Consumer Advisory: Charitable Giving, December 2013

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Charitable Giving

Consumer Advisory: Cell Phone Contracts, January 2014

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Cell Phone Contracts

Consumer Advisory: Foreclosure Rescue Scams, February 2014

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Foreclosure Rescue Scams

Consumer Advisory: Your Credit Report & Credit Score, March 2014

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Your Credit Report & Credit Score

Web decoration of Micrathena sexpinosa (Araneae: Araneidae): a frame-web-choice experiment with stingless bees

The function of silk web decorations in orb weaving spiders has been debated for decades. The most accepted hypothesized functions are that web decorations I) provide camouflage against predators, 2) are an advertisement for vertebrates to avoid web damage, or 3) increase the attraction of prey to the web. Most studies have focused on only a few genera, Argiope being the most common. In this study, I evaluated the prey attraction hypothesis of silk decorations for a species of a poorly studied genus in this topic, Micrathena sexpinosa Hahn 1822. I used a web-choice experiment in which I presented empty or web-bearing frames at the end of a tunnel to stingless bees (Tetragonisca angustula). This frame-choice experiment consisted of the following comparisons: decorated web vs. empty frame, decorated web vs. undecorated web, and undecorated web vs. empty frame. Webs with decoration intercepted significantly more bees than empty frames and undecorated webs. Therefore, the decorations of Micrathena sexpinosa might play a role in increasing foraging success.

Consumer Advisory: Your Credit Report & Credit Score, March 2014

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Your Credit Report & Credit Score

Consumer Advisory: Home Repairs & Home Improvements, April 2014

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Home Repairs & Home Improvements

Consumer Advisory: Unauthorized Charges & “Free Trial” Offers, May 2014

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division receives hundreds of calls and consumer complaints every year. Follow these tips to avoid unexpected expense and disappointments. This record is about: Unauthorized Charges & “Free Trial” Offers

Mating order-dependent female mate choice in the polygynandrous common lizard Lacerta vivipara.

Recent studies indicate that directional female mate choice and order-dependent female mate choice importantly contribute to non-random mating patterns. In species where females prefer larger sized males, disentangling different hypotheses leading to non-random mating patterns is especially difficult, given that male size usually correlates with behaviours that may lead to non-random mating (e.g. size-dependent emergence from hibernation, male fighting ability). Here we investigate female mate choice and order-dependent female mate choice in the polygynandrous common lizard (Lacerta vivipara). By sequentially presenting males in random order to females, we exclude non-random mating patterns potentially arising due to intra-sexual selection (e.g. male-male competition), trait-dependent encounter probabilities, trait-dependent conspicuousness, or trait-dependent emergence from hibernation. To test for order-dependent female mate choice we investigate whether the previous mating history affects female choice. We show that body size and body condition of the male with which a female mated for the first time were bigger and better, respectively, than the average body size and body condition of the rejected males. There was a negative correlation between body sizes of first and second copulating males. This indicates that female mate choice is dependent on the previous mating history and it shows that the female's choice criteria are non-static, i.e. non-directional. Our study therefore suggests that context-dependent female mate choice may not only arise due to genotype-environment interactions, but also due to other female mating strategies, i.e. order-dependent mate choice. Thus context-dependent female mate choice might be more frequent than previously thought.