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Viola
Clausnitzer
Liebenauer Str. 180, 06110 Halle/Saale, Germany
violacl@gmx.de
A
comprehensive checklist of dragonflies occurring in the Kakamega
Forest, Kenya is given and shortly discussed. A total of 72 dragonfly
species, representing 42 % of Kenya’s dragonfly fauna, has
been recorded from the forest. Three of these are based on literature
records only. The habitat preference and affiliation with other
African regions is listed for all species. Twenty species are of
national importance for Kenya, since they are only found at this
site within the country. For these species habitat affiliations
in the Kakamega Forest are given more in detail. The dragonfly fauna
of the Kakamega Forest is impoverished compared to more western
Guineo-Congolian rain forest areas. The effects of forest fragmentation
and isolation hindering any immigration from western rain forest
patches is shortly addressed.
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Robert
S. Copeland
Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station,
TX, 77843, USA,
and
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, P.O. Box
30772, Nairobi, Kenya
hunteriazeylanica@yahoo.com
Wilberforce
Okeka
Forest Department, Kakamega Forest Station, Kakamega, Kenya
wokekasan@yahoo.co.uk
Amnon
Freidberg
Department of Zoology, The George W. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences,
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
afdipter@post.tau.ac.il
Bernhard
Merz
Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Départment d’Entomologie
C.P. 6434, CH – 1211 Genève 6, Switzerland
Bernhard.merz@mhn.ville-ge.ch
Ian
M. White
Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road,
London, SW7 5BD, UK
imw@nhm.ac.uk
Marc
De Meyer
Entomology Section, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Leuvensesteenweg
13, 3080 Tervuren, Belgium
demeyer@africamuseum.be
Quentin
Luke
East African Herbarium, National Museums of Kenya, Box 45166, Nairobi,
Kenya
quentin.luke@swiftkenya.com
A
list of the Tephritidae from Kakamega Forest and it environs was
compiled from published records, Malaise trap, baited trap, and
sweep-net collections, rearings from flowers and fruits, and examination
of museum specimens. One hundred and thirty-five species are recorded
and collection information is provided for all of them. Twenty-five
of these species are undescribed, or were so at the time our study
began. Frugivorous Tephritidae were reared from 134 of 378 (35%)
fruit collections made within the forest. Fruits of 17 of 47 plant
families (36%), and 37 of the 123 plant species (30%) yielded Tephritidae.
The plant families of greatest importance in the life histories
of frugivorous species were the Sapotaceae, Rubiaceae, Flacourtiaceae,
Rosaceae, and Solanaceae, while the Asteraceae provided hosts of
most of the flower feeding species. The affinities of the Kakamega
forest tephritid fauna with those of other regions, in particular
the main central and western African rain forest and the East African
coastal forests, are discussed.
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Timotheüs
van der Niet, Berit Gehrke
Institute of Systematic Botany, University of Zurich,
Zollikerstrasse 107, CH-8008 Zurich, Switzerland
niet@systbot.unizh.ch, gehrke@systbot.unizh.ch
Disa
walteri, Satyrium aberrans, S. comptum and S. johnsonii are rare
terrestrial orchids that co-occur and flower around the same time
in southern Tanzania. We found the first three of these species
on Mbeya Peak in March 2005, about 45 years after they were last
recorded by botanists and present the first illustration of D. walteri
in the form of pictures here. S. johnsonii could not be located
and might be extinct on Mbeya Peak. Major habitat loss and the extraction
of tubers for consumption or trade severely threaten these narrowly
distributed species. Based on herbarium records and our field observations
we provisionally assess D. walteri and S. johnsonii as Critically
Endangered and S. aberrans and S. comptum as Endangered.
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Mirutse
Giday
Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University
P. O. Box 12577, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
mirutseg@yahoo.com
Zemede
Asfaw, Zerihun Woldu
The National Herbarium, Addis Ababa University
P. O. Box 3434, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
zemede@bio.aau.edu.et, zerihunw@hotmail.com
The
aim of this study was to compile and analyse information on local
use of plants in Ethiopia based on data obtained from labels of
specimens stored at the National Herbarium and from published volumes
of the Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea. Two families were considered:
Fabaceae and Euphorbiaceae. Analysis of the herbarium data yielded
a total of 116 locally useful plant species in Ethiopia. The highest
proportion of plants (52%) was used for medicinal purposes. The
study also revealed Acacia nilotca, Croton macrostachyus and Ricinus
communis as having the highest use diversity. Further analysis of
the Euphorbiaceae herbarium data demonstrated an increasing trend,
with time, for collectors to incorporate plant-use information on
specimen labels even though much of the records were found too incomplete
to be considered useful. The study also revealed that the majority
of plant-use information on herbarium labels was absent from the
relevant Flora volumes. We, therefore, recommend that more thorough
ethnobotanical investigations are conducted in Ethiopia to obtain
more complete and precise data on the local use of plants.
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Ana
M. Cerveira
School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
ana_cerveira@yahoo.co.nz
Robert
R. Jackson
School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
and
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE)
Thomas Odhiambo Campus, P.0. Box 30, Mbita Point, Kenya
robert.jackson@canterbury.ac.nz
rjackson@mbita.mimcom.net
This
is the first detailed report on the natural prey and the prey-capture
tactics of a Palpimanus sp. from Entebbe (Uganda). Although this
species fed occasionally on insects, its dominant prey in the field
was other spiders, especially jumping spiders (Salticidae) and their
eggs. Encounters between Palpimanus sp. and salticids were staged
in the laboratory under red light (to simulate nocturnal or dimly-lit
conditions) and under white light (i.e. full light, to simulate
daylight or brightly-lit conditions). Altering ambient lighting
had no discernible effect on the palpimanid’s predatory tactics,
suggesting that eyesight has little, if any role, in governing the
palpimanid’s prey-capture behaviour. Reliance on stealth appeared
to be critical in enabling the palpimanid to avoid detection and
to succeed at capturing salticids. The prey-capture tactics of Palpimanus
sp. are compared to the tactics used by other araneophagic spiders
to capture salticids.
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Derek
Pomeroy
Institute of Environment and Natural Resources
Makerere University, P. O. Box 7298, Kampala, Uganda
derek@imul.com
Mound-building
termites were studied from 1976–1982 at Emali, Selengei and
Ruaraka, three sites in semi-arid southern Kenya. The mounds, most
of which were built by species of Macrotermes but some by Odontotermes
species, contained
2–20 m3 of soil per hectare. Mound dispersion was regular
to a significant degree (implying intra-specific competition) at
Emali and Selengei, but not at Ruaraka, where instead there was
a distinct vertical zonation of species up a valley slope. Mound-building
termites show evidence of intra-specific competition in other ways—for
example, large mounds are further apart. Inter-specific competition
was also apparent at Emali and there is evidence of inter-generic
competition at Ruaraka but of inter-generic associations at Selengei.
Building activity increased during wetter periods, whilst feeding,
as reflected by the extent of earth coverings, was negatively correlated
with rainfall, especially for the Macrotermes species. Ventilation
shafts are numerous on large, unshaded mounds of M. subhyalinus,
confirming the main purpose of the shafts, which may however limit
the maximum size of mounds. M. michaelseni, which has no external
openings, uses a different system for ventilation. Flighting by
Macrotermes alates shows interesting variations between and within
species whose full explanation will require further research.
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Derek
Pomeroy
Institute of Environment and Natural Resources,
Makerere University, P.O. Box 7298, Kampala, Uganda
derek@imul.com
Of
all the climatic variables in the environment of termites in southern
Kenya, only rainfall shows marked seasonality and unpredictability.
But despite the great variability in rainfall patterns, the populations
of termite mounds of various species in three well-separated study
areas remained remarkably constant over a period of 6½ years.
This provides good evidence for the effectiveness of the termites'
control of their nest environments, and suggests that their populations
are close to their carrying capacities. New colonies appeared either
as new mounds or as recolonisations of old ones, the latter being
less frequently recorded but having higher survival rates. The appearance
of new colonies of Macrotermes michaelseni followed years of higher
rainfall; the opposite was true for M. subhyalinus. Numbers of old
colonies dying were roughly equalled by new colonies surviving.
For the largest mound population, that of M. subhyalinus at Selengei,
colonies in larger mounds had higher survival rates, as did those
which had no close neighbours. Few colony deaths were attributed
to ants, but more to aardvarks Orycteropus afer, particularly in
wetter years, and more in the apparently softer mounds of M. michaelseni.
Mounds containing live populations usually increased in size but
all mounds lost soil by erosion. However, the whole process was
so slow that turnover of soil was less than 1.0 m3.ha-1.yr-1.
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J.
Robert Britton
National Fisheries Laboratory, Environment Agency, Bromholme Lane,
Brampton,
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. PE28 4NE England, UK
robert.britton@environment-agency.gov.uk
David
M. Harper
University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH England,
UK
dmh@leicester.ac.uk
The
age and growth of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides in Lake
Naivasha, Kenya, was determined using scales and otoliths collected
in July 2002. Although validation could only reveal the likelihood
of annual check formation on these structures, the subsequent growth
outputs were valuable in revealing that M. salmoides were apparently
growing at a rate in excess of those recorded from populations in
more temperate regions. However, their life span appeared compromised,
with no specimens recorded over the age of 4+. It was believed their
limited life span was related to both their high exploitation in
sport and commercial fisheries, and a trade-off between fast growth
and longevity in individual fish.
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