[Taxacom] Woodpeckers: If any got to Madagascar, they were probably too late

Thu May 19 12:20:10 CDT 2011

Woodpeckers - they're those birds with that distinctive call: "Ad hoc,
ad hoc, ad hoc." From reading these threads, there seem to be a few
other critters that make the same calls.

On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 2:25 AM, OConnor, Barry <bmoc at umich.edu> wrote:
> I've studied the ectoparasitic mites of Madagascar mammals. Of the specialist parasite groups (I.e. excluding ticks and chiggers), only about half of the lineages that occur on mainland African hosts occur on Madagascar. The mites of the Madagascar endemic rodents are related to those of their African relatives (especially the Crictetomyinae), but some lineages are absent. Of the mites of the tenrecs, one lineage is shared with mainland Afrosoricida, but all the rest have relatives on rodents. Of the primate mites, again, one lineage is shared with African primates, but the others have rodent or perhaps tenrec relationships. Madagascar carnivores have few mites, but those are shared with tenrecs. Bats have a very typical bat-mite fauna with nothing missing or related to non-bat mites. This indicates to me that for the terrestrial mammals, there was a substantial founder effect with the original colonizing individuals bringing only a subset of their associates. Those with depauperate parasite faunas were perhaps more free to "accept" colonizing parasites from other host groups that they would encounter on Madagascar. I've studied mammal-mite communities in other insular areas, but none are as unique as Madagascar.
> With much hand-waving – Barry
>
> -So many mites, so little time!
>
> Barry M. OConnor                    phone: 734-763-4354
> Curator & Professor                 fax: 734-763-4080
> Museum of Zoology                 e-mail: bmoc at umich.edu
> University of Michigan
> 1109 Geddes Ave
> Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079
>
> From: Robin Leech <releech at telus.net<mailto:releech at telus.net>>
> Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 11:56:00 -0400
> To: Richard Jensen <rjensen at saintmarys.edu<mailto:rjensen at saintmarys.edu>>, "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>>
> Cc: Kenneth Kinman <kennethkinman at webtv.net<mailto:kennethkinman at webtv.net>>
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Woodpeckers: If any got to Madagascar, they were probably too late
>
> Hi Dick,
>
> We humans represent just one more animal species that moves around
> and establishes pretty well anywhere it wants.  A difference is that we
> humans can document some of the flora and fauna that have become part
> of the human entourage.
>
> Hold that thought - the thought that one species opens up the possible
> enlarging and establishing of distributions of other species in previously
> unoccupied lands.  We know and recognize some of the species that
> have followed us, mainly because they have become pest species.
>
> I don't think we have ever considered in our biogeographical theories that
> until a particular non-hominid species X arrived at a new land mass (just
> for
> the hell of it, let's say Madagascar), a whole coterie of other species had
> landed on many occasions on Madagascar, but failed to establish.  Their
> failure was because species X had not yet arrived and become established.
>
> However, once species X arrived in Madagascar and established itself, then
> the whole coterie of other species (which had been arriving for many years
> but never became established) continues to arrive, only now because species
> X is established there, the others can establish.
>
> We always seem to study the invasions of new lands on a one-at-a-time
> basis, and individual species success or failure, not a founder species
> success
> with subsequent successes of the coteries.
>
> We may recognize that species X, Y and Z are at these new lands, we know
> that they came from a particular source area, but because these 3 species
> are
> long-established in the source area, we do think to consider that there is
> an
> obligate relationship on the parts of Y and Z, and that they depend on X for
> survival.
>
> Robin
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard Jensen" <rjensen at saintmarys.edu<mailto:rjensen at saintmarys.edu>>
> To: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>>
> Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 9:13 AM
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Woodpeckers: If any got to Madagascar, they were
> probably too late
>
>
>
>
> On 5/19/2011 10:00 AM, Kenneth Kinman wrote:
>        (3)  And as for macaques in New Guinea, they had the advantage of
> exploiting human food supplies and crops.  Nothing very natural about
> that.  Zebra mussels are spreading like weeds all over the place, but
> that too is due to modern human activity.  Not much chance they would
> have dispersed at all under natural conditions, unless they evolved the
> ability to hitch a ride on marine mammals.
>           -----------Ken
> Unless one views what humans do as natural.  I think this is an
> interesting question - are human influences natural or unnatural?  One
> could argue that what we humans do is a natural consequence of our
> innate abilities and qualities.  If so, then the spread of "weeds" is a
> natural process linked to the natural spread and activities of a
> particular species of primate.
>
> Dick J
>
> --
> Richard J. Jensen, Professor
> Department of Biology
> Saint Mary's College
> Notre Dame, IN 46556
> Tel: 574-284-4674
>
>
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-- 
Dr Anthony C. Gill
Natural History Curator
A12 Macleay Museum
University of Sydney
NSW 2006
Australia.

E-mail:  anthony.c.gill at sydney.edu.au