喀喇昆仑山-昆仑山植物区系的一般特征及植物资源的保护与开发利用

本文根据1987—1988年两年考察的结果,初步讨论了喀喇昆仑—昆仑山地区植物区系的一般特征:1.植物种类比较贫乏高等植物仅243属约700种;2.北温带分布型属占绝对优势;3.以桑株河谷为界,昆仑山西段与东段的植物区系有很大差异;4.无严格的特有属,但种的分化强烈,种群数量大。本区由于极端干旱,自然生态系统十分脆弱,而森林和各类天然植被在维护本区自然生态系统平衡方面,起着十分重大的作用。在严格保护使森林和各类自然植被不致破坏的前提下,提出本区最有可能开发利用的植物资源是药用植物资源,除许多著名的中药外,应着重开发利用红景天属(Rhodiola)、风毛菊属(Saussurea)、葱属(Allium)的药用植物,并对当地的民族药物矮膜苞芹(Hymnolaena nana)等,进行深入研究。     

Conservation of Bio synthetic pheromone pathways in honeybees Apis

Social insects use complex chemical communication systems to govern many aspects of their life. We studied chemical changes in Dufours gland secretions associated with ovary development in several genotypes of honeybees. We found that C28–C38 esters were associated only with cavity nesting honeybee queens, while the alcohol eicosenol was associated only with their non-laying workers. In contrast, both egg-laying anarchistic workers and all parasitic Cape workers from queenright colonies showed the typical queen pattern (i.e. esters present and eicosenol absent), while egg-laying wild-type and anarchistic workers in queenless colonies showed an intermediate pattern, producing both esters and eicosenol but at intermediate levels. Furthermore, neither esters nor eicosenol were found in aerial nesting honeybee species. Both esters and eicosenol are biosynthetically similar compounds since both are recognizable products of fatty acid biosynthesis. Therefore, we propose that in honeybees the biosynthesis of esters and eicosenol in the Dufours gland is caste-regulated and this pathway has been conserved over evolutionary time.     

The influence of the physical environment on the self-organised foraging patterns of ants

Among social insects such as ants, scouts that modulate their recruiting behaviour, following simple rules based on local information, generate collective patterns of foraging. Here we demonstrate that features of the abiotic environment, specifically the foraging substrate, may also be influential in the emergence of group-level decisions such as the choice of one foraging path. Experimental data and theoretical analyses show that the collective patterns can arise independently of behavioural changes of individual scouts and can result, through self-organising processes, from the physico-chemical properties of the environment that alter the dynamics of information transfer by chemical trails.