Rhythmic egg-laying behaviour in virgin females of fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster

Fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster females display rhythmic egg-laying under 12: 12 h light/dark (LD) cycles which persists with near 24 h periodicity under constant darkness (DD). We have shown previously that persistence of this rhythm does not require the neurons expressing pigment dispersing factor (PDF), thought to be the canonical circadian pacemakers, and proposed that it could be controlled by peripheral clocks or regulated/triggered by the act of mating. We assayed egg-laying behaviour of wild-type Canton S (CS) females under LD, DD and constant light (LL) conditions in three different physiological states; as virgins, as females allowed to mate with males for 1 day and as females allowed to mate for the entire duration of the assay. Here, we report the presence of a circadian rhythm in egg-laying in virgin D. melanogaster females. We also found that egg-laying behaviour of 70 and 90% females from all the three male presence/absence protocols follows circadian rhythmicity under DD and LL, with periods ranging between 18 and 30 h. The egg-laying rhythm of all virgin females synchronized to LD cycles with a peak occurring soon after lights-off. The rhythm in virgins was remarkably robust with maximum number of eggs deposited immediately after lights-off in contrast to mated females which show higher egg-laying during the day. These results suggest that the egg-laying rhythm of D. melanogaster is endogenously driven and is neither regulated nor triggered by the act of mating; instead, the presence of males results in reduction in entrainment to LD cycles.

Fruit and Seed Volatiles: Multiple Stage Settings, Actors and Props in an Evolutionary Play

Plants emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from most parts of their anatomy. Conventionally, the volatiles of leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds have been investigated separately. This review presents an integrated perspective of volatiles produced by fruits and seeds in the context of selection on the whole plant. It suggests that fruit and seed volatiles may only be understood in the light of the chemistry of the whole plant. Fleshy fruit may be viewed as an ecological arena within which several evolutionary games are being played involving fruit VOCs. Fruit odour and colour may be correlated and interact via multimodal signalling in influencing visits by frugivores. The hypothesis of volatile crypsis in the evolution of hard seeds as protection against volatile diffusion and perception by seed predators is reviewed. Current views on the role of volatiles in ant dispersal of seeds or myrmecochory are summarised, especially the suggestion that ants are being manipulated by plants in the form of a sensory trap while providing this service. Plant VOC production is presented as an emergent phenotype that could result from multiple selection pressures acting on various plant parts; the ``plant'' phenotype and VOC profile may receive significant contributions from symbionts within the plant. Viewing the plant as a holobiont would benefit an understanding of the emergent plant phenotype.

The Asian elephant is amongst the top three frugivores of two tree species with easily edible fruit

Large animal species are prone to local extirpation, but ecologists cannot yet predict how the loss of megaherbivores affects ecosystem processes such as seed dispersal. Few studies have compared the quantity and quality of seed dispersal by megaherbivores versus alternative frugivores in the wild, particularly for plant species with fruit easily consumed by many frugivorous species. In a disturbed tropical moist forest in India, we examine whether megaherbivores are a major frugivore of two tree species with easily edible, mammal-dispersed fruit. We quantify the relative fruit removal rates of Artocarpus chaplasha and Careya arborea, by the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and alternative dispersers. Through focal watches and camera trapping, we found the elephant to be amongst the top three frugivores for each tree species. Furthermore, seed transects under A. chaplasha show that arboreal frugivores discard seeds only a short distance from the parental tree, underscoring the elephant's role as a long-distance disperser. Our data provide unprecedented support for an old notion: megaherbivores may be key dispersers for a broad set of mammal-dispersed fruiting species, and not just fruit inaccessible to smaller frugivores. As such, the elephant may be particularly important for the functional ecology of the disturbed forests it still inhabits across tropical Asia.

Fruit Trait Preference in Rhesus Macaques (Macaca mulatta) and its Implications for Seed Dispersal

Primates constitute 25-40 % of the frugivore biomass of tropical forests. Primate fruit preference, as a determinant of seed dispersal, can therefore have a significant impact on these ecosystems. Although the traits of fruits included in primate diets have been described, fruit trait preference has been less studied with respect to fruit availability. We examined fruit trait preference and its implications for seed dispersal in the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), a dietarily flexible species and important seed disperser, at the Buxa Tiger Reserve, India. Over a year, we monitored the phenology of selected trees in the study area, observed the feeding behavior of rhesus macaques using scans and focal animal sampling, and documented morphological traits of the fruits/seeds consumed. Using generalized linear modeling, we found that the kind of edible tissue was the chief determinant of fruit consumption, with M. mulatta feeding primarily on fruits with juicy-soft pulp and acting as seed predators for those with no discernible pulp. Overall, the preferred traits were external covers that could be easily pierced by a fingernail, medium to large seeds, true stone-like seeds, and juicy-soft edible tissue, thereby implying that fruit taxa with these traits had a higher probability of being dispersed. Macaques were more selective during the high fruit availability period than the low fruit availability period, preferentially feeding on soft-skinned fruits with juicy-soft pulp. We suggest that further studies be conducted across habitats and time to understand the consistency of interactions between primates and fruits with specific traits to determine the degree of selective pressure (if any) that is exerted by primates on fruit traits.

Written words turned into moving Images: Jeanette Winterson translates "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit for the Screen"

Eterio Pajares, Raquel Merino y José Miguel Santamaría (eds.)

Histoire de Portugal : contenant les enterprises, navigations, & gestes memorables des Portugallois, tant en la cõqueste des Indes Orientales par eux descouvertes, qu'és guerres d'Afrique & autres exploits, depuis l'an mil quatre cens nonãte six, jusques à l'an mil cinq cens septante huit, sous Emmanuel premier, Jean troisieme, & Sebastian premier du nom / Pour Antoine Chuppin, ed. ; comprinse en vingt livres, dont les douze premiers sont traduits du latin de Ierosme Osorius, Euesque de Sylues en Algarve, les huit suivans prins de Lopez de Castagnede & d'autres historiensNouvellement mise en françois, par S.G.S. avec un discours du fruit qu'on peut recueillir de la lecture de cette histoire, & ample indice des matieres principales y contenues

Contém os empreendimentos, as navegações e os gestos memoráveis dos portugueses, inclusive em suas colônias.

Detecting actions of fruit flies

In this thesis we describe a system that tracks fruit flies in video and automatically detects and classifies their actions. We introduce Caltech Fly-vs-Fly Interactions, a new dataset that contains hours of video showing pairs of fruit flies engaging in social interactions, and is published with complete expert annotations and articulated pose trajectory features. We compare experimentally the value of a frame-level feature representation with the more elaborate notion of bout features that capture the structure within actions. Similarly, we compare a simple sliding window classifier architecture with a more sophisticated structured output architecture, and find that window based detectors outperform the much slower structured counterparts, and approach human performance. In addition we test the top performing detector on the CRIM13 mouse dataset, finding that it matches the performance of the best published method.

Cooking Stardust

Cooking Stardust es una aplicación Android de recetas de cocina. Con sólo introducir algunos de los ingredientes que haya en la nevera, se abrirá todo un abanico de posibilidades culinarias, teniendo en cuenta el estado de salud o simplemente los gustos a la hora de sentarse a la mesa. Una forma cómoda y sencilla de intentar facilitar una de las tareas diarias más difíciles y que tantos quebraderos de cabeza puede causar. Además de mostrársele las diferentes recetas de comida que cumplan con lo introducido, así como la dificultad y tiempos de elaboración, también tendrá la opción de puntuar esa receta, ver las puntuaciones obtenidas por otros usuarios, calcular una lista de la compra para dicha receta, consultar las recetas cercanas a su ubicación, o incluso, activar el “modo cocina”, mediante el cual el usuario podrá interactuar con la aplicación gracias al reconocimiento de voz para ejecutar cada uno de los pasos de la receta sin tener que utilizar las manos.