve to reduce feeding competition or to reduce breeding competition. Here, we combined both correlational and experimental approaches to investigate whether increases in food intake by dominant females reduces their te...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Dubuc C,English S,Thavarajah N,Dantzer B,Sharp SP,Spence-Jones HC,Gaynor D,Clutton-Brock TH

更新日期：2017-04-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The sex ratio of the local population influences mating-related behaviours in many species. Recent experiments show that male-biased sex ratios increase the amount of financial resources men will invest in potential mates, suggesting that sex ratios influence allocation of mating effort in humans. To investigate this ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Hahn AC,Fisher CI,DeBruine LM,Jones BC

更新日期：2014-06-01 00:00:00

abstract：:While competition for limited breeding positions is a common feature of group life, species vary widely in the extent to which reproduction is shared among females ('reproductive skew'). In recent years, there has been considerable debate over the mechanisms that generate variation in reproductive skew, with most evid...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Raihani NJ,Clutton-Brock TH

更新日期：2010-10-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Males of the coqui treefrog, Eleutherodactylus coqui, produce a distinct two-note 'co-qui' advertisement call from sunset to midnight throughout most of the year. Previous work established that both the spectrotemporal aspects of the call and the frequency of highest inner-ear sensitivity change with altitude above se...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Meenderink SWF,Quiñones PM,Narins PM

更新日期：2017-12-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Domesticated animals have been shown to recognize basic phonemic information from human speech sounds and to recognize familiar speakers from their voices. However, whether animals can spontaneously identify words across unfamiliar speakers (speaker normalization) or spontaneously discriminate between unfamiliar speak...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Root-Gutteridge H,Ratcliffe VF,Korzeniowska AT,Reby D

更新日期：2019-12-24 00:00:00

abstract：:Animal contests often involve the use of repeated signals, which are assumed to advertise stamina, and hence fighting ability. While an individual may be predicted to give up once it has crossed an energetic threshold, costs inflicted by its opponent may also contribute to the giving-up decision. Therefore, physical s...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Mowles SL,Cotton PA,Briffa M

更新日期：2011-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The extreme body size of blue whales requires a high energy intake and therefore demands efficient foraging strategies. As an obligate lunge feeder on aggregations of small zooplankton, blue whales engulf a large volume of prey-laden water in a single, rapid gulp. The efficiency of this feeding mechanism is strongly d...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Goldbogen JA,Calambokidis J,Friedlaender AS,Francis J,DeRuiter SL,Stimpert AK,Falcone E,Southall BL

更新日期：2013-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Of more than 800 species of eels of the order Anguilliformes, only freshwater eels (genus Anguilla with 16 species plus three subspecies) spend most of their lives in freshwater during their catadromous life cycle. Nevertheless, because their spawning areas are located offshore in the open ocean, they migrate back to ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Inoue JG,Miya M,Miller MJ,Sado T,Hanel R,Hatooka K,Aoyama J,Minegishi Y,Nishida M,Tsukamoto K

更新日期：2010-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The songs of oscine passerine birds vary on many spatial scales, reflecting the actions of diverse evolutionary pressures. Here we examine the songs of Cisticola erythrops, which effectively signal species identity across a geographical area spanning 6500 km in sub-Saharan Africa. Selection for species identification ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Benedict L,Bowie RC

更新日期：2009-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The rapid decline in Arctic sea ice (ASI) extent, area and volume during recent decades is occurring before we can understand many of the mechanisms through which ASI interacts with biological processes both at sea and on land. As a consequence, our ability to predict and manage the effects of this enormous environmen...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Macias-Fauria M,Post E

更新日期：2018-03-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Regressive evolution of structures associated with vision in cave-dwelling organisms is the focus of intense research. Most work has focused on differences between extreme visual phenotypes: sighted, surface animals and their completely blind, cave-dwelling counterparts. We suggest that troglodytic systems, comprising...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Tobler M,Coleman SW,Perkins BD,Rosenthal GG

更新日期：2010-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Hunter-gatherer Pygmies from Central Africa are described as being extremely mobile. Using neutral genetic markers and population genetics theory, we explored the dispersal behaviour of the Baka Pygmies from Cameroon, one of the largest Pygmy populations in Central Africa. We found a strong correlation between genetic...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Verdu P,Leblois R,Froment A,Théry S,Bahuchet S,Rousset F,Heyer E,Vitalis R

更新日期：2010-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The difference between maximum metabolic rate and standard metabolic rate is referred to as aerobic scope, and because it constrains performance it is suggested to constitute a key limiting process prescribing how fish may cope with or adapt to climate warming. We use an evolutionary bioenergetics model for Atlantic c...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Holt RE,Jørgensen C

更新日期：2015-02-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The muscles that effect lung ventilation are key to understanding the evolutionary constraints on animal form and function. Here, through electromyography, we demonstrate a newly discovered respiratory function for the iliocostalis muscle in the American alligator ( Alligator mississippiensis). The iliocostalis is act...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Codd JR,Rose KAR,Tickle PG,Sellers WI,Brocklehurst RJ,Elsey RM,Crossley DA 2nd

更新日期：2019-07-26 00:00:00

abstract：:Partial migration occurs in many taxa and ecosystems and may confer survival benefits. Here, we use otolith chemistry data to determine whether fish from a large estuarine system were resident or migratory, and then examine whether contingents display differences in modelled growth based on changes in width of otolith...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Gillanders BM,Izzo C,Doubleday ZA,Ye Q

更新日期：2015-03-01 00:00:00

abstract：:During the last half million years, pulses of gigantism in the anagenetic lineage of land snails of the subgenus Poecilozonites on Bermuda were correlated with glacial periods when lower sea level resulted in an island nearly an order of magnitude larger than at present. During those periods, the island was colonized ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Olson SL,Hearty PJ

更新日期：2010-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Malpighian tubules play an essential role in excretion, osmoregulation and immunity of most insects. Exceptionally, aphids lack Malpighian tubules, providing the opportunity to investigate the fate of genes expressed in an organ that has undergone evolutionary reduction and loss. Making use of the sequenced genomes of...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Jing X,White TA,Yang X,Douglas AE

更新日期：2015-05-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Although the adaptive value of flight may seem obvious, it is the most difficult behaviour of birds to monitor. Here, we describe a technique to quantify the frequency and the duration of flights over several months by implanting a data logger that records heart rate (fH), hydrostatic pressure (diving depth) and the b...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Pelletier D,Guillemette M,Grandbois JM,Butler PJ

更新日期：2007-08-22 00:00:00

abstract：:The study of birds, especially the Galapagos finches, was important to Darwin in the development of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Birds have also been at the centre of a recent reformulation in understanding cerebral evolution and the substrates for higher cognition. While it was once thought that bird...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Reiner A

更新日期：2009-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:In cooperative animal societies, dominant females typically show higher breeding success than subordinates, and are commonly believed to control the extent of reproductive sharing. However, studies of social insect societies reveal that subordinates too can interfere with the breeding attempts of others, with importan...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Young AJ,Clutton-Brock T

更新日期：2006-09-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Drug resistance is a long-standing economic, veterinary and human health concern in human and animal populations. Efficacy of prophylactic drug treatments targeting a particular pathogen is often short-lived, as drug-resistant pathogens evolve and reach high frequency in a treated population. Methods to combat drug re...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Park AW,Haven J,Kaplan R,Gandon S

更新日期：2015-11-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Males of many vertebrate species aggressively defend their reproductive interests by monopolizing females, and the 'challenge hypothesis' predicts that testosterone levels in reproductive contexts rise to facilitate males' competitive behaviours necessary for meeting social challenges. The hypothesis is successful in ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Klose SM,Welbergen JA,Kalko EK

更新日期：2009-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Anti-predator benefits associated with living in groups are multiple and taxonomically widespread. In fish shoals, individuals can exploit the confusion effect, whereby predators struggle to target a single individual among several individuals. Theory predicts that the confusion effect could be aided by homogeneity in...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Cattelan S,Griggio M

更新日期：2018-08-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Males of a variety of taxa occasionally steal food secured by their mates. In some spiders and insects, males rely entirely on this form of intraspecific kleptoparasitism for their subsistence. However, this male strategy may be costly for females and a variety of different female counteradaptations have been proposed...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Arnqvist G,Jones TM,Elgar MA

更新日期：2006-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Animals use cues to find their food, in microhabitats within their physiological tolerances. Termites build and modify their microhabitat, to transform hostile environments into benign ones, which raises questions about the relative importance of cues. Termites are desiccation intolerant and foraging termites are attr...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Oberst S,Lenz M,Lai JCS,Evans TA

更新日期：2019-07-26 00:00:00

abstract：:A long-standing but controversial hypothesis assumes that carnivorous plants employ aggressive mimicry to increase their prey capture success. A possible mechanism is that pitcher plants use aggressive mimicry to deceive prey about the location of the pitcher's exit. Specifically, species from unrelated families sport...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Schaefer HM,Ruxton GD

更新日期：2014-04-30 00:00:00

abstract：:The loss of environmental heterogeneity threatens biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. It is therefore important to understand the relationship between environmental heterogeneity and spatial resilience as the capacity of ecological communities embedded in a landscape matrix to reorganize following disturbance. We ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Dzubakova K,Peter H,Bertuzzo E,Juez C,Franca MJ,Rinaldo A,Battin TJ

更新日期：2018-10-10 00:00:00

abstract：:According to theory, directional female choice for male sexual ornaments is expected to erode underlying genetic variation. Considerable attention, in this regard, has been given to understanding the ubiquity of heritable genetic variation in both female choice and male sexual traits. One intriguing possibility emergi...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Lehtonen TK,Wong BB,Lindström K

更新日期：2010-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The brown alga Fucus serratus is a key foundation species on rocky intertidal shores of northern Europe. We sampled the same population off the coast of southern Norway in 2000 and 2008, and using 26 microsatellite loci, we estimated the changes in genetic diversity and effective population size (Ne). The unexpectedly...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Coyer JA,Hoarau G,Sjøtun K,Olsen JL

更新日期：2008-12-23 00:00:00