Direct versus indirect sexual selection: genetic basis of colour, size and recruitment in a wild bird

Indirect and direct models of sexual selection make different predictions regarding the quantitative genetic relationships between sexual ornaments and fitness. Indirect models predict that ornaments should have a high heritability and that strong positive genetic covariance should exist between fitness and the ornament. Direct models, on the other hand, make no such assumptions about the level of genetic variance in fitness and the ornament, and are therefore likely to be more important when environmental sources of variation are large. Here we test these predictions in a wild population of the blue tit (Parus caeruleus), a species in which plumage coloration has been shown to be under sexual selection. Using 3 years of cross-fostering data from over 250 breeding attempts, we partition the covariance between parental coloration and aspects of nestling fitness into a genetic and environmental component. Contrary to indirect models of sexual selection, but in agreement with direct models, we show that variation in coloration is only weakly heritable (h(2) < 0.11), and that two components of offspring fitness-nestling size and fledgling recruitment-are strongly dependent on parental effects, rather than genetic effects. Furthermore, there was no evidence of significant positive genetic covariation between parental colour and offspring traits. Contrary to direct benefit models, however, we find little evidence that variation in colour reliably indicates the level of parental care provided by either males or females. Taken together, these results indicate that the assumptions of indirect models of sexual selection are not supported by the genetic basis of the traits reported on here.

The development of indigo reduction methods and pre-reduced indigo products

The continuing importance of blue denim maintains indigo as an important vat dye industrially. In this review, we examine the various methods that have been used in the past and are currently used to reduce and dissolve indigo for dyeing. We discuss recent insights into the bacterial fermentation technology, the advantages and disadvantages of the direct chemical methods that have predominated for the last century and potentially cleaner technologies of catalytic hydrogenation and electrochemistry, which are becoming increasingly important. With considerations of environmental impact high on the dyeing industry's agenda, we also discuss the developments that have led to the production of pre-reduced indigo.

Insect and bird interactions

This unique book is the first of its kind to explore the diversity of interactions between insects and birds. A group of international experts enthusiastically agreed to contribute to the four sections of the book following the success of an Entomological Club Conference on Insect and Bird Interactions. The first section covers population management issues, discussing effects on birds highly relevant to the planting of large areas of GM crops, new opportunities for increasing biodiversity in farming landscapes, and the novel aspect of managing insects by exploiting birds as biological control agents. This is followed by a section discussing the effects of insecticides on bird populations, and includes a contribution from the RSPB, as well as a re-appraisal of the effects of DDT on raptors. Next, the foraging behaviour of birds on insects is discussed, with chapters also on 'warning' coloration in insects and learning by birds. The first chapter in this section is unusual in having been written by an ophthalmologist and covers colour vision in birds, more specifically ultraviolet vision in relation to insect coloration. Finally, the authors look at insects that are parasites of birds or feed on the detritus in nests, and review the ecology and evolution of the co-adaptation of insect ectoparasites with birds. Insect and Bird Interactions is unparalleled in scope and coverage and will be of interest to entomologists, ornithologists, and ecologists alike.

Le rêve du roi Flualis : mise en texte et mise en image d'enjeux épiques et hagiographiques dans le Roman de Merlin

L'illustration de la plupart des manuscrits de la Suite Vulgate met l'accent sur l'intervention prophétique de Merlin et sur l'accomplissement des désastres qu'il annonce au roi de Jérusalem Flualis, replaçant l'épisode dans une série de passages où Merlin fait la démonstration de ses pouvoirs surnaturels et de sa capacité à interpréter les songes. Pourtant, dans un petit groupe d'ouvrages, l'illustration se focalise sur la conversion ultime de Flualis et de sa femme, insistant sur le caractère exemplaire et édifiant d'un épisode qui propose une résolution des relations entre païens et chrétiens différente de celles habituellement mises en scène dans l'univers à coloration épique de la continuation.

Mapania sapuaniana (Cyperaceae), a new sedge species from Sarawak

Mapania sapuaniana, a spectacular new sedge species from Lanjak Entimau, Sarawak, is described and illustrated. It is closely related to M. richardsii and M. bomeensis but differs in having broad leaves with a distinct pseudopetiole, reddish purple or maroon coloration on the underside of the leaf and petiole and an inflorescence composed of several spikes.