Registered users receive a variety of benefits including the ability to customize email alerts, create favorite journals list, and save searches.
Please note that a BioOne web account does not automatically grant access to full-text content. An institutional or society member subscription is required to view non-Open Access content.
Contact helpdesk@bioone.org with any questions.
We used both adult and larval survey techniques during the summers of 2016 and 2017 to determine the mosquito species present in 36 counties of southern and western Missouri. The study included adult traps such as Omni-Directional Fay–Prince traps and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traps baited with dry ice and octanol. Field-workers took larvae and pupae from standing water in artificial containers and returned them to the laboratory and placed them in emergence cages. When the mosquitoes emerged, we identified them as adults along with the contents of the adult traps. We sorted over 35,000 mosquitoes by sex, and then identified the females to species. The survey identified 8 genera and 40 species. This article reports the counties in which we collected each species.
Hexalectris is a genus of mycoheterotrophic orchids found in the southwestern United States and Mexico, and some species in the genus are considered of conservation concern. Details on the evolutionary relationships between Hexalectris and symbiotic fungi are known, but relatively little is understood about the ecological factors that affect geographical distribution and seasonal variation in populations. Over a 12-year period, I (with volunteers and student assistants) studied the relationship between Hexalectris numbers and annual rainfall, and between documented orchid locations and soil–geological characteristics in Dallas County, Texas. We found a strong relationship between Hexalectris census numbers and the previous year's total rainfall. Targeted searches informed by knowledge of soil type helped to identify nine Hexalectris populations in Dallas County and a range expansion in H. grandiflora, a species previously unknown outside of western Texas. Hexalectris diversity correlates with preserve area, demonstrating that a larger preserve could help conserve more Hexalectris species. Overlapping soil surveys, geological data, and known Hexalectris locations in Texas helped to identify 64 counties with soil and geological conditions associated with Hexalectris. Many of the counties have no records of Hexalectris, showing the potential need for and value of targeted searches during wetter years to aid in identifying new populations to help fill in Hexalectris distributions and direct future conservation efforts.
Tallgrass prairies are some of the most imperiled ecosystems in North America, yet the herpetofauna found within these habitats are not well known. We studied the herpetofaunal assemblage of the Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt and Chichaqua Wildlife Management Area complex (CBG) in Iowa as well as the natural history of Thamnophis species. We found that the CBG housed substantial diversity with seven species of anurans, one species of salamander, three species of turtles, and nine species of snakes. Three Thamnophis species in the CBG differed in body size, diet, and both ambient temperature and time of day at capture. This research contributes to our knowledge of the diversity and natural history of herpetofauna in northern prairies.
Alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) populations are declining in the southern United States and Mexico, prompting increasing efforts by state and federal agencies to manage populations. We sampled the alligator gar population in the Red River drainage of Oklahoma–Texas from March 2006 to April 2008 to evaluate population characteristics, identify efficient sampling techniques, and evaluate aging techniques. Catch rates for adult fish were highest using multifilament trammel nets (n = 80) during cold water periods (<12°C) and for young-of-year fish using mini-fyke nets (n = 60) during warm water periods (>18°C). Movements and home range were examined using ultrasonic telemetry. Home-range areas of six individuals were from 4.93 to 17.13 km2 during a 4–9-month period. Spawning in Lake Texoma was documented in spring 2007. Sixty-four alligator gar were aged using double-blind methods of scale cross sections. A subsample of 14 individuals was also aged using whole otoliths to cross-reference scale ages. Age determinations ranged from 0 to 28 years at date of capture and suggest that the youngest gar were spawned in 2006 and 2007. Age determination of alligator gar using scale sections proved to be imprecise and biased toward overestimation of age in adults when compared with whole otolith ages. The alligator gar population in Lake Texoma and the Red River upstream of the reservoir appeared to be stable, represented by varied age and length classes, and is experiencing regular recruitment.
Eric C. Munscher, Andrew D. Walde, J. Daren Riedle, Stephen G. Ross, Nicole Salvatico, Chris Collins, Mike Farris, Brian P. Butterfield, J. Brian Hauge
Comal Springs in New Braunfels, Texas, is the largest freshwater spring west of the Mississippi. The spring is within the Edwards Plateau Savanna Ecoregion of the Southeastern United States Turtle Priority Area. Comal Springs is an environmentally sensitive spring run situated in an urbanized area visited by >1,000,000 people each year and thus may be impacted by recreational use. We assessed baseline population levels for the turtle assemblage residing in Comal Springs. We captured 4,238 turtles from February 2012 to February 2015 across 12 separate sampling sessions. Captures and individually marked turtles (in parentheses) included 2,322 (1,715) Sternotherus odoratus, 1,558 (793) Pseudemys texana, 329 (141) Trachemys scripta, and 29 (19) Chelydra serpentina serpentina. We report population densities of 1,690/ha (S. odoratus), 230/ha (P. texana), 43/ha (T. scripta), and 5/ha (C. s. serpentina). We estimated biomass for each species and sex, resulting in a total biomass estimate of 5,309.6 kg or 632.1 kg/ha. Sex ratios for P. texana and T. scripta were 1:1, whereas the sex ratio for S. odoratus was 2.26:1, male biased. Our results suggest that a robust turtle assemblage inhabits Comal Springs, similar in richness to the more well-studied freshwater spring habitats in Florida. Future studies or management actions can use our data as a benchmark as the results of few turtle surveys in Texas have been published.
Wildlife managers needed to understand coyote (Canis latrans) ecology in order to develop management plans on the nascent Valles Caldera National Preserve in northern New Mexico. Managers concerned about low elk (Cervus elaphus) recruitment had observed an increase in sightings of coyotes and observations of coyote predation on elk calves. Our objective was to identify and quantify coyote diet, and assess the temporal variation in coyote diet on the Valles Caldera National Preserve, particularly as related to elk calf consumption. We examined coyote food habits using 1,385 scats analyzed monthly from May 2005 to November 2008. The most frequent taxa were rodents (predominantly voles from the genus Microtus, and northern pocket gophers, Thomomys talpoides), elk, insects from the orders Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets) and Coleoptera (beetles), mountain cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus nuttallii), and plant material (mainly grass). We detected rodent and elk in scats during all months of the study and were each present in 54% of scats overall. We identified elk remains in 43% of spring scats, 72% of winter scats, and 56% of fall scats. During summers, we could distinguish calf from adult elk hair: 8% of summer the scats contained adult elk hair and 39% contained calf elk hair. The frequency of prey items varied significantly over most seasons and years, with notable exceptions being that elk did not vary among summers and winters, and rabbits were a consistent diet item through all seasons. The high frequency of elk in the coyote diet bears further study on the density of elk calves, the vulnerability of elk to predation, the nutritional impacts from the quality of forage available to elk, and the role of hunting and other mammalian predators in providing carcasses.
We studied four active nests of Vireo atricapilla in the Sierra de la Paila, southeastern Coahuila, Mexico, during July–August 2012. We quantified duration and behavior of each parent at nests during 25 h 10 min of video at two of the nests. Three nests reached the nestling stage, but only one was successful. We observed only the female constructing one nest. During incubation, females stayed in the nest 54.9% of the time, males 40.1%; both were absent 5% of the recorded time. Primarily the male conducted feeding of nestlings, whereas only the female brooded nestlings. We also recorded two new nesting substrates for the species.
The streams in the mountains surrounding the Valley of Mexico often contain salamanders and anurans. Knowledge of these species is relatively poor, however. We report observations on predation and reproduction in two species from these streams, Ambystoma altamirani and Dryophytes plicatus.
Sight records and anecdotal records of the nonnative Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) in Baja California date back to the 1960s, but the species has not been reported in the state since 1997. We document specimen and photographic records from the La Misión area, between Tijuana and Ensenada, and predict the species will continue to expand its range southward as development continues along the coast of Baja California.
The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) has been documented as occurring in 21 of 33 counties in New Mexico. In the Sandia Mountains of Bernalillo County, New Mexico, a camera trap captured 25 images of a male O. virginianus in November 2017. This represents a new occurrence for Bernalillo County and the Sandia Mountains.
We document and provide photographic evidence of a group of spotted wrens (Campylorhynchus gularis), a Mexican endemic, obtaining Chrysomya carrion fly maggots inside of a sheep carcass in a disturbed xeric scrubland in the Barranca de Metztitlán Biosphere Reserve, Hidalgo, Mexico. We document for the first time the consumption of maggots that were inside a livestock carcass as food resource for the genus Campylorhynchus. This evidence indicates the potential of the genus Campylorhynchus for the use of ecological subsidies derived from human activity.
We report records of free-ranging nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) in Nuevo Leon, Mexico (January 2017–February 2019), including fecal piles, visual records, and photographic evidence of a carcass. These are the first published records of the species in Mexico outside controlled areas.
This article is only available to subscribers. It is not available for individual sale.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have
purchased or subscribe to this BioOne eBook Collection. You are receiving
this notice because your organization may not have this eBook access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users-please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
Additional information about institution subscriptions can be foundhere