Book of monsters,

Name and address on front pastedown.

Mollusca Non-Grata: The influence of top-down control and residence time on the abundance, distribution, and behavior of non-native marine snails in Washington State

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Biotelemetry: a mechanistic approach to ecology

Remote measurement of the physiology, behaviour and energetic status of free-living animals is made possible by a variety of techniques that we refer to collectively as 'biotelemetry'. This set of tools ranges from transmitters that send their signals to receivers up to a few kilometers away to those that send data to orbiting satellites and, more frequently, to devices that log data. They enable researchers to document, for long uninterrupted periods, how undisturbed organisms interact with each other and their environment in real time. In spite of advances enabling the monitoring of many physiological and behavioural variables across a range of taxa of various sizes, these devices have yet to be embraced widely by the ecological community. Our review suggests that this technology has immense potential for research in basic and applied animal ecology. Efforts to incorporate biotelemetry into broader ecological research programs should yield novel information that has been challenging to collect historically from free-ranging animals in their natural environments. Examples of research that would benefit from biotelemetry include the assessment of animal responses to different anthropogenic perturbations and the development of life-time energy budgets.

Wolbachia pipientis in Australian spiders

Wolbachia pipientis is an endosymbiotic bacterium common to arthropods and filarial nematodes. This study presents the first survey and characterization of Wolbachia pipientis that infect spiders. All spiders were collected from Queensland, Australia during 2002-2003 and screened for Wolbachia infection using PCR approaches. The Wolbachia strains present in the spiders are diverse, paraphyletic, and for the most part closely related to strains that infect insects. We have also identified several spider Wolbachia strains that form a lineage outside the currently recognized six main Wolbachia supergroups (A-F). Incongruence between spider and Wolbachia phylogenies indicates a history of horizontal transmission of the bacterium in these host taxa. Like other arthropods, spiders are capable of harboring multiple Wolbachia strains.

Attentional bias toward fear-related stimuli: An investigation with nonselected children and adults and children with anxiety disorders

Research investigating anxiety-related attentional bias for emotional information in anxious and nonanxious children has been equivocal with regard to whether a bias for fear-related stimuli is unique to anxious children or is common to children in general. Moreover, recent cognitive theories have proposed that an attentional bias for objectively threatening stimuli may be common to all individuals, with this effect enhanced in anxious individuals. The current study investigated whether an attentional bias toward fear-related pictures could be found in nonselected children (n = 105) and adults (n = 47) and whether a sample of clinically anxious children (n = 23) displayed an attentional bias for fear-related pictures over and above that expected for nonselected children. Participants completed a dot-probe task that employed fear-related, neutral, and pleasant pictures. As expected, both adults and children showed a stronger attentional bias toward fear-related pictures than toward pleasant pictures. Consistent with some findings in the childhood domain, the extent of the attentional bias toward fear-related pictures did not differ significantly between anxious children and nonselected children. However, compared with nonselected children, anxious children showed a stronger attentional bias overall toward affective picture stimuli. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Snakes and cats in the flower bed: Fast detection is not specific to pictures of fear-relevant animals

The observation that snakes and spiders are found faster among flowers and mushrooms than vice versa and that this search advantage is independent of set size supports the notion that fear-relevant stimuli are processed preferentially in a dedicated fear module. Experiment I replicated the faster identification of snakes and spiders but also found a set size effect in a blocked, but not in a mixed-trial, sequence. Experiment 2 failed to find faster identification of snake and spider deviants relative to other animals among flowers and mushrooms and provided evidence for a search advantage for pictures of animals, irrespective of their fear relevance. These findings suggest that results from the present visual search task cannot support the notion of preferential processing of fear relevance.

Effects of marine reserve protection on the mud crap Scylla serrata in a sex-biased fishery in subtropical Australia

The impact of sex-biased fishing and marine reserve protection on the mud crab Scylla serrata was examined by comparing the catch rates (catch-per-unit-effort, CPUE), mean size, sex ratios and movement of crabs in 2 coastal marine reserves (1.9 and 5.7 km(2)) and 4 fished non-reserve sites in subtropical Australia. Five years after closure, both marine reserves supported higher catch rates and a larger mean size of S. serrata than non-reserve sites. Males dominated catches of S. serrata in both marine reserves, where CPUE was at least twice as high within the reserves compared to non-reserve sites. Male crabs were also 10% larger in the reserves compared to adjacent fished areas, and of the total male catch, over 70% were equal to or greater than legal size compared to less than 50% outside the reserves. The sex ratio of S. serrata was skewed towards females in all nonreserve sites, which was most likely a result of the ban on taking female S. serrata in Moreton Bay. As only male crabs of >= 15 cm CW made up the S. serrata fishery in Moreton Bay, sex ratios of mature male and female crabs were examined, revealing a strong skew (2:1) towards mature males in both marine reserves. Of the 472 S. serrata captured in this study, 338 were tagged in the reserves in order to document movement of the crabs between the reserve and non-reserve sites. Of the 37 recaptured crabs, 73% were recorded inside the reserves, with some spillover (i.e. cross-boundary movement) of crabs recorded in fished areas. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of small (< 6 km(2)) marine reserves for sex-biased exploited fisheries species.

A broad-scale analysis of links between coastal fisheries production and mangrove extent: A case-study for northeastern Australia

The paradigm that mangroves are critical for sustaining production in coastal fisheries is widely accepted, but empirical evidence has been tenuous. This study showed that links between mangrove extent and coastal fisheries production could be detected for some species at a broad regional scale (1000s of kilometres) on the east coast of Queensland, Australia. The relationships between catch-per-unit-effort for different commercially caught species in four fisheries (trawl, line, net and pot fisheries) and mangrove characteristics, estimated from Landsat images were examined using multiple regression analyses. The species were categorised into three groups based on information on their life history characteristics, namely mangrove-related species (banana prawns Penaeus merguiensis, mud crabs Scylla serrata and barramundi Lates calcarifer), estuarine species (tiger prawns Penaeus esculentus and Penaeus semisulcatus, blue swimmer crabs Portunus pelagicus and blue threadfin Eleutheronema tetradactylum) and offshore species (coral trout Plectropomus spp.). For the mangrove-related species, mangrove characteristics such as area and perimeter accounted for most of the variation in the model; for the non-mangrove estuarine species, latitude was the dominant parameter but some mangrove characteristics (e.g. mangrove perimeter) also made significant contributions to the models. In contrast, for the offshore species, latitude was the dominant variable, with no contribution from mangrove characteristics. This study also identified that finer scale spatial data for the fisheries, to enable catch information to be attributed to a particular catchment, would help to improve our understanding of relationships between mangroves and fisheries production. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of harvesting callianassid (ghost) shrimps on subtropical benthic communities

The effects of harvesting of callianassid shrimp (Trypaea australiensis) on the abundance and composition of macrobenthic assemblages in unvegetated sediments of a subtropical coastal embayment in Queensland, Australia were examined using a combination of sampling and manipulative experiments. First, the abundance and composition of the benthic infauna in an area regularly used for the collection of shrimp for bait by recreational anglers was compared with multiple reference areas. Second, a BACI design, with multiple reference areas, was used to examine the short-term effects of harvesting on the benthic assemblages from an intensive commercialised fishing competition. Third, a large-scale, controlled manipulative experiment, where shrimp were harvested from 10,000 m(2) plots at intensities commensurate with those from recreational and commercial operators, was done to determine the impacts on different components of the infaunal assemblage. Only a few benthic taxa showed significant declines in abundance in response to the removal of ghost shrimp from the unvegetated sediments. There was evidence, however, of more subtle effects with changes in the degree of spatial variation (patchiness) of several taxa as a result of harvesting.. Groups such as capitellid polychaetes, gammarid amphipods and some bivalves were significantly more patchy in their distribution in areas subjected to harvesting than reference areas, at a scale of tens of metres. This scale corresponds to the patterns of movement and activity of recreational harvesters working in these areas. In contrast, patchiness in the abundance of ghost shrimp decreased significantly under harvesting at scales of hundreds of metres, in response to harvesters focussing their efforts on areas with greater numbers of burrow entrances, leading to a more even distribution of the animals. Controlled experimental harvesting caused declines in the abundance of soldier crabs (Mictyris longicarpus), polychaetes and amphipods and an increase in the spatial patchiness of polychaetes. Populations of ghost shrimp were, however, resilient to harvesting over extended periods of time. In conclusion, harvesting of ghost shrimp for bait by recreational and commercial fishers causes significant but localised impacts on a limited range of benthic fauna in unvegetated sediments, including changes in the degree of spatial patchiness in their distribution. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Idiopathic necrotizing dermatitis: Current management

Objectives: To identify and demonstrate necrotizing dermatitis in infancy; an uncommon, puzzling syndrome, in which anecdotal reporting and personal experience indicates that one third of cases may require skin grafting. Much informed discussion about the pathogenesis of this distressing syndrome centres on the role of spider envenomation; and in particular on the speculative role of the Australian White-tailed spider, Lampona cylindrata. Methods: We present here six cases of necrotizing dermatitis treated surgically at the Royal Children's Hospital and Mater Children's Hospital in Brisbane over the period from 1991 to 1999. Clinical history, surgical details and pathological investigations were reviewed in each case. Microbiological investigation of necrotic ulcers included standard aerobic and anaerobic culture. Result: Nocardia and Staphylococcus were cultured in two cases, but no positive bites were witnessed and no spiders were identified by either the children or their parents. All cases were treated with silver sulphadiazine creme. Two of the infants required general anaesthesia, excision debridement and split skin grafting. The White-tailed spider, Lampona cylindrata, does not occur in Queensland, but Lampona murina does; neither species has necrotizing components in its venom. Circumstantial evidence is consistent with this syndrome being due to invertebrate envenomation, possibly following arachnid bites. Conclusion: In our experience there is insufficient evidence to impute a specific genus as the cause, at this stage of scientific knowledge. If the offending creature is a spider, we calculate that the syndrome of necrotizing dermatitis occurs in less than 1 in 5000 spider bites.

Attentional bias to pictures of fear-relevant animals in a dot probe task

Attentional bias to fear-relevant animals was assessed in 69 participants not preselected on self-reported anxiety with the use of a dot probe task showing pictures of snakes, spiders, mushrooms, and flowers. Probes that replaced the fear-relevant stimuli (snakes and spiders) were found faster than probes that replaced the non-fear-relevant stimuli, indicating an attentional bias in the entire sample. The bias was not correlated with self-reported state or trait anxiety or with general fearfulness. Participants reporting higher levels of spider fear showed an enhanced bias to spiders, but the bias remained significant in low scorers. The bias to snake pictures was not related to snake fear and was significant in high and low scorers. These results indicate preferential processing of fear-relevant stimuli in an unselected sample.

The medical zoologist - Ronald Vernon Southcott

Dr Ronald Vernon Southcott (1918–1998) was amongst the greatest of the Australian doctor-naturalists. His toxinological contributions included the description and naming of the box-jellyfish, Chironex fleckeri, the first definitive study (1950–1957) of the toxinology, taxonomy and biology of Australian scorpions; and the first observations in Australia of the introduced fiddleback spider, Loxosceles. His research into the medical effects of toxic fungi, poisonous plants and Australian insects was extensive. He was a founding member of the International Society on Toxinology and served on the Toxicon Editorial Board for more than 30 years. He also made extensive contributions to acarology, and to the taxonomy of mites, specifically the sub-families and genera of the Erythraeoidea. This prodigious output was achieved by one who, with the exception of war service (1942–1946), almost never travelled outside South Australia, was almost entirely self-funded and worked from his home laboratory. With Dr. P.D. Scott and C.J. Glover, he was also the authority on the fish of South Australia. Dr. Southcott was also a medical epidemiologist and senior medical administrator (1949–1978) with the Australian Commonwealth Department of Veterans’ Affairs. He served for 30 years as an Honorary Consultant in Toxicology to the Adelaide Children's Hospital. As a zoologist and botanist of astounding breadth, he worked indefatigably in a voluntary capacity for the South Australian Museum, of which he was Museum Board Chairman from 1974 to 1982. In the pantheon of the great doctor-naturalists who have worked in Australia, he stands with Robert Brown and Thomas Lane Bancroft.