Examination of a carcass of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus americanus (L.) (Cuculiformes: Cuculidae) provided the first record of a louse in the genus Cuculoecus (Psocodea: Philopteridae), a springtail Seira brasiliana (Arlé) (Collembola: Entomobryidae), and a tetranychid mite in the genus Oligonychus (Trombidiformes: Tetranychidae), from Vaca Key, Monroe County, Florida, USA.
The giant African snail Lissachatina fulica (Bowdich, 1822) (also known as Achatina fulica) is indigenous to the coastal region of con-tinental East Africa. It is one of the most invasive ecological pests in the world and threatens native flora, agriculture, human and animal health outside its natural range. While dry and semi-arid climatic re-gions are supposed to be immune to its invasion, our data show that this is not always the case. Ranthambhore National Park is dry, de-ciduous forest located in semi-arid part of western India. We have observed the progressive invasion of L. fulica in this fragile land-scape since its first introduction in 2010. Subsequently, it has spread over a large area at an alarming rate. We discuss the observations on behaviour and the factors responsible for the rapid spread of L. fulica in the park.
Following on from the 2016 SAFRING ringing summary, the SAFRING database has grown to 2,677,367 ringing records (initial, retrap, resightings and recoveries). This number is increased to 2,698,821 records when foreign scheme records stored in the database are included.
This report describes progress with the atlas of lacewings, defined as the orders Neuroptera and Megaloptera, up to 31 March 2019. The database of the project contained 15,781 records, in two components - 12,898 specimen records and 2,883 photographic records - submitted to the LacewingMAP section of the Virtual Museum, over a period of 4.5 years (September 2014 to March 2019). The average rate of submission of photographic records for LacewingMAP for the four calendar years 2015 to 2018 was 566 per year, three times faster than the rate at which the specimen database grew during the second half of the 20th century. 234 citizen scientists contributed photographic records to LacewingMAP. It seems that almost all of these people have primary interests in other taxa, and that the records submitted to LacewingMAP were a 'by-catch'. Photographs of at least two new species were submitted by citizen scientists during 2018.
This is one of a series of papers on bird distribution dynamics that deals with the six indigenous francolin species of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. These gamebirds are affected by various ecological and anthropogenic drivers such as fire, livestock grazing, agriculture, wing shooting and other forms of habitat modification. Their resident statuses and ground-living habits also renders them vulnerable to predators as well as the aforementioned drivers. Assessing the differences between reporting rates of the two South African Bird Atlas Projects as well as overlaying a recent national land cover spatial dataset we attempted to identify which habitats might have caused declines and/or increases in distribution. Using the same methods as with previous bird distribution dynamics papers, we revealed that most species have declined but, in parts of their distribution increases are evident since the first bird atlas project. Here, the perceived drivers of changes in distribution mostly in the form of land cover, are diverse and varied between species. Unfortunately, we could only speculate on the effects of fire as the land cover dataset does not provide a burnt-area class.
This is another paper on bird distribution dynamics in Biodiversity Observations. The objective of this series of papers is to report on the ranges of bird species as revealed by the Second Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP2, 2007 onwards) and to describe how their ranges have changed since the first bird atlas (SABAP1, mainly 1987 /- 1991), about two decades apart. The African Black Oystercatcher Haemetopus moquini is neither considered a Red-listed species globally nor regionally however, this endemic and iconic bird was expected to decline due to a variety of anthropogenic and natural influences hence, it received much attention from the scientific community. SABAP data supported the findings of some previous projects that looked at both oytsercacther distribution, dispersion and feeding ecology along South Africa's (SA) coastline as well as that of the alien Mediterranean Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis. Possible reasons for a relatively recent and northern presence along the SA coastline could be due to southern populations experiencing food shortages during the breeding season that result in seasonal dispersion or carrying capacity on the mainland has been reached. Inside the /oystercatcher's breeding range, the alien mussel serves as an additional food source that probably explains the largest SABAP2 reporting rates along the southern regions of the coastline as this area coincides with the /mussel's distribution range.
Bringing together these observations suggests that the association, in particular, of these two species, may be more common than previously acknowledged
In this paper I will synthesise the problems with comparisons between the two bird atlas projects.
In this study we estimate the number of nests owned by male Cape Weavers Ploceus capensis on a single day.
Early breeding results in extended breeding seasons with more breeding attempts and probably more fledged young than in rural areas.
Twelve incidents of arboreal foraging are described for Grey and Swee Waxbills and Green Twinspot from KwaZulu-Natal.
The object of this study is to describe the foraging behaviour of certain foliage gleaners ...
the egg was not the usual blue colour of the Southern Red Bishop, which is the same colour that the cuckoo is supposed to lay for that host.
The November 2003 record of Golden-tailed Woodpeckers represents the first record of this species along the Orange River before data collection for SABAP2 started in July 2007.
The following observations of African Jacanas during regular SABAP2 surveys in pentad 2910_2610 outside Bloemfontein are of interest.
On Saturday 9 August 2014 we observed a male Cut-throat x Red-headed Finch hybrid at a feeder in our garden in Polokwane.
If it is confirmed that Pied Crows are having substantial negative impacts on prey and/or competitor species, as seems to be inevitable where the abundance of crows has increased massively, remedial action to prevent or minimise damage should be taken.
One member of the pair remained in the close proximity of the nest to protect the nestlings from possible predators. The other member of the pair arrived about five minutes later with a lizard in its talons.
This paper reports preliminary results on the breeding biology of a spontaneous settlement of Egyptian Geese Alopochen aegyptiacus in the city of Groningen, The Netherlands.
