Submitted date: 10 Sepetmber 2014 Accepted date: 19 March 2015 Published date: 15 August 2015 Pp. 255–257, Pl. 10.
On the roosting and mating of Saccolaimus saccolaimus (Chiroptera) in Bangladesh
H. Al-Razi*, O. Shahadat, A.U. Hasan & S.A. Neha *Corresponding author. E-mail: chayan1999@yahoo.com
Saccolaimus saccolaimus is an emballonurid bat and the only species from the genus Saccolaimus that occurs in South and Southeast Asia. It is medium-sized (FA 63.0–68.0 mm) and has a body covered with chocolate brown to black fur with whitish speckles on the dorsum. The muzzle of the bat is nearly hairless, ears are of moderate size and fluted, the tragus faces outwards, the tail projects a little from the uropatagium and is stout, and a distinctive feature is the gular sac which is prominent in males and less so in females. A foul odour is often associated with these bats. Khan (2001) recorded 31 species of bats from Bangladesh including S. saccolaimus but did not specify distribution. Srinivasulu & Srinivasulu (2012), however, report 37 species from Bangladesh. No account of roosting or mating behaviour of this species has come from Bangladesh although it has been listed as occurring in the country. Here we report our observations of roosting and mating behaviour in S. saccolaimus, a first for the country.
Leopard or panther Panthera pardus, one of the large cats of the Indian subcontinent, preys on medium to small sized wild animals like langurs and other monkeys, deer, antelope, rodents, birds, reptiles and crabs, and can also take dogs, livestock and poultry. A piece of shell of a unio Parraysia (Radiatula) caerulae was found in the stomach during the post-mortem of a subadult panther in the Jhadol area of Udaipur district during 1994; this species of unio is commonly found in the perennial streams of south Rajasthan. Scat studies reveal that panthers also feed on Tatera indica in Rajasthan. The panther attacks the neck region of its prey, and overcomes or kills it by gripping in the region of the throat and does not leave it till the prey dies, mainly due to suffocation.
The lycaenid butterfly, Catochrysops panormus Felder, 1860, is very rare and found in moist regions of Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, there are early records of the species from drier areas such as Haldummulla and Wellawaya. According to Woodhouse (1949) and d’Abrera (1998) the species has been recorded from ‘wet patches in the low-country dry zone’ in February and March, while it has also been recorded at high altitudes such as in Nuwara Eliya (~1900 m). The Sri Lankan population belongs to the nomino-typicale race. Nevertheless, very little is known about the natural history of C. panormus except for short species accounts in monographs on butterflies of Sri Lanka by Ormiston (1924), Woodhouse (1949) and d’Abrera (1998).
Submitted date: 26 July 2014 Accepted date: 25 November 2015 Published date: 15 August 2015 Pp. 246–249.
Microhabitat use and activity budget of four Himalayan river-birds, India
M.C. Krishna, K. Sarma & A. Kumar* *Corresponding author. E-mail: tpileatus@gmail.com
A wide variety of river-birds are found in the Eastern Himalayan region of Northeast India, but the literature on microhabitat use and resource use patterns of these river-birds is very sparse. The fundamental processes that determine niche structures and influence niche segregation in coexisting species is a basic concern of community ecology. For example, when territories of different species overlap, those species utilize different local resources or the same resources differently due to either niche complementarity or resource partitioning. Understanding the role of microhabitat has been an unending quest of avian autecology and community ecology. Such studies, particularly when understood in terms of resource partitioning, have been successful largely because of the fundamental importance of microhabitat to bird ecology. In the present study, we looked at the microhabitat preferences of four species of birds namely plumbeous water-redstart (Rhyacornis fuliginosa), white-capped water-redstart (Chaimarrornis leucocephalus), brown dipper (Cinclus pallasii) and slaty-backed forktail (Enicurus schistaceus) in Kamlang Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS).
Submitted date: 10 September 2014 Accepted date: 30 June 2015 Published date: 15 August 2015 Pp. 244–245.
Leptopilina rufipes (Hymenoptera) from India with a likely host record
C. Bijoy*, K. Rajmohana & M. Anjana *Corresponding author. E-mail: bejoyaaryan@gmail.com
Leptopilina Förster, 1869 (Eucoilinae: Figitidae: Cynipoidea) are solitary larval-pupal parasitoids of drosophilid flies, mainly frugivorous species of the genus Drosophila Fallen 1823. The genus is cosmopolitan in distribution, with representations in all major biogeographic realms. Leptopilina species and their hosts are among the best studied host-parasitoid systems.