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This paper describes the plumage and morphology development of 11 age classes of Red-necked Spurfowl Pternistis afer to assist with field observations. Sixteen spurfowl were marked with coloured leg rings in the Cannon Rocks Holiday Resort, Eastern Cape, South Africa during March 2006 and observed daily until June 2008 to describe plumage and non-plumage morphological changes. The age classes include natal chicks, six discernible juvenile phases, post-juvenile phase, near-adult phase, non-territorial and territorial males. Red-necked Spurfowl only attain the adult plumage phase at about 240 d. However, if the development of the bare red throat and spurs are excluded, this near-adult plumage stage is attained at about 180 d. Territorial male Red-necked Spurfowl have long spurs similar to other Pternistis spp. The cryptic downy pattern of chicks assist the birds to blend in with their habitat. However, the plumage of juveniles is simply a transitional phase between the cryptic plumage of downy chicks and the less cryptic plumage of adult spurfowls.Keywords: age classes, camouflage, morphology, plumage development, Pternistis afer, Red-necked Spurfowl

Two new species of Mandevilla endemic to inselbergs of the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, are described. Mandevilla alata resembles M. callista but differs by having winged stems, shorter petioles, shorter pedicels, and a white corolla with a red throat. Mandevilla ibitubana resembles M. grazielae but differs by having short-petiolate leaves, a white corolla, and shorter anthers. Illustrations, a distribution map, conservation assessments and a key to species of Mandevilla growing on inselbergs in Espirito Santo are included.

A bioeconomic model is constructed to analyze spatial harvesting and the effects of marine reserve “switching” between a “no-take” area and a harvested area while accounting for both harvesting/consumptive and also non-consumptive values of the fishery. Using estimated parameters from the red throat emperor fishery from the Great Barrier Reef, simulations show that an optimal switching strategy can be preferred to a fixed reserve regime, but is dependent on spillovers from reserves to harvested areas, the nature of shocks to the environment, the size of the non-consumptive values and how they change with the biomass, and the sensitivity of profits to the harvest and biomass. Importantly, the results show that how non-consumptive values change with the size of the fishery substantially affects both the returns from switching and the optimal closure time.

The next morning Janet was so much calmer, and at breakfast spoke so decidedly of going to her mother’s, that Mrs Pettifer and Mrs Raynor agreed it would be wise to let her know by degrees what had befallen her husband, since as soon...

Abstract In a population of stream-resident stickleback from British Columbia, females frequently have orange-red throats which are conspicuous to the human eye and, according to two straightforward physical measures of coloration, are more intensely red than the throats of anadromous females. Stream and anadromous males from these populations, however, do not differ for a reflectance-based index of red chroma. This suggests that exceptional female red coloration in the stream population has not evolved as a byproduct of the evolution of exceptional coloration in males. In contrast to results for female lateral barring in another threespine stickleback population, red is not strongly associated with reproductive readiness and unlikely to function strictly as a signal of readiness to mate. Larger stream females have more intensely red throats though this pattern was significant only in one year and according to one technique. With these findings and the extensive literature already available for this species, the threespine stickleback becomes a promising model system for studying the evolution of female secondary sexual characters in species with conventional sexual dimorphism.

Male green anoles (Anolis carolinensis) court females by extending a bright red throat fan, called a dewlap. The dewlap is larger in males than in females who do not display the structure in the context of courtship. The ceratohyoid muscle and second ceratobranchial cartilage which control dewlap extension are significantly larger in male than in female anoles. Neurons innervating the ceratohyoid muscle were retrogradely labeled by injecting the muscle with fast blue and were found to be located in the vagal portion of nucleus ambiguus (Amb X), as well as in the region containing the glossopharyngeal portion of nucleus ambiguus (Amb IX) and the ventral portion of the motor nucleus of the facial nerve (nVIImv). Cells in both areas were larger in males than in females. These parallels between structure and function provide the opportunity to study mechanisms of sexual differentiation of brain and behavior.

Male anoles extend a bright red throat fan, called a dewlap, during both courtship and aggressive encounters. Female anoles perform this behavior less often than males and only in aggression towards both sexes. The cartilage, muscle fibers, and motoneuron somata controlling the display are larger in males than females. In the present study, we used the Golgi technique in an effort to characterize more completely the morphology of these dewlap motoneurons, and to investigate whether the dendritic arborization is different between the sexes. In addition to describing the morphology, we report that the length of processes, and numbers of primary processes and branch points are comparable in males and females. This similarity in arborization represents an intriguing contrast to other sexually dimorphic neuromuscular systems.

Fifty children with fever, sore throat and red throat were submitted for throat culture in an office practice. Thirtyone children, 62 percent grew group ‘A’ Beta hemolytic Streptococci. The youngest in the study was 15 months, oldest was 17 years. 38.5 percent positive cases were below 5 years, 61.5 percent were above 5 years. Maximum incidence was in the month of June. It was observed that one can predict the positive Streptococcal infection clinically better with combination of signs than with an isolated sign.

Diagnostic methods begin at the bedside. There are certain clinical manifestations of infection by hemolytic streptococci which for all practical purposes settle the diagnosis. The most widely known of these are (1) scarlet fever and (2) erysipelas. Others which are almost as diagnostic are: (3) the fiery red throat, often with exudate, observed in older children; (4) visible cervical adenitis, and (5) a spontaneously discharging ear. These signs may represent infection by another microorganism, just as a scarlatinal rash may be caused on occasions by staphylococci, but the odds are strongly in favor of a streptococcic causation. In cases of a less obvious variety of streptococcosis a history of recent occurrence of any of these manifestations in other members of the family is often helpful, especially if it is appreciated that streptococcic disease varies clinically within the family just as it does in unrelated patients. For example, in the case