Bird Of Paradise Research Articles

Layer Cake

Layer Cake M. Lynx Qualey (bio) Birds of Paradise. Diana Abu-Jaber. W. W. Norton. http://books.wwnorton.com. 362 pages; cloth, $25.95. Through most of Birds of Paradise, there is nothing—save Diana Abu-Jaber's name on the cover—to mark the book as "ethnic." While the action takes place in melting-pot Miami, the ethnicities of the core characters are not flagged up. The central female characters are given slightly old-fashioned, British-sounding names: a grandmother Geraldine, a mother Avis, and the beautiful young Felice Muir. Felice's father is Brian, her brother is Stanley, and the family doesn't extend much further than that. Early in the book, when Avis asks about her father's identity, she's told, "don't be tedious, dear." This is Abu-Jaber's fourth novel, and her first without prominent Arab characters. It is a novel that feels highly architected—like a giant, complicated cake—with lovely sentences, a few too many layers, and pockets of rich, strongly felt emotions. It is also a novel that, at its outset, seems to eschew ethnicity, history, and heritage, preferring instead to focus on who the characters are in America, in this very moment, in their own skins. Forget where they come from. Let's just see who they are. The novel's compelling central story is how Avis, who bakes complicated, high-end sweets, tries to reconnect with her runaway daughter. Felice is a beautiful girl on the edge of eighteen who occasionally models but mostly crashes with other teen runaways. This is the most satisfying and universal layer: a mother chases after a daughter as the daughter runs to escape her mistakes. Around this story, others are built: Avis's failing marriage to the mundane Brian; Brian's relationships to his work, his co-workers, and his personal ethics; Avis and Brian's relationship with their son Stanley; Stanley's foodie aspirations. Where ethnicity enters, it is largely superficial: For instance, real-estate lawyer Brian finds it difficult to connect with his bicultural co-workers. His co-worker Javier, Brian thinks, "sees no division between himself and his kids." Javier is thus more natural, more authentic, and a better father. However, in one of the weaker layers to the novel, Brian discovers that both he and Javier have hidden troubles with their families. There are no real differences between them. Yet, although Arab-ness is not immediately apparent, there is an Arab character buried deep in the core layer of the book, revealed late in the story. Until we meet this young Arab girl, we know only that Felice has left her family—we are given no clear reason why. But, near the end, we learn that when Felice was 13, she had a friend named Hannah Joseph. This was a girl who "talked about her older brother Simon (Semir) who'd killed himself by drinking the cleaning fluids stored under the bathroom sink. She talked about it in a casual way, as if she were describing a shopping trip." At first, it's unclear where Hannah and her twice-named brother have come from. When asked, Hannah says, "Litchfield." After this, "Felice lifted her eyebrows: almost everyone in her school had started from someplace else—usually their parents' country." Hannah clarifies only that, "Before Litchfield, other places." Hannah finally tells Felice that her real name is Hanan Yusef and that her family left Jerusalem when she was two. But it remains unclear whether she's Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or atheist, and whether her family left for political or work reasons or something else entirely. We don't know what happened in this place called Jerusalem. Hannah/Hanan tells Felice that she's glad to have a fake American name and, apropos of that, announces, "I hate Arabs. I hate Israelis. I hate soldiers. I hate Saddam Hussein. I hate George Bush. I hate politics, I hate words that begin with the letter p. So don't ask me about any of it." There is a bubbling violence inside this young girl's self-hatred that spreads like an infection to Felice. Hannah/Hanan's behavior grows wilder and...

The Lists of W. G. Sebald

The Lists of W. G. Sebald

Effects of various medium compositions and wounding treatments on in vitro growth and regeneration of bird of paradise(Strelitzia reginae)

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of antioxidants, wounding treatments and hormone concentrations in efforts to overcome phenolic oxidation and stimulate axillary bud proliferation. Significant results were achieved with 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) concentrations on explants discoloration and callus formation. The antioxidant treatments, activated charcoal (AC) and ascorbic acid (AA) significantly affected explant discoloration, the induction of callus and the length of roots developed. Wounding treatments resulted in a reduction of plant height, an increase in both explants discoloration and callus formation. The most effective treatment in reducing explants discoloration at the media contact point was achieved in interactive effects of higher NAA and BAP concentrations (0.1 mg.l-1 NAA; 3 mg.l-1 BAP and 0.5 mg.l-1NAA; 5 mg.l-1 BAP) without wounding. Interactions between antioxidants and wounding treatments resulted in the absolute absence of callus induction in all treatments involving ascorbic acid. Key words: Ascorbic acid, activated charcoal, 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), callus formation, discoloration, 1-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA).

Opinion 2294 (Case 3500) Paradisaea Linnaeus, 1758 and paradisaeidae Swainson, 1825 (Aves): names conserved

The Commission has conserved the generic name Paradisaea Linnaeus, 1758 and the family-group name paradisaeidae Swainson, 1825 for the birds of paradise by suppression of the competing spellings Paradisea Linnaeus, 1758 and paradiseidae Swainson, 1825. The spellings Paradisaea and paradisaeidae have been in prevailing use for over 90 years.

Prevalence of Races and Biotypes of Ralstonia Solanacearum in India

Prevalence of Races and Biotypes ofRalstonia Solanacearumin IndiaBacterial wilt caused byRalstonia solanacearumis the most destructive disease of plants. Fifty-seven isolates ofR. solanacearumcausing wilt on different host plantsviz., tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), brinjal (S. melongena), potato (S. tuberosum), bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae), ginger (Zingiber officinale), chili (Capsicum annuum), capsicum (Capsicum annuum), davana (Artemisia pallens) and coleus (Coleus forskohlii) were collected from the different agro climatic zones of Karnataka and other parts of India. In this study, 57 isolates were differentiated into race on the basis of their pathogenicity and their ability to infect different host. The isolates were established as race-1. None of the isolates infected mulberry and banana. Fifty-four isolates oxidized and utilized both the disaccharides and sugar alcohols. These isolates were positioned as biovars-3 according to Haywards classification system. Three isolates from Kerala, two ginger, and one tomato strain were not able to utilize dulcitol and lactose. Hence, they were categorized into a new taxo group within the system and designated as biovar-3B for the first time in India. There were 54 isolates which were confirmed as race-1, biovar-3, and 3 isolates were confirmed as race-1, biovar-3B by morphological, physiological, biochemical and pathogenicity studies. Two sets of primers (OLI1 & Y2 and Y1 & Y2) were used in this study to authenticate the organism. Furthermore, the identity of the isolates was confirmed by a serological diagnostic kit obtained from the International Potato Research Center, Lima, Peru, and single chain variable fragment antibody specific toR. solanacearum.

LINES COMPOSED AT BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA, A FEW MILES ABOVE PARRIS ISLAND

9 8 Y L I N E S COMPOSED AT BEAUFORT, SOUTH CAROLINA, A FEW MILES ABOVE PARRIS ISLAND M A R Y S T E W A R T H A M M O N D Five days have passed; five days with the length of five long nights, and nothing has changed, not I, not my brother’s mind, not the world’s. It takes ten days, the duty sergeant said, for discharge papers, and I unpacked, and waited. Mornings, I sketch boats nodding on the sun. Nights, I study a rare collection of antebellum mansions drawling around a quiet port with the musky smell of Hepplewhite and Adam on their breath. Afternoons, I spend at the Base Dispensary, waiting to see my brother, driving the eight-mile hyphen between morning and night cocooned in the car radio’s full-volume bravado. At the sentry box I present my Visitor Pass, reserved for families of graduates, the injured, the suicidal. Inside the Island’s barbered tropics, crew-cut grass and topped palm trees hung with hanks of untamed Spanish moss muster in precision through the azaleas and Birds of Paradise. Signs coming and going on the roadways boast We Train the World’s Best Killers, and platoons, fresh from bayoneting sandbag bodies, scoring hits on pop-up, plywood humans, drill and stomp to breakfast, lunch, and dinner shouting Oh, yeah, Oh, yeah, ready to fight, ready 9 9 R to die, ready to kill with all our will! Oh, yeah, Oh, yeah . . . I retreat, after each visit, to Beaufort and talk to ghosts, drawing comfort from Federal and Greek Revival dwellings, water-turned, catching breezes under discreetly raised white-columned porches, each a temple to love, because one Miss Judith (shall we call her) slept six months with Sherman to save her town from burning, or just because. In any case, the town was saved, to its everlasting shame. It endures, a tribute to the act of love, without honor, and curves around the bay like dirty linen for all the world to wonder why it is the only place untouched in all the path of Sherman’s holocaustic march. And Miss Judith? Was she the fairest and purest? Or maybe a young widow of three years and four months? Could the town do nothing to stop the collaboration, or did it not want to? Where is honor in a place captured and occupied? Consider the consequences: She climbed into Sherman’s bed, he didn’t torch the place, she was shunned, and the town became sire and heir of its shame. When Sherman withdrew, plugged in his place was a dildo of memory, each spared house, the heroine’s tabby A, on its chest, sealing the town in a borrowed time. Such a nice girl, the whisper runs down to this day. From one of our finest families, too. And he was no gentleman! As if that would make a di√erence. Ah, General. Cump, I understand they call you, for Tecumseh. If I may be so familiar. A coup, a stroke of genius hoisting them on your blade, dangling with the thought they honored you by their mere existence. Your face is saved in theirs, and their face unbaptized by the cleansing fire, is ruined. How you must have loved looking back as you 1 0 0 H A M M O N D Y and your army rode away, seeing your manhood risen tattle-tale white and glistening in the sun – not just one, but ten, twenty, forty houses with your seed pulsing through their halls and English basements, joining you to them, for so long as they shall stand. What more could any man want? Did you know fire would make them victims, that survival would destroy their face more than fire, would leave them for generations sipping bourbon on upstairs wooden porches staring o√ to sea, rocking tangled feelings in complaining wicker chairs, dwelling endlessly in their dwelling in their dwelling Or do I wrong him? Was the town his parting gift to Judith, given out of love? He did like giving towns as gifts; Savannah’s destruction he called his ‘‘Christmas gift...

First Report of Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae Causing Bacterial Leaf Stripe of Strelitzia nicolai.

White bird of paradise (Strelitzia nicolai Regel & K. Koch) is a commonly grown ornamental in central and south Florida. Each summer of 2004 to 2007, a reoccurring disease was observed at a commercial nursery in central Florida. Diseased plants had brown, necrotic stripes between the lateral leaf veins, which usually appeared along the midvein and spread toward the leaf edge. Lesions developed on the youngest leaves as they emerged from the central whorl. During 2004 and 2005, 20 symptomatic leaves were sampled. A white, nonfluorescent bacterium was consistently isolated from symptomatic tissue. It induced a hypersensitive response (HR) on tomato, grew at 41°C, and was identified as a Acidovorax sp. based on fatty acid analysis and as Acidovorax avenae subsp. avenae by Biolog metabolic phenotype analysis (similarity 0.76 to 0.86). A partial 16S rRNA gene sequence (1,455 bp) (Accession No. EF418616) was identical to four sequences in the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) database: one from A. avenae subsp. avenae and three from A. avenae of undetermined subspecies. To confirm pathogenicity, a bacterial suspension (O.D590 = 0.1) was applied to fill the central whorl (~0.5 to 1 ml) of potted S. nicolai. Plants were incubated for 7 to 10 days inside plastic bags at ambient temperature. Plants were inoculated individually with five strains of A. avenae subsp. avenae, four from S. nicolai, and one from corn (ATCC19860). Two to nine plants per strain were inoculated in each experiment. All strains were tested at least twice and noninoculated control plants were included. Symptoms were reproduced on the emerging leaf of 50 to 100% of inoculated plants with all five A. avenae subsp. avenae strains. No symptoms were observed on the controls. The bacteria recovered from symptomatic tissue were confirmed to be A. avenae subsp. avenae. Corn seedlings were inoculated as described above, except that entire seedlings were sprayed. Water-soaked lesions along the length of older leaf blades developed in 4 to 7 days. Only the corn strain was pathogenic (>80% of seedlings symptomatic), indicating host specificity. To our knowledge, this is the first report of A. avenae subsp. avenae infecting S. nicolai. In 1971, Wehlburg (2) described the same symptoms on orange bird of paradise (S. reginae) as being caused by a nonfluorescent Pseudomonas sp. This report likely describes the same disease since the published description is consistent with symptoms caused by A. avenae subsp. avenae. The pathogen reported by Wehlburg (2) had one polar flagellum, reduced nitrate, produced oxidase and a HR, and utilized arabinose, but not sucrose or arginine, characteristics consistent with those of A. avenae subsp. avenae (1). The only difference was A. avenae subsp. avenae has a delayed positive starch hydrolysis (1), whereas Welhburg's strain was negative. This disease occurs mainly on young leaves when plants receive daily overhead irrigation. Incidence can be as high as 40%, occasionally causing mortality, but even mild symptoms affect appearance and reduce marketability as an ornamental.

Exposé through music of media ignorance of West Papua


 
 Reviewed documentary/ feature film directed by Charlie Hill-Smith
 
 
 
 Publication date: October, 2011
 
 
 
 
 
 As the songman of freedom lies dying from an Indonesian bullet, his spirit spawns a great tree of life, feeding the irrepressible spirit of West Papuan liberation. The Birds of Paradise, for so long held prisoner by the Java warlord demons of destruction, pillage and brutality—sing for life, and fly to freedom.
 
 This beautifully illustrated animation sequence epitomises the West Papuan desire for simple survival, an assertion that West Papuan people are the custodians of a true paradise that the Indonesian military mafia has turned into a hell on earth. Combining one of the oldest musical traditions of Earth, and inspired by the liberation music of West Papua’s executed poet laureate Arnold Ap, the groundbreaking film Strange Birds in Paradise shows the spirit of West Papuan resistance is alive and building, and refusing to accept more than 45 years of brutal occupation by Indonesia.
 
 

Diet Manipulation as Treatment for Elevated Serum Iron Parameters in Captive Raggiana Bird of Paradise (Paradisaea raggiana)

Elevated serum iron parameters were lowered through dietary manipulation in captive Raggiana bird of paradise (Paradisaea raggiana). Study birds were part of a captive breeding program consisting of two males and one female, captive born, 3.5-9 yr of age. Serum iron, total iron binding capacity (TIBC), percentage saturation, body weight, albumin, aspartate aminotransferase, and hematocrit were monitored at regular intervals for 2.5 yr. Routine diet consisted of a variety of fruits, vegetables, a multivitamin supplement, and a commercial low iron avian pellet, with a dietary iron content of 55 mg/kg (dry matter basis) or 1.12 mg iron/bird/day. Dietary treatment involved removal of the commercial avian pellet for 30 days at 6-to 12-mo intervals, resulting in an iron content of 42 mg/kg (dry matter basis) or 0.64 mg iron/bird/day. Average serum iron and TIBC were decreased by 75% (TIBC) to 80% (serum iron) ofpretreatment values after one 30-day treatment. Average iron saturation levels were lowered by 10% of pretreatment values after one 30-day treatment. Average hematocrit, albumin, aspartate aminotransferase, and body weight remained unchanged. No adverse effects were noted through the 2.5-yr evaluation period, and breeding behavior was undisturbed. Periodic removal of low iron commercial pellets in the diet of captive bird of paradise is a safe and effective method for lowering serum iron values without need for handling. Periodic application of this technique may be useful as a preventive tool to maintain appropriate serum iron values in avian species susceptible to iron storage disease.

Women’s Involvement in Terrorism

Women have had a long history of participating in terrorist activity. This history extends from the earliest modern terrorist group, from the nineteenth century Russian People’s Will to the current wave of suicide bombings carried out by the Chechen Black Widows and the Tamil Tiger’s Birds of Paradise. This article traces the history of female involvement in modern terrorism and then goes on to make a number of generalizations about this experience. Among other things, the writers point out that women have played strong leadership roles in left-wing, revolutionary bands, while these roles have been far fewer with right-wing and racist aggregations. Women have tended to be late-comers to contemporary, religiously-inspired terrorism: Muslim religious authorities first had to endorse their participation.

Dramatic colour changes in a bird of paradise caused by uniquely structured breast feather barbules

The breast-plate plumage of male Lawes' parotia (Parotia lawesii) produces dramatic colour changes when this bird of paradise displays on its forest-floor lek. We show that this effect is achieved not solely by the iridescence--that is an angular-dependent spectral shift of the reflected light--which is inherent in structural coloration, but is based on a unique anatomical modification of the breast-feather barbule. The barbules have a segmental structure, and in common with many other iridescent feathers, they contain stacked melanin rodlets surrounded by a keratin film. The unique property of the parotia barbules is their boomerang-like cross section. This allows each barbule to work as three coloured mirrors: a yellow-orange reflector in the plane of the feather, and two symmetrically positioned bluish reflectors at respective angles of about 30°. Movement during the parotia's courtship displays thereby achieves much larger and more abrupt colour changes than is possible with ordinary iridescent plumage. To our knowledge, this is the first example of multiple thin film or multi-layer reflectors incorporated in a single structure (engineered or biological). It nicely illustrates how subtle modification of the basic feather structure can achieve novel visual effects. The fact that the parotia's breast feathers seem to be specifically adapted to give much stronger colour changes than normal structural coloration implies that colour change is important in their courtship display.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – SCIENCE REVEALS HIDDEN WEALTH

PNG harbours great wealth in flora, fauna, mineral resources and its people, but these have long remained hidden by jungle-covered mountains, extensive lowland swamps and many outlying volcanic and earthquake-prone islands. New Guinea came to the attention of science in the 17th century with the discovery of the bird of paradise, a great curiosity to Europeans. Expeditions into PNG in the 19th century became fiercely competitive amongst naturalists, expeditions which would lay the geological groundwork for huge copper-gold, and oil and gas discoveries in the 20th century (Rickwood 1990). Oil Search, incorporated in PNG in 1929, has continued this spirit of discovery with extensive geologic and scientific surveys through its 80 year history, contributing to the PNG oil boom throughout the 1990’s and to the upcoming LNG boom from 2014 into the 2030’s. Geologic advances have been made in the dating of sequences, understanding of the development of mountain belts in 2D and (soon) 3D, and the prediction of fluid migration into traps. Engineering innovations have been profound, in heli-drilling, seismic acquisition and now in the construction of an LNG stream. But what of the future? Science in PNG will continue to move forward; the application of 3D seismic in the offshore will open new frontiers, and the recent granting of coal-bed-methane licences in the swampy lowlands will test our knowledge and our science. There is no doubt that scientific endeavor will bring to light yet more wealth in Papua New Guinea.

Efficient avian pollination of Strelitzia reginae outside of South Africa

In its native South Africa, endemic birds pollinate the complex flowers of Strelitzia reginae (bird of paradise) through a highly complex method of pollination. The plant is cultivated worldwide in warm-temperated regions but systematic pollination of the ornithophilous species by local birds has not been reported, and, consequently, seed production is rare outside of South Africa. We found that a member of the New World warblers, Geothlypis trichas, efficiently carried out pollination of S. reginae in southern California, thereby supplementing its typical diet of insects with the energy-rich nectar of S. reginae. Only occasionally, seeds were found in plantings not visited by these birds. The pollinator service provided by the warbler increases seed production in an area outside of South Africa. This could lead to adaptive changes in the exotic species, advance species establishment and persistence and possibly promote invasive behavior in a non-native environment.

The House on the Lake

The House on the Lake Gladys Swan (bio) When Isabelle came to take possession of the house she’d inherited, she had the eerie feeling that it was already inhabited. She kept waking in the middle of the night to sounds that could have been the scraping of a chair or footsteps in the hallway or across a room. Her heart pounding, she would get up to investigate, creeping along the wall outside her bedroom to listen, afraid she might actually come upon an intruder. She found no such evidence, but she was not appeased. Could someone have crept in and kept hidden during the daylight hours and become an elusive presence at night? Was the house pregnant with memories that wouldn’t sleep? Or was it simply her nerves? Everything about the house seemed unreal, most of all the way it had come into her possession. She’d seen Andre, her stepfather, in a hospital in Lausanne just before he died—shrunken, skeletal, embittered over the way life had treated him as he’d knocked about from pillar to post. Cheated, in other words. No mention of a house. Then, a year or so later, she’d been summoned to a lawyer’s office in Geneva to receive the deed to a house she’d inherited from her father. But it wasn’t Andre’s name on the deed, nor that of her real father, whom she hadn’t seen in some years—a distant figure of her youth who’d sent her money while she was at the Sorbonne. He had helped her during a difficult period, and there had been a few intermittent phone calls and letters, but they had rarely seen one another. She stared at the signature of her benefactor and levied a barrage of questions. But the lawyer patiently repeated that her father had given instructions that she was to have the house. She was handed a deed, keys, directions, and the phone number of the caretaker. From the moment she arrived, Isabelle experienced, first, astonishment: Who could have built such a dwelling? Could it be [End Page 465] that Andre’s mining ventures in Bolivia or Peru or Zimbabwe— wherever he’d been lured by the promise of instant wealth—had panned out? Was it his closely held secret—a wish to surprise and mystify her—in keeping with his sense of irony? But he was too much of an egoist not to want to parade his largesse. When her astonishment had subsided, she felt something close to anguish. It was too much, far too much. More than she deserved, or perhaps more than she’d bargained for. She’d arrived to take possession—of what exactly? What sort of life could she live here, grafted onto what she saw as hopelessly twisted branches? The view of the lake, Lago Maggiori, near the Italian border—how could she quarrel with this sheer beauty? The house itself was a stunning marriage of location and design, wealth and imagination. It would be all she could do to keep it up and pay the taxes. She opened the gate to a garden at its peak. One bed held roses of every hue and description. In others were flowers that ranged from the palest blue to deepest purple, a vine of passionflowers clinging to the wall. Palm trees, so unexpected in that alpine region, as well as agaves, one in perfect bloom, rose above the color below. The granddaddy of prickly pears claimed both corners of the wall leading up to the doorway. Elephant ears and birds of paradise. It was not just variety and the explosion of color that took her eye, but the little walks and steps that took you to different prospects of lake and garden. Sculptures that you could walk through and around, columns and shapes, a little bridge that children would have delighted in. Not only a sense of beauty had been at work, but a kind of playfulness. Some of the forms had been left unfinished, as if they required further inspiration. A little maze led to the pond in the center, shaped like an eye, orange captured in a ring...

Reclaiming our taxonomic umwelt: a book review

The history and rationale of scientific taxonomy, has been covered in grandly titled works like Classification, Evolution and the Nature of Biology by Panchen. But do we have any stake in it, as biodiversity disappears? The subtitle of author Carol Kaesuk Yoon’s rambunctious exploration better reveals her radical thrust. We are ever reliant on best selling field guides to showcase biodiversity and its representative species although the species concept has proven elusive “as each [biologist] tried endlessly to patch his ... deflating definition [of a species], to what ... has been absolutely no good end.” Darwin’s reiteration from a private letter still stands: “the opinion of naturalists having sound judgement and wide experience seems the only guide to follow ... this may not be a cheering prospect, but we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species.” (Schilthuizen M., Frogs Flies & Dandelions, The Making of Species) As child naturalists, we probably recognized species guided by our primeval umwelt, a perceived sense of the natural world, but have ended up deferring to science to explain it. Yoon begins by broaching the consequences of taxonomic systems that have eliminated “fish” and zebras as real categories while three species disappear per hour, “1,000 times the rate ... they were disappearing before humanity” often eliciting a collective yawn. Why? Yoon wants her fish back. In 1735, Linnaeus’ fourteen page Systema Naturae was an almost instant hit and D a r w i n ’ s e v o l u t i o n explained its underpinning. Darwin cut his taxonomic teeth over “eight gruelling years” on barnacles but the eventual “revelation of evolution was no clarifying gift to taxonomy” as Darwin had assumed. Taxonomic work couched within Darwinism remained relatively unchanged though “[20th century evolutionary] Taxonomy had undergone one dramatic change however. It was now entirely the territory, the sole property of the professional taxonomists. ... No longer did the ordering of any particular living thing seem to capture the interest of anyone outside the confines of an increasingly limited group of specialists.” Headed by giants like Mayr, taxonomic vindication retained a certain subjectivity as quoted from Mayr and Amadon: “No one believes any longer that the pipits or ‘tit-larks’ are related to the true larks.” There were always the debates between lumpers and splitters, but Mayr realised species were real, when his identification of 137 species of New Guinean birds of paradise was corroborated by Arfak tribesmen who recognized 136. Perhaps both Mayr and the Arfak people relied on an instinct that even animals share. Classifying nature is a multifarious survival trait such as differentiating between food and non-food. Yoon expands upon a wealth of evidence such as cases of brain damage where people have lost the ability to name organisms but retain the capacity to name inanimate objects. She indicates how we can correctly differentiate between birds or fish just by listening to novel pairings of unfamiliar names from obscure tribal sources, e.g., which of the following is a bird, a yawarach or tuikcha? Indeed, there seems to be a limit to how many genera trained naturalists can easily recall to around 600 that influences our nomenclatural systems. Traditional, authoritative if subjective taxonomy as practiced by Mayr did not amount to experimental science. The separation between taxonomy and science “went much deeper than a mere two centuries of tradition. [They] were devoted to a tradition as ancient as humanity ... the vision of their umwelt.” The objectification of taxonomy into science took the routes of numerical, molecular and cladistic approaches, OPEN ACCESS | FREE DOWNLOAD Date of publication (online): 26 July 2010 Date of publication (print): 26 July 2010 ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)

Filíocht Nua: New Poetry

Filíocht Nua: New Poetry Jean O’Brien Snow Ciphers Ice crystals growing on threadbare trees are strange fruits of rime. Cold sun brings beauty to a cruel landscape, white has homogenised road and fields. Only the steaming black or brown coats of horses stand out in relief against a featureless backdrop. Lambs hurtle like tossed snowballs their mothers lost in the need to make milk. Birds rustle and break from every hedgerow. I gingerly inch past, robins, finches, blackbirds—even that tiny troglodyte the wren, all fluffed feathers, like dust-devils bowling along. Mostly we stay cooped up, locked in, braving the chill only to chip away at frozen coal, its burnished black stark against the almost monotonous white. Fog and grey skies menace and hang heavy, strange footprints ripen in the dark. [End Page 43] Scandinavian Dream The dead visit me in dreams as I lapse between consciousness and sleep, in that anteroom where dreams are hung waiting to be tried on. Lately my father has come to me, alive and well it seems after all. He now lives near some Scandinavian forest, in a bright log cabin. I see bark peel from the burnished wood and trees in the middle distance, a small clearing like a yard outside the door with honeysuckle growing under the eaves. I could describe this place enough to go there. The air here is light and suffused with motes that could be fireflies waiting for the dark to illuminate them. My father does not speak to me, (though he is sentient, I know) nor seem to notice I am here. He looks my way but his gaze goes through me. He rests on an upholstered chair. When he leans forward I see orange birds of paradise embroidered on the upright. The pattern looks out of place here where everything is pared down and uncomplicated. Even if he no longer knows me, I am glad I have seen him, and that he is content. Death suits him in some way. At daybreak my husband touches me. I leave the woods and wake to the summer cotton counterpane on our bed, the radio murmuring some unwelcome news. I fix my sleep-filled gaze on a trapped butterfly tapping its Morse unanswered on the window pane. [End Page 44] Out of His Element If he could fly he would go now to his spawning pool. Instead he lies drowning in air, his glistering scales dulling down. His eyes grow cold and flat clouding over, the leap and struggle ended. One leap too far and he landed on earth stranded on grass, the blue of sky fixed in him. He dreams of flashing through clear water, casting his sheen and shadow onto stones on the river bed. His gills heaving now as he draws air, lungs gulping for water. Web A single magpie flies sorrowfully by his black and white feathers intersecting with the colours of a fading rainbow. We see the spider and his web and he sees us as he sits an all-seeing eye at the centre of a world that radiates ’round him. His silk stretches from tree trunk to tall purple Allium, whose giant head nods in the breeze. I work around it tenderly, sensing its almost invisible presence, like a snagging doubt at the edge of consciousness, as I dig and plant, footing in the promise of summer blooms. The joyful second magpie joins its mate, their plumage stark in gathered evening light. Rain clears and small droplets snared in the web make it twinkle like evening star. I gather up my spade and hoe and move indoors. [End Page 45] Barefoot The long grass is swaying like the roll and swell of sea, plunging and windblown and watery green. Beached on a shelf a roller conch shell, pearly white, tinged with pink, an ear trumpet thumping out sounds of waves and the lap of water. I feel we are harvesting the sea. The end of the earth is marked by a child dragging a stick through shale at the place where it is swallowed by water. Looking out I see the dividing line between liquid blue and air blue...

Case 3500ParadisaeaLinnaeus, 1758 and paradisaeidae Swainson, 1825 (Aves): proposed conservation of usage

The purpose of this application, under Article 81.1 of the Code, is to conserve the generic name Paradisaea Linnaeus, 1758 and the family name paradisaeidae Swainson, 1825 for the birds of paradise. These names in these spellings have been in prevailing use for over 75 years. Suppression of the competing spellings Paradisea Linnaeus, 1758 and, as a consequence, paradiseidae Swainson, 1825, will maintain stability in nomenclature.

Two Birds of Paradise in North Holland, 1592: The Gift in the Exotic

Two Birds of Paradise in North Holland, 1592: The Gift in the Exotic

First Report of Leaf Blight and Root and Foot Rot of a Strelitzia Caused by Phytophthora nicotianae in Italy.

Bird of paradise, also known as crane flower (Strelitzia reginae Aiton), is a monocotyledonous flowering plant indigenous to South Africa. It is commonly grown and commercialized as an ornamental plant and it is appreciated for its beautiful flowers. In October of 2008, dark leaf spots and leaf blight associated with a severe root and foot rot were observed on several plants of S. reginae grown in a private garden located in Fiumicino, Italy. Small fragments of tissues (approximately 3 mm) collected from the base of leaves and roots and the margins of brown lesions, previously surface disinfected with 0.5% NaOCl, were plated onto potato dextrose agar (PDA) and incubated at 22°C in the dark. White, web-like, slow-growing colonies with coenocytic mycelium and hyphal swellings consistently developed from all plated tissue samples. Sporangia were ovoid or ellipsoid with prominent papillae (including some bipapillate) and frequently caducous with a short stalk. The dimensions of sporangia were 27 to 64 × 23 to 45 μm (average 43 × 35 μm). Chlamydospores were terminal or intercalary and approximately 30 μm in diameter. Isolates were considered heterothallic because they did not produce gametangia in vitro or in planta. On the basis of morphological features, isolates were identified as Phytophthora nicotianae (Breda de Haan). The identity was confirmed by internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence comparison in NCBI database with 99% identity with sequences available in GenBank (e.g., EU331089) and with cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (Cox I) with 99% identity with AY564196 by Kroon et al. (2). The sequences of one isolate, AB177, were deposited in GenBank (Accession Nos. FN430681 and FN552051 for ITS and Cox I, respectively). Pathogenicity tests were conducted in the greenhouse on leaves of a 1-year-old potted S. reginae plant by placing 5-mm-diameter mycelial plugs, cut from the margins of 10-day-old actively growing cultures, with mycelium in contact with plant tissues gently wounded with a needle. Controls were treated as described above, except that PDA sterile plugs were used. Plants were misted with water and placed in sealed plastic bags for 48 h. After 10 days, artificially wounded strelitzia leaves showed lesions (approximately 1 cm long). Controls remained symptomless. All inoculated leaves showed the same leaf symptoms as observed on naturally diseased plants. The pathogen was consistently reisolated from lesions. P. nicotianae has been reported as the causal agent of leaf blight and stem, collar, and root rot on several plants (1). It has been reported as an agent of Phytophthora blight on strelitzia in Japan (3). To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. nicotianae on strelitzia in Italy.

Dancing to Darwin

I have been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to work with Mark Baldwin, the artistic director of Rambert Dance Company, on the creation of a novel contemporary dance piece to celebrate the life and work of Charles Darwin in his bicentennial year. The original idea came from Stephen Keynes, Chairman of the Charles Darwin Trust and one of Charles Darwin's great grandsons, and it is he who introduced me to Mark. The Comedy of Change is a collaborative project that combines my knowledge of evolution and animal behaviour with my research on the cognitive capacities of corvids (the crows and jays) and my passion for dance. I have always been fascinated by the showy displays of clever birds and their extravagant dances but this opportunity has inspired me to think in new ways. As the Scientific Advisor of Rambert Dance Company's Creative Team, my role has been to distill Darwinian ideas about evolution into key principles that inform and inspire movement, energy and musicality. It has also resulted in a film, ‘Bird Tango’, which can now be viewed on Cambridge University's website as part of their 800th anniversary campaign (http://www.800.cam.ac.uk).Working with Mark, who happens to share my love of birds and dance, not to mention shoes and sports cars, has been tremendously rewarding. It is a huge honour and pleasure to be part of his exciting project in which exuberant courtship displays are combined with nature's elaborate use of camouflage, enhanced with music and design by some of the best contemporary artists in Rambert Dance Company Creative Team, composer Julian Anderson, visual artist Kadir Attia and taxidermist and costume designer Georg Meyer-Weil.In rehearsal with Mark Baldwin at the Rambert Studio in tango embrace. For me, tango is the dance of the shoes. (Photo: Kevin Hull, Cambridge Ideas.)View Large Image | View Hi-Res Image | Download PowerPoint SlideDarwin and dance? For me the connection is clear, thanks to the birds, with their dazzling visual and acoustic displays. Steve Pinker referred to the songbirds as “Charlie Parker with feathers” but some male birds have dancing skills that rival even the most impressive of professional dancers. The styles of dance they perform vary enormously. The male Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) lives in Cuba, and perhaps it comes as no surprise that, tiny though he is, when he dances he creates the gorgeous swirls of salsa, sparkling like an iridescent sapphire. By contrast, male Blue Manakins (Chiroxiphia caudata) can be found in the forests of Argentina, where they can spend 90% of their waking day dancing an ‘avian tango’ in which an expert leader and an apprentice follower perform a male double act. As only top-notch dancers get to mate, they are a powerful illustration of ‘Darwinian principles’.Even more remarkable perhaps, are the Birds of Paradise, of which there are 42 species on the island of New Guinea alone. My favourite is the six-plumed Bird of Paradise (Parotia sexpennis). The idea of camouflage really comes to the fore — one minute they are concealed in the forest undergrowth, but when they dance they reveal their true colours; they jete across the stage, and then make the most amazing head and neck isolation movements. They have an inflatable ‘tutu’ which they use to great effect when wooing the ladies, who watch the performance with a critical eye. Despite their similarities in plumage, males vary greatly in their dancing skills, and time really matters because, just like the Blue Manakins, it takes years of experience to become the principal male.It is these three principles — namely how the natural world can conceal and yet reveal, of how individuals vary because they are both similar yet different, and of how the future becomes the past — that allow females to be so particular in their choice of males, leading to increasingly elaborate and exaggerated dancing displays. That is the nature of change — and why it can be so comical.The Comedy of Change will premier at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth on 16–19 September, and at Sadler's Wells in London on 3–7 November 2009 (further details can be found at http://www.rambert.org.uk/comedy_of_change/tour_dates).