Taken together, these results suggest that the differences in maternal rearing strategies may not benefit dependent offspring, but we suggest that grouping between reproductive

females may increase the survival of yearlings through group augmentation. “
“The identification of cryptic species may significantly change our view about their distribution, abundance, ecology and therefore conservation status. In the European Alps, molecular studies have revealed the existence of three sibling species of plecotine bats Plecotus auritus, Plecotus austriacus and, very recently, Plecotus macrobullaris. Knowledge of the ecological niche partitioning of cryptic species is a requisite to develop sound conservation policies. Yet, this requests the p38 MAPK activity development of unambiguous identification methods easily applicable in the field. This study investigates

the reliability of several morphological methods used for species recognition and proposes a new identification key for field workers. We captured 214 Plecotus bats from 29 sites in four bioregions within Switzerland, collected biopsy punches for genetic analysis, described and measured external morphological characters. All three species occurred as mono-specific colonies, except at one site where P. auritus and P. macrobullaris shared the same church attic. Qualitative traits alone did not allow a reliable separation of the three species. A series of multivariate analyses conducted on external selleck inhibitor linear measurements resulted in a discriminant function enabling correct species classification with a 97.5% probability. Compared with genetic analysis, our multivariate morphological method represents a valuable, rapid and cost-effective alternative. “
“We investigated whether the current distribution

of Lacerta schreiberi is likely to be constrained by incubation conditions. We used an incubation experiment in the laboratory to examine the effects of temperature and moisture on 上海皓元 lizard reproductive traits, in order to clarify the ecological processes that underlie the distribution patterns of this lizard and to build more reliable mechanistic models. We then investigated to what extent range limits of L. schreiberi coincided with those predicted from incubation experiments and actual temperature variation experienced in the field. This was done by intersecting documented presence localities of the species with interpolated spatial layers of soil temperature. Reproductive success (hatching success, morphological traits and growth rates) was strongly and negatively affected by high temperature. In contrast, incubation moisture only affected neonate size and its positive effects were only realized at moderate to low temperature.