Зоологический журнал

A species of the genus

Alekseev V.R., Barabanshchikov E.I.

Mesocydops dissimilis

Body mass, energy metabolism, and time in the life of birds

Dolnik V.R.

There are two original factors that make breeding of birds with different body mass difficult. First, it is hypom-etry of the egg mass related to the female body mass. Second, by seasonal breeding, there is an equal time limit for large and small birds. The paper contains an overview of dozen of the published allometric formulas that describe the dependence of energy parameters of eggs and nestlings on different growth stages, and energy costs of parental care on the body mass of the parents, eggs, and nestlings, respectively. During ontogenesis, birds, especially species with great body mass, are shown to change their metabolic characteristics many times in order to shorten period of breeding and growth. In most species, energy costs for breeding in both sexes are approximately equal. Bringing of food in bill allows birds to increase the energy forwarded to nestlings to a greater extent as compared to the energy spent for getting the food. In Placentia mammals, only females are related to the breeding process. Therefore, the growth of embryos grow in accordance with the metabolic resources of the mother, and the energy costs for breeding are limited by her metabolic potentialities. Mammalian kids grow ten times slower that bird nestlings, despite the equal body mass in their mothers.

Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Rhopalocera) in the Arctic fauna

Chernov Yu. I., Tatarinov A.G.

The authors included 106 species of butterflies (Papilionidae (6 species), Pieridae (20), Lycaenidae (18), Nymphalidae (30), Satyridae (27), and Hesperiidae (5)), into the composition of the Arctic fauna. According to the features characterizing the biological progress in the Arctic, as well as to the number of the most strongly pronounced arctic species, Nymphalidae predominate. Satyridae along with Nymphalidae occupies the first place by the number of species, but differs from the latter in the uneven and local distribution. The family Pieridae demonstrates a wide distribution of polyzonal and boreal species in the tundra zone. The distribution of Lycaenidae are recorded in the Eurasian and Beringian-American sectors. Sometimes, Papilionidae and Hesperiidae species occur only in the southern part of the tundra zone. Each family is characterized by specific distribution in the Arctic subzones and landscapes and by the latitudinal trends in its specific ratio in the faunas. There are 30 to 40 arctic species, including arctic proper (euarcts and hemiarcts) and hypoarctic, arcto-alpine, arcto-montain, and arcto-boreal species.

Distribution of two hermit crabs

Sokolov V.I.

The new data on the distribution of the hermit crab

gen. n. (Acariformes, Oribatida, Eremaeidae) from Armenia

Shtanchaeva U. Ya., Suhias L.S.

Caucaseremaeus

Microarthropod communities in anthropogenic urban soils. 1. The structure of microarthropod complexes in soils of green street curbs

Eitminaviciute I.

The structure and abundance of microarthropod communities in soils of street curbs in the city of Vilnius were studied. The soil samples were collected in the points of a direct contact of curbs with a street and at a distance of 10 m from the curb slope and circular crossings. The microarthropod abundance in the soils of the street curbs tightly correlated to the terrestrial vegetation. The number of microarthropods in the soils overgrown with plants 40, 20, and 10 years ago reached 49.0, 6.5, and 2.3 thousand ind./m2, respectively. The number of microarthropods in the soils contacting the street was found to be lower by 3 times than that in the soils at a distance of 10 m from the carriage way; in these places, the number of some groups of microarthropods was lower by 5 times. The species of oribatids adapted to the alkaline soils of street cubs were identified.

Mortality in spotted souslik

Lobkov V.A.

The mortality of

On ability of the Siberian newt

Berman D.I., Leirikh A.N., Meshcheryakova E.N.

The supercooling point of spawn bag, whole eggs, external jelly coat, and naked embryo (after removal of tertiary capsular jelly coat) in Siberian newt was measured by manganin-konstantan thermocouple. The embryos taken out of the spawn bags supercool down to - 6.5°C. The whole spawn bag can freeze in ice without injury to embryos only at near-zero negative temperatures and for a short time. Embryos freeze through and are destroyed by penetrating ice crystals. The freezing time depends on the thermal capacity of the spawn bag. The revealed tolerance of Siberian newt embryos has no adaptive importance, since in northeastern Asia, including the north and south of the species range, eggs do not freeze even in small reservoirs. Cold hardiness of embryos is nonspecific. It is not related to the environmental temperature and is determined by the immanent properties of eggs, such as saturation with lipids and some other compounds that provide ontogenetic functions. Taking into account that Siberian newt egg has the properties not characteristic of the whole spawn bag as a secondary structure, cold hardiness of embryos may be considered as preadaptation not realized in evolution.

Seasonal aspects of life cycles in the ground beetles

Filippov B.Yu.

The seasonal dynamics of the activity and demographic structure of

Small mammals in Yaroslavl

Tikhonova G.N., Davydova L.V., Tikhonov I.A., Bogomolov P.L.

In unbuilt territories (1994-2002) and in buildings (1980-1998) of Yaroslavl, 1897 animals of 16 species (the totality is 32674 trap/24 h) were captured. Fifteen and seven types of habitats outside the buildings and inside them, respectively, were distinguished. The distribution of small mammal communities in zones and biotopes, the numbers and species diversity and some other their parameters were studied.

The fauna and morphology of heterotrophic flagellates from the Vorontsovskaya cave (Krasnodar Krai)

Myl'nikov A.P., Tikhonenkov D.V., Simdyanov T.G.

The fauna and morphology of heterotrophic flagellates from the water bodies of the Vorontsovskaya cave (Sochi, Krasnodar Krai) is considered. The samples were investigated in laboratory using methods of light and electron microscopy. Seventeen species and forms of heterotrophic flagellates of five super generic taxa were found. The species are descriptions based on the figures and photos of living cells and on the fixed and total preparations. Species-specific features (scales, flagella acroneme etc.) were analyzed. The similarity of the fauna investigated with the species composition of heterotrophic flagellates in groundwater, continental fresh and marine biotopes is discussed.