| urate deposits in the gecarcinid land crab gecarcoidea natalis are synthesised de novo from excess dietary nitrogen | the urate content of the gecarcinid land crab gecarcoidea natalis was correlated to the amount of nitrogen assimilated. crabs fed a high-nitrogen diet (ad libitum amounts of soy beans and fig leaves, ficus macrophylla) for 6 weeks assimilated approximately 23 times more nitrogen (33.9±5.6mmolkg-1day-1) than animals fed a diet low in nitrogen (fig leaves alone) (1.5±0.7mmolkg-1day-1). animals maintained on a high-nitrogen diet accumulated urate (67.1±29.4mmolkg-1drymass), whi ... | 1997 | 9320269 |
| digestive strategies in two species of leaf-eating land crabs (brachyura: gecarcinidae) in a rain forest. | two species of herbivorous land crabs from christmas island, cardisoma hirtipes and gecarcoidea natalis, overlap in both diet and distribution. this study compared the dietary preferences and digestive capabilities of these two species on a diet of leaf litter to establish the digestive strategies each adopts and the likely degree of competition for food. c. hirtipes preferred green to yellow or brown leaves of ficus macrophylla in short-term food-choice experiments. brown leaves were least favo ... | 1998 | 9472811 |
| characterization of microsatellite markers for sycoscapter nonpollinating fig wasps. | we isolated 18 microsatellites from sycoscapter australis, a nonpollinating fig wasp that develops in figs of ficus macrophylla, and assessed their variability in 20 wasps. we further optimized nine of these loci for use in three other sycoscapter species that develop in ficus rubiginosa figs and assessed their variability in 47-140 wasps per species. these are the first microsatellites developed for nonpollinating fig wasps and show sufficient polymorphism to become important tools in evolution ... | 2009 | 21564760 |
| relative abundance and strain diversity in the bacterial endosymbiont community of a sap-feeding insect across its native and introduced geographic range. | most insects are associated with bacterial symbionts. the bacterial diversity and community composition within hosts may play an important role in shaping insect population biology, ecology and evolution. we focussed on the bacterial microbiome of the australian fig homotomid mycopsylla fici (hemiptera: psylloidea), which can cause defoliation of its only host tree, ficus macrophylla. this sap-feeding insect is native to mainland australia and lord howe island (lhi) but also occurs where its hos ... | 2017 | 28386769 |