Moonlit Nights Research Articles

Panicle and Shoot Blight of Pistachio: A Major Threat to the California Pistachio Industry

Introduction Pistachio cultivation dates back to the Holy Lands of the Middle East, where they grew wild in the high desert regions. The history of pistachios includes aspects of royalty, perseverance, and pride. Legend has it that lovers met beneath the trees to hear the pistachios crack open on moonlit nights for the promise of good fortune. A rare delicacy, pistachios were a favorite of the Queen of Sheba, who demanded all her land's production for herself and her court. The royal nut was imported by American traders in the 1880s, primarily for U.S. citizens of Middle Eastern origin. Some 50 years later, pistachios became a popular snack food, introduced in vending machines. These imported nuts were dyed red to draw attention and to cover stains from antiquated harvesting and drying techniques. The inception of the California pistachio industry occurred in 1929, when the American plant scientist William E. Whitehouse spent a lonely six months in Persia (Iran), collecting seed and going through piles of product to find the most distinctive pistachios. He returned with 20 pounds of seed to start a breeding program. With pistachios requiring from 7 to 10 years to mature, it was 1950 before a successful cultivar emerged from that program. The variety was named Kerman for the famous carpet-making city near where the original seed was collected by Dr. Whitehouse. University of California scientists then budded (grafted) the Kerman to more vigorous rootstocks. Thus the dream of a California pistachio industry became a reality. Word of the new crop spread, plantings expanded throughout the state in the 1960s, and the first commercial crop of 1.5 million pounds was harvested in 1976 from less than 1500 acres. By 1990, approximately 50,000 bearing acres yielded 120 million pounds, by 2000 approximately 75,000 acres yielded a total of 240 million pounds, and by 2002 a total of 300 million pounds were produced. With their acreage and production expanding, California pistachio growers united in their efforts to promote the industry. In 1981 the California Pistachio Commission (CPC) was established to provide support through public relations, marketing, and production research. By 2000, the CPC became one of the most successful agricultural industries in California. The CPC is funded by an assessment (cents) per pound of pistachios produced in the State. Pistachio is a dioecious plant with fruit drupes born in taxianthies called panicles (clusters).

Lunar Philia in a Nocturnal Primate

The influence of moonlight on behavior has been well documented for many nocturnal mammals, including rodents, lagomorphs, badgers and bats. These studies have consistently shown that nocturnal mammals respond to bright moonlight by reducing their foraging activity, restricting their movement, and reducing their vocalizations. Lunar phobia among nocturnal mammals is generally believed to be a form of predator avoidance: numerous studies indicate that predation increases during moonlit nights. A study I conducted at Tangkoko Nature Reserve in Sulawesi, Indonesia, demonstrates that spectral tarsiers, (Tarsius spectrum), are not lunar phobic, but are lunar philic; they become more active during full moons. During full moons, spectral tarsiers increased foraging, decreased resting, increased travel (distance traveled per unit time, nightly path length, and home range size), increased the frequency of group travel and decreased the frequency of olfactory communication. I explore several potential hypotheses to account for the lack of lunar phobia and potential increased risk of predation resulting from this unusual behavior. Two hypotheses that may account for the behavior are that: 1) foraging efficiency increases during full moons and outweighs the increased risk of predation, and 2) predation risk is not greater during full moons. Instead, predation risk increases during new moons.

Habitat choice and vigilance behaviour of brush-tailed rock-wallabies (Petrogale penicillata) within their nocturnal foraging ranges

Habitat choice by brush-tailed rock-wallabies (Petrogale penicillata) in south-east Queensland was investigated by comparing the attributes of the nocturnal foraging locations that they selected with those of random locations within a radius of 50 m. Brush-tailed rock-wallabies were shown to select foraging locations on the basis of forage quality and/or their ability to see predators, rather than protection from predators amongst vegetation that could conceal them. Habitat choice may have been affected by limited food availability, as this study was conducted in the winter dry season. The attributes of foraging locations that brush-tailed rock-wallabies perceived as increasing their predation risk were assessed by recording the proportion of time that brush-tailed rock-wallabies spent vigilant while foraging. To measure vigilance, focal animals were observed with a night-vision scope for two minutes and the proportions of time spent vigilant and feeding were recorded. No measured feature of foraging locations was related to higher vigilance levels, suggesting that brush-tailed rock-wallabies did not alter their vigilance whether sheltered amongst grass tussocks or in open habitat, or whether feeding on good quality or poorer quality vegetation. Vigilance levels significantly declined as overnight temperatures decreased, which may have resulted from higher energy requirements of brush-tailed rock-wallabies during winter. The only factors that were found to significantly increase vigilance levels were high winds and moonlit nights. On bright nights, brush-tailed rock-wallabies were very unsettled and during high winds they often did not emerge to feed. More information is needed about how macropods detect predators at night before the effects of wind and light intensity upon vigilance can be fully understood.

Polarization of the moonlit clear night sky measured by full‐sky imaging polarimetry at full Moon: Comparison of the polarization of moonlit and sunlit skies

Using 180° field of view (full‐sky) imaging polarimetry, the patterns of the degree and angle of polarization of the moonlit clear night sky were measured in every half an hour throughout the night at full Moon. The patterns were compared with those of the sunlit sky. The observed patterns including the positions of the Arago and Babinet neutral points of the moonlit night sky and sunlit day sky are practically identical if the zenith angle of the Moon is the same as that of the sun. The possible biological relevance of the polarization pattern of the moonlit night sky in the polarization vision and orientation of night‐active insects is briefly discussed.

Intermittent mass blooming, midnight anthesis and rockbee pollination in Pterocarpus santalinus (Fabaceae)

Pterocarpus santalinus blooms massively in the dry season. Flowering is not continuous during the season and mass bloom recurs only on certain days with 2–5 days interval or sometimes there may be little flowering in between two days of massive bloom. A tree may have five such occasions of mass bloom. At the inflorescence level such intermittent flowering occurs also. The flowers open at the mid of night and are bright yellow in colour. They are typically papilionaceous flag blossoms and thus zygomorphic. They are homogamous and are visited by the rockbee Apis dorsata at moonlit nights or otherwise at dawn and up to 0730 h. The flowers permit several effective visits by the rockbee and as long as the pressure of the bee continues the stamens and stigma project from the keel and permit sternotribic pollination. Controlled pollinations show fruit formation after autogamy (25%), geitonogamy (60%) and xenogamy (85%). Staggered anther dehiscence minimises pollen discounting. Flower bud, flower and fruit abortions occur on a large scale. Natural fruiting is very low compared to the mass bloom. Compatibility to geitonogamy and autogamy may function as a reproductive assurance mechanism. The natural habitat of P. santalinus has a hot dry climate, and the nocturnal flowering and foraging of the rockbee at that time during moonlit nights appear to be an adaptation to avoid the adverse effects of daytime high temperatures.

Cartoons from Another Planet: Japanese Animation as Cross‐Cultural Communication

Geisha, samurai, kimono, sushi, sumo ...eccentric mind-boggling animation? For years, Japanese animation has been heralded as an exciting, albeit bizarre, artistic phenomenon from the same country that introduced us to the tranquil Zen garden and the shockingly hard-working businessman. Despite often being stereotyped as nothing more than senseless cartoons featuring cutie-pie romping pocket critters, anime, as it is commonly called, is a delightfully inventive reference manual into the world of Japanese symbols, folklore, religion, history, social musings and aesthetic traditions. When audience members are no longer exclusively Japanese, anime unexpectedly becomes a vehicle for cross-cultural communication. Examining the history of anime distribution and fan appreciation in America is a free-for-all revelation into the effects of cultural appropriation, as well as a reflection of Western mores and artistic preferences. It also serves as an example of how art forms can cross national boundaries, uniting audiences from all over the globe under the guise of pure unadulterated entertainment. Disney fans beware; the following just might have dear Uncle Walt spinning in his cryogenic freezer! Don't Call Me a Cartoon Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a beautiful princess trapped in a shining castle. One moonlit night, a handsome prince rode up on his brilliant white horse and rescued her to live happily ever after. Unfortunately, being the cyberpunk flesh-craving gamine cyborg that she was, the princess had to neuromancer his brain, then decapitate and eat him. Naturally the prince, a genetically engineered resistance fighter, willingly sacrifices himself to her vampire-like appetite in accordance to his people's code of honor. But I digress... This is not your father's animation. Nor is it really yours. Or is it? Welcome to the world of Japanese a world where any imaginable subject, setting, or theme can pretty much find itself represented in the likeness of entertainment. Anime (a term borrowed from the French by the Japanese to refer to the entire medium of but adopted by the West to refer solely to animation from Japan, go figure) is an art form used to tell stories in ways barely even alluded to in Western animation. In America especially, with the Disney name brand practically inseparable from the word animation, this particular art form unfortunately suffers a restricted and limited fate. Animation here is predominantly kiddy fair (or at least stereotyped as such), stuck in the overly exhausted realm of fairy tales with manufactured happy endings and token animal sidekicks voiced by television comedians who were annoying enough before they were animated. American animation that veers away from the socalled harmless Disney model (Bambi is excluded; I still find it traumatizing!) always seems to be forced into sub-cultural, limited exposure film festivals labeled with names such as Sick and Twisted. This is not to say that anime (also called Japanimation) is only intended for older viewing generations. Much of it is highly geared to appeal to youngsters of a variety of ages. Japanese however, does have a much freer palette from which to choose its audience and subject matter. It is hard to think of any cinematic or literary genre that is not represented in anime. Within the medium of Japanese you can find: wrenching dramas, cheesy romances, storybook adventures, spooky thrillers, historical fantasies, robot shows, gothic fairy tales, slapstick parodies, futuristic dystopias, sports dramas, sci-fi series, gimmicky sci-fi series, sexy cyberpunk techno-- mythologies, misogynistic violent pornography, sword and sorcery stories, spoofs of sword and sorcery stories, epic environmental cautionary tales, Norse Goddess romantic comedies, not to mention your normal, everyday life family soap operas. All of this is achieved with nowhere near the stratospheric budgets allotted to big Disney productions, which tend to reach skyward of $100 million. …

Rabbit of the Nether World (review)

Rabbit of the Nether World is a unique and often compelling memoir--a fragmentary, poetic re-creation of Reiko Koyanagi's wartime childhood and its many painful events. Traumatized by air raids, relocation to the countryside, and one loss after another, a lonely girl searches for connection and comfort amidst the ruins. She finds these mainly in spirits from the netherworld: a parade of dead aunts and uncles and an odd rabbit, who keeps her company on moonlit nights.

Predation risk and moonlight avoidance in nocturnal seabirds

Unlike most seabird families, the vast majority of small petrel species are nocturnal on their breeding grounds. Further, they reduce markedly their activity when the light level increases. Moonlight avoidance might be a consequence of reduction in foraging profitability, as bioluminescent prey do not come to the sea surface on bright nights. Alternatively, petrels may avoid colonies during moonlit nights because of increased predation risk. We studied predation on petrels by Brown Skuas Catharacta antarctica lönnbergi at Kerguelen, and the influence of moonlight on behaviour of both skuas and petrels, to test the ‘predation risk’ hypothesis. On the study area, Brown Skuas hunt at night and prey heavily upon the Blue Petrel Halobaena caerulea and the Thin‐billed Prion Pachyptila belcheri. Predation risk was higher on moonlit nights, as skuas caught more prey, and particularly more Blue Petrels when the light level increased. Nightly intakes of Blue Petrel and Thin‐billed Prion by skuas was related to colony attendance of non‐breeders rather than that of breeders. Biometry of prey also suggested that skuas caught a higher proportion of non‐breeding birds than was present at the colonies. Predation risk was thus greater in non‐breeders and on moonlit nights. Colony attendance by non‐breeding Blue Petrels and Thin‐billed Prions was also reduced during moonlit nights. Vocal activity, which is mainly by non‐breeders, was also drastically reduced when the light level increased in the species suffering the highest predation rate. Our results supported the ‘predation risk’ hypothesis, although the ‘foraging efficiency’ and the ‘predation risk’ hypotheses are not mutually exclusive: the former might explain the moonlight avoidance behaviour of breeding, and the latter that of non‐breeding individuals.

Lunar synchrony in the reproduction of the Moluccan Megapode Megapodius wallacei

The Moluccan Megapode Megapodius wallacei uses heat generated by the sun to incubate its eggs. It buries the eggs deep in the sand of sun‐exposed beaches and open sandy areas on islands in the Moluccas, Indonesia. The eggs are laid at night and left to incubate for two to three months without parental care. We present evidence that the Moluccan Megapode exhibits lunar synchrony in the timing of egg‐laying, its spatial distribution of egg burrows and in its behaviour at communal nesting grounds. More Moluccan Megapodes visit the nesting grounds on bright nights than during the new moon. Data collected on the spatial distribution and depth of egg burrows also exhibit lunar periodicity. On moonlit nights, the birds excavate burrows in communal groups and spend longer at the nesting ground digging deeper burrows. Lunaphilia and lunar periodicity of reproduction are rarely documented in birds. We discuss possible explanations for these behaviours in the Moluccan Megapode.

Short-tailed shearwaters breeding in Australia forage in Antarctic waters

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 194:307-310 (2000) - doi:10.3354/meps194307 Short-tailed shearwaters breeding in Australia forage in Antarctic waters Nicholas I. Klomp*, Mark A. Schultz The Johnstone Centre, Charles Sturt University, PO Box 789, Albury, New South Wales 2640, Australia *E-mail: nklomp@csu.edu.au ABSTRACT: This paper provides the first proof that short-tailed shearwaters Puffinus tenuirostris breeding in Australia forage in antarctic waters. The remarkable foraging flights of 3 shearwaters breeding in a colony in eastern Australia were determined from satellite tracking data. The birds were tracked leaving Montague Island, New South Wales, and foraging in the Southern Ocean around Antarctic islands and along the ice-shelf of Antarctica during the chick-rearing period in February to April 1997. The birds flew up to 15000 km in a single foraging round trip, flying at speeds of up to 88 km h-1. They flew further in the day than at night, and were more active on moonlit nights than darker nights. KEY WORDS: Seabird foraging · Short-tailed shearwater Puffinus tenuirostris · Satellite tracking · Southern Ocean flights · Antarctica Full text in pdf format PreviousExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 194. Publication date: March 17, 2000 Print ISSN:0171-8630; Online ISSN:1616-1599 Copyright © 2000 Inter-Research.

Avoidance behaviour of bats and moths: when is it predator defence?

Most animals live in environments where they risk becoming the prey of other animals. Because predation is such a catastrophic event for the prey, we could reasonably expect that most animals will exhibit behaviours that have an anti-predatory function. Typical examples include spatial and temporal avoidance of areas where, and periods when, predators are active. This kind of avoidance behaviour is illustrated by the vertical migration of zooplankton in lakes with fish (e.g. Gliwicz 1986), reduced feeding activity by rodents on moonlit nights (Clarke 1983), and avoidance of areas with high vegetation, that may harbour predators, by grazing antelopes (Underwood 1982). We have both worked on avoidance behaviours that we believe may serve an anti-predator function, and that presumably also have evolved in that context. In particular, we have argued that predation risk imposed by raptorial birds during the day is the principal reason why bat foraging activity is usually restricted to the night (Speakman 1990, 1991, 1995, Jones and Rydell 1994, Speakman et al. 2000) and also that nocturnality in bats first evolved for this reason (Rydell and Speakman 1995). Likewise, we have argued that the flight activity and behaviour of certain species of crepuscular moths are also shaped by predation risk, this time imposed by insectivorous birds during the day and bats during the night (Andersson et al. 1998, Rydell 1998, Svensson et al. 1999). Clearly, why bats are nocturnal and not diurnal is a central question for those of us who want to understand the biology of these animals, and the same can be said about many moths. However, when trying to publish our work, we have both repeatedly encountered the same problems when we argue that the temporal activity patterns in bats and moths indeed seem to be maintained by predation. Hence, this note serves to highlight some of the methodological difficulties that attend demonstrating that an avoidance behaviour has an anti-predatory function. It is to some extent borne out of frustration, because we think that the arguments most frequently delivered by reviewers have the consequence that it becomes impossible to test the hypothesis. The problem is accentuated in situations where most or all individuals of an animal behave according to a certain norm, from which they seldom or never deviate. Insectivorous bats and many insects are normally strictly nocturnal, and only fly in daylight under exceptional circumstances (Speakman 1991, Svensson et al. 1999). An analogous example is the ghost swift moth Hepialus humuli, among which the lekking males display intensively together for no more than 30 min each evening, triggered by the falling light intensity, and otherwise remain inactive (Rydell 1998). The methodological problems may not apply so much to the (much more studied) situation where the behaviour in question changes on a short-term basis or varies between individuals, so that the variation in behaviour can be related to variation in predation risk. Examples of this situation include the male Tungara frog, which stops calling and dives when a predatory bat comes within striking distance (Ryan 1985), and guppies, where some males are bolder than others and therefore are selected for mating by females (Godin and Dugatkin 1996). In the case of nocturnality in bats it is usually argued (from the reviewers' side) that predation is unlikely to explain the avoidance behaviour because there are few or no direct observations indicating that predation actually occurs (or at least not enough to indicate that it is important). The same applies to the flight activity of some moths, although for some species the problem is the reverse; predation pressure seems so high that it is hard to imagine that the moths perform any anti-preda-

A review of the reproductive behavior of Polyphemus pediculus (L.) Müller (Crustacea: Branchiopoda)

The reproductive behavior of Polyphemus pediculus (L.) includes mating, laying of resting eggs and giving birth to juveniles. All these forms of behavior are performed in a population daily and simultaneously by means of individual and social actions. Individual behavior is manifested by certain sets of stereotyped movements which can be observed at any time of the day and at any location in a water body. Individual behavior has an episodic, stable character and low intensity. Social behavior is accomplished by specimens of similar physiological state who form transitory swarms. They form within the main continually existing main swarms of the population. Social behavior is rhythmic and of high intensity. Reproductive parthenogenetic swarms first form around dawn and later during the day: about noon in May–July and before sunset in Autumn. As swarms of parthenogenetic females disintegrate, swarms of old gamogenetic females form and mass laying of resting eggs begins. Young gamogenetic females and males swarm only when resting-egg-laying swarms disintegrate. Parthenogenetic reproduction peaks in northern Russia in May and August and persists until late September. Swarms of resting-egg-laying females form once a day around dawn, from May to September. Mating swarms form in summer in midmorning, at twilight and on moonlit nights. In Autumn, there is only one peak of mating, in midmorning. Intensity, duration and time of manifestation of different forms of social behavior change from spring to autumn. Location and character of their manifestation are predictable.

Foraging Behaviour in Relation to the Lunar Cycle by Australian Owlet-nightjars Aegotheles cristatus

SummaryThe purpose Of our study was to assess the influence of moonlight on the foraging behaviour of Australian Owlet-nightjars (Aegotheles cristatus), an Australasian caprimulgiform bird. Australian Owlet-nightjars should face a distinct tradeoff between increasing activity during moonlit nights to enhance foraging, while at the same time risking increased exposure to visually-oriented nocturnal predators. Our objectives were to quantify foraging activity in relation to moonlight using radio telemetry and document the principal foraging strategy of Australian Owlet-nightjars by observing light-tagged, free-ranging birds. Our results showed that like true nightjars, Australian Owlet-nightjars are almost exclusively sally-type foragers and rarely forage on the ground. They suffer high rates of predation relative to other adult caprimulgiforms and are active almost exclusively during true night. Overall, activity levels inferred from telemetry data declined over the course of the study (September-March), although this effect was overridden on full moon nights when there was no seasonal effect and activity levels remained constant. Unlike true nightjars for whom bright lunar light enhances foraging activity, our results for Australian Owlet-nightjars suggest that the risk of predation influences foraging activity, especially on full moon nights. Although Australian Owlet-nightjars apparently employ the same foraging mode as nightjars do, knowledge about foraging strategy alone is apparently insufficient to predict the bird's response to lunar condition. More data on activity at different times of the year combined with measurements of prey availability and information on the timing and identity of predators are needed to allow a definitive explanation for the influence of lunar light on these birds.

Lunar cycles in diel prey migrations exert a stronger effect on the diving of juveniles than adult Gal pagos fur seals

In our study of the development of diving in Galápagos fur seals, we analysed changes in diving activity and body mass trends over the lunar cycle. Based on previously observed lunar cycles in colony attendance patterns, we hypothesized a greater impact of prey migrations of deep scattering layer organisms on younger fur seals. Using electronic dive recorders, we determined that seals dived less and deeper on moonlit nights than at new moon, and incurred body mass losses. These changes in foraging over the lunar cycle correlate with the suppression of the vertical migration of prey by lunar light. All effects were more pronounced in juveniles than adult females, with greater relative mass loss during full moon, which must (i) negatively affect long-term juvenile growth rates, (ii) lengthen periods of maternal dependence, and (iii) contribute to the lowest reproductive rate reported for seals. This underlines the importance of studying ontogeny in order to understand life histories, and for determining the susceptibility of animal populations to fluctuations in food availability.

Moonlight Without The Moon

Light pollution, the alteration of the natural light levels in the night environment produced by man-made light, is one of the most rapidly increasing threats to the natural environment. The fast growth of the night sky brightness due to light pollution not only is damaging the perception of the starry sky but it is silently altering even the perception of the moonlight nights by mankind. The cyclic alternation between the new Moon's dark sky with thousand of stars and the moonlight sky, less dark but always full of stars among which our satellite moves, is rapidly changing toward a perennial artificial moonlight due to the man-made light wasted in the atmosphere. The Moon periodically will appear inside the same perennially luminous sky from which stars will have almost disappeared. Here we present a map showing “artificial moonlight” levels in North America and some statistical results.

Spinal and Epidural Blockade and Perioperative Low Molecular Weight Heparin

Spinal and Epidural Blockade and Perioperative Low Molecular Weight Heparin

Diel feeding pattern and ration of two sizes of silver barb, Puntius gonionotus Bleeker, in a nursery pond and ricefield

The diel feeding pattern, electivity and ration of 4.5-6.9 and 11.5-13.6 cm (total length) silver barb, Puntius gonionotus Bleeker, were investigated along with water quality characteristics in a nursery pond and a ricefield in Bangladesh. Small fish had two peaks (0900-1200 h and 1500-1800 h) in feeding activity in the pond but only one in the ricefield at 1500 h. Feeding at high levels went on throughout the day and on moonlit nights for small fish, and their diet was dominated in both environments by aquatic macrophytes as well as Microcystis, Spirogyra, Oedogonium and Cladophora, rotifers, crustaceans and insects. Large fish fed at low levels, had a single feeding peak during midday in the pond but no clear feeding peak in the ricefield. Large fish consumed macrophytes as well as Microcystis, Anabaena, Spirogyra and Cladophora, and crustaceans (in the pond) or molluscs (in the ricefield). Overall electivity was negative for microalgae. Zooplankton were avoided by large fish in the ricefield. The gastric evacuation time was 1-5 h at 27.5-34.0°C. Daily rations for small and large fish were estimated to be 1.4% and 0.3% of body weight in the pond and 1.1% and 0.6% in the ricefield. Improved fish yields may be achieved by stocking small P. gonionotus where the available food resources include important amounts of zooplankton, and by allowing aquatic macrophytes and weeds to grow in the ricefield or pond after stocking, such that the growing fish can feed increasingly on these.

Moments of Beating: Addiction and Inscription in Virginia Woolf's "A Sketch of the Past"

Moments of Beating Addiction and Inscription in Virginia Woolf’s “A Sketch of the Past” Barbara Claire Freeman (bio) My title, which alludes to the collection of autobiographical essays authored by Virginia Woolf and entitled Moments of Being, implies that being and beating are co-constitutive and that exploring their interdependence may shed light upon the logic that binds the one to the other. In particular, I want to examine the ways in which Woolf’s “A Sketch of the Past”—it is the longest essay in the collection and presumably incomplete, since Woolf wrote the last entry shortly before killing herself in 1941—sets up a complex relationship between beating, writing, and compulsion. For the text in which the phrase “moment of being” first occurs also reveals that the activity of writing, to which Woolf was addicted, has the symbolic valence of beating and functions at the level of language in the same ways that beating functions on the body. I will begin to unpack this perhaps obscure equation by focusing upon the relationship between being and beating in the experiences that define Woolf’s “moments of being.” 1 In the opening pages of “A Sketch,” Woolf describes the routine, eminently forgettable aspects of daily life as “a kind of nondescript cotton wool”; the phrase is her “private shorthand” for the general and diffuse “moments of non-being” that predominate in daily life and in which, by contrast, “moments of being” are “embedded” [70]. “Every day,” Woolf notes, “includes much more non-being than being”; and although “the real novelist can somehow convey both sorts of being” [70], Woolf believes that “behind the cotton wool is hidden a pattern” [72] and that her vocation as a writer is to discover and communicate it. Though occasionally “moments of being” produce the experience of rapture or ecstasy, an aspect of beating I will presently explore, most frequently they name moments that entail negation and self-shattering. “Moments of being” are moments of extreme violence that “remain interesting” [78] not because they lead to self-transcendence or discovery, but because they provoke a sense of utter helplessness and paralysis. With one exception, Woolf’s “moments” involve memories of being beaten up by life: “a sudden violent shock” occurs “when something happened so violently that I have remembered it all my life” [71]. Woolf’s submission to her brother Thoby’s beating remains in her memory as inaugural: The first: I was fighting with Thoby on the lawn. We were pommelling each other with our fists. Just as I raised my fist to hit him, I felt: why hurt another person? I dropped my hand instantly, and stood there, and let him beat me. I remember the feeling. It was a feeling of hopeless sadness. It was as if I became aware of [End Page 65] something terrible; and of my own powerlessness. I slunk off alone, feeling horribly depressed. [71] The shock of a beating occasions Woolf’s knowledge that rupture may function as a form of revelation; its reception initiates a drive to repeat in words the impact and imprint of the blows she has received. Being beaten not only provides her with a paradigm of being, but institutes a reciprocal and necessary relationship between beating and writing in which the one elicits and engenders the other. 2 Another “moment” recounts the experience of being “dragged down, hopelessly, into some pit of absolute despair from which I could not escape” upon hearing about the suicide of a family friend, a certain Mr. Valpy: I overheard my father or mother say that Mr. Valpy had killed himself. The next thing I remember is being in the garden at night and walking on the path by the apple tree. It seemed to me that the apple tree was connected with the horror of Mr. Valpy’s suicide. I could not pass it. I stood there looking at the grey-green creases of the bark—it was a moonlit night—in a trance of horror. . . . My body seemed paralysed. [71] As Woolf’s body received her brother’s blows, her consciousness receives the shock of overhearing news of a suicide. The memory of Mr...

Summer habitat selection by houbara bustards introduced in central Saudi Arabia

Habitat selection by resident houbara bustards introduced outside the species' ‘normal’ breeding range in central Saudi Arabia was studied during the summer 1994. Relatively well-vegetated terrain with a low density of tall (>1 m) shrubs was the preferred daytime habitat. At night houbara roosted in relatively bare sites or, on moonlit nights, foraged in habitats with relatively low vegetative density. Plant species richness was similar at sites intensively utilized by houbara and at randomly selected sites. However, vegetative density was greater at utilized sites than at random sites. Phenological diversity, specifically the availability of plants with green shoots and flowers, appeared to be the primary factor motivating houbara choice and was directly related to the distribution of rainfall. Densities of tenebrionids and spiders were higher in utilized than in random habitats, but the overall number of species and abundance of surface-active arthropods was similar. Sampling technique limited interpretation of the importance of arthropods in habitat selection, however.

Predation risk and state-dependent foraging in scorpions: effects of moonlight on foraging in the scorpion Buthus occitanus

Abstract. The influence of moonlight on the foraging behaviour of the scorpion Buthus occitanus israeliswas observed. In contrast to their visual predators, most scorpions use air and surface vibrations to locate their prey. Therefore, moonlight is not likely to have a direct effect on the scorpions' foraging behaviour, but rather an indirect effect through changes in risk from predation or changes in prey availability. Adult scorpions were less active on moonlit nights than on dark nights, and adults that were active on full moon nights tended to ambush under bushes. Juveniles, however, did not seem to alter their activity as a response to moonlight. Mass-to-size ratios of adult scorpions foraging on moonlit nights were significantly lower than those of scorpions foraging on dark nights, suggesting that scorpions that forage in bright moonlight are individuals with relatively low energy reserves. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that risk of predation is higher during periods of bright moonlight. It is suggested that the scorpions use environmental factors such as illumination and humidity as proximal cues, to evaluate levels of predation risk and food availability.