The American Midland Naturalist articles from April 1997

The American Midland Naturalist archives from April 1997

A variant of the hypergeometric distribution for large or territorial organisms.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Greig-Smith (1983, p. 57-60) addressed a problem that recurs in studies of spatial distributions of plants: How to calculate a random expected distribution, in the manner of a Poisson distribution, when the plants are large and...

Will conversion of conservation reserve program (CRP) lands to pasture be detrimental for grassland birds in Kansas?
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Several studies have detected declines in populations of grassland birds (Graber and Graber, 1983; Robbins et al., 1986; Peterjohn and Sauer, 1993). A probable cause of these declines has been a reduction in grassland habitat...

Effects of radio tags on captive northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) body composition and survival.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION An assumption of most radio-telemetry studies is that the responses of animals carrying radio tags are not different from those of untagged animals (White and Garrott, 1990:27). Radio-tagged birds often lose mass, presumably...

What characteristics of shelterbelts are important to breeding success and return rate of birds?
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Both natural and planted stands of woody vegetation are important habitats for birds in the Great Plains (Martin, 1980; Tubbs, 1980; Faanes, 1983, 1987). However, habitat for tree-nesting birds is limited in the plains states....

Bird populations and habitat in Bacillus thuringiensis and dimilin-treated and untreated areas of hardwood forest.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION The gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) has infested approximately 25% of the nation's hardwood forests and is steadily moving S and W (Gottschalk, 1991). Eventually the range of the gypsy moth is expected to include most of the...

Ichthyofaunal and habitat associations of disjunct populations of southern redbelly dace. Phoxinus erythrogaster (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) in Mississippi.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION The southern redbelly dace Phoxinus erythrogaster is a colorful, small to medium-sized minnow (55 to 65 mm SL; Starnes and Starnes, 1980) that is widely distributed within the upper Mississippi River Valley. It is generally...

Growth and biomineralization of Celtis occidentalis (Ulmaceae) pericarps.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Celtis L., often known as hackberry, includes approximately 70 species worldwide and about five in North America (Preston, 1989). In the United States, the genus extends from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains and in...

Species composition in a central hardwood forest in Kentucky 11 years after clear-cutting.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION The vast majority of the forests of Kentucky are second-growth, most having been harvested by the late 1940s (Parker and Merritt, 1995; Smith, 1995). These second-growth central hardwood forests recover rapidly from disturbance,...

Consumption by eastern woodrats (Neotoma floridana) of food infected by fungi.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Most studies on diet selection have assumed that fungal growth on food is synonymous with spoilage (Millar and Zwickel, 1972; Janzen, 1977; Pruett-Jones and Pruett-Jones, 1985; Frank, 1988). This may not always be true. Many...

Social organization of Neotoma micropus, the southern plains woodrat.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Neotoma micropus is a medium-sized woodrat that inhabits the southern Great Plains of the S-central and southwestern United States (Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma) and northeastern Mexico (Hall, 1981). It is usually described as...

Microhabitat use and community structure of darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) in shortgrass prairie: effects of season, shrub cover and soil type.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) are conspicuous components of the terrestrial invertebrate fauna of arid and semiarid ecosystems of western North America (Allsop, 1980). Because adults are flightless, feed on plant...

Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) dispersal behavior in intercropped vs. monoculture soybean agroecosystems.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Conventional agriculture is highly dependent on energy, fertilizer and pesticide subsidies (Pimentel et al., 1975; Reganold et al., 1990; Barrett et al., 1990). Intercropping, the simultaneous cultivation of two or more crops in...

Interspecific variation in climbing by gastropods: implications for transmission of parelaphostrongylus tenuis.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Parelaphostrongylus tenuis, a metastrongyloid nematode typically found in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), has been implicated as a limiting factor of moose (Alces alces) populations, where moose are sympatric with...

Ontogenetic and temporal shifts in the diet of the amphipod Gammarus fasciatus, in the Ohio River.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Amphipods occupy a great diversity of lotic and lentic freshwater habitats, ranging in North America from the Laurentian Great Lakes to small headwater streams and large rivers such as the Mississippi (Bousfield, 1958); they are...

Leaf domatia and the distribution and abundance of foliar mites in broadleaf deciduous forest in Wisconsin.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Leaf domatia are specialized structures that enclose minute spaces on the leaf undersurface (Lundstroem, 1887). Usually located in major vein axils, they are used by mites, typically fungivorous or predatory species, for shelter...

Short-term and long-term effects of burning on oak savanna arthropods.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Prescribed burning is an essential tool for preserving many plant communities, such as grasslands and savannas (Daubenmire, 1968; Hurlbert, 1969; Tester, 1989), but it has been hypothesized to modify, and perhaps harm, their...

Evidence for diapause in the freshwater copepod Skistodiaptomus pallidus.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Dormancy is an adaptation used by many organisms, including insects, plants and zooplankton, to avoid a harsh or uninhabitable environment. Among zooplankton, different species enter diapause during different life history...

Seasonal variation in use of caves by the endangered ozark big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii ingens) in Oklahoma.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION The Ozark big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii ingens) was listed as an endangered subspecies in 1979 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1984, 1995; see Tumlison and Douglas, 1992, for change from Plecotus to Corynorhinus); its...

Characteristics of waterfowl nest depredation b the striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis): can predators be identified from nest remains?
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Nest predation is the most important factor affecting the populations of many passerine (Ricklefs, 1969; Wilcove, 1985) and waterfowl species (Klett et al., 1988). Identification of nest predators is a critical step in the...

White-belted coloration in a northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda).
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Coat color in mammals is almost entirely the result of presence or absence of melanin in the form of minute pigment granules in the cortex and medulla of the hair and in the epidermis of the skin (Searle, 1968). Thus, as Searle...

Nest-site selection by belted kingfishers (Ceryle alcyon) in Colorado.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION Throughout most of North America, belted kingfishers (Ceryle alcyon) nest in burrows that they construct in dirt banks. They will, however, also use a wide array of other nesting substrates (Hamas, 1994). The primary factors...

Oviposition site preferences and spatial segregation in two species of stream-dwelling waterstriders (Hemiptera: Gerridae).
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION A major goal of ecology is to understand mechanisms that mediate competition between species (Ricklefs and Schluter, 1993). Resource partitioning has received much study as a mechanism that reduces competition and thus enhances...

Food of the red bat Lasiurus borealis in winter in the Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina and Virginia.
April 1, 1997... INTRODUCTION It is generally assumed that during winter insectivorous bats that remain in cold climates hibernate, and thus do not feed, whereas bats in warmer areas remain active and feed, although there is little information on localities...