Oar Feet and Opal Teeth is about free-living copepods and the copepodologists who study them. Copepods are a subclass of the arthropod class Crustacea. They act as dominant herbivores and small predators in the planktonic ecosystems of oceans, estuaries, and lakes. Copepods are likely the largest assemblage of complex animals on earth. These strikingly beautiful small crustaceans are of wide ecological significance and as complex and precisely adapted as insects. Yet few biologists and others interested in animals are familiar with them. In Oar Feet and Opal Teeth, Charles B. Miller introduces these small crustaceans and the scientists devoting their careers to revealing their biology. In twenty-one chapters, Miller details the defining features and general biology of copepods. They typically have four or five pairs of oar-like feet to drive escape jumps. Teeth on mandible extensions are formed with siliceous minerals akin to opal. The first two chapters of the book closely examine the oar feet and mouth parts. Subsequent chapters describe internal anatomy, taxonomy, and many aspects of copepod natural history. Recent evolutionary insights about them are reviewed; those are based on molecular genetics and reach back to the Cambrian explosion. Oar Feet and Opal Teeth includes over twenty biographical sketches of copepodologists from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Among them, Russell Hopcroft, a premier photographer of plankton, has full-color copepod images featured throughout the book. Jeannette Yen learned how Euchaeta marina detects prey and studies how ready-for-mating copepods find each other. Shinichi Uye of Hiroshima University studied the production by copepods of resting eggs and their delayed development. Grace Wyngaard is studying the special embryonic cell-divisions of some lake copepods for eliminating "junk DNA." Miller based most of the profiles featured in the book on personal interviews he conducted.

Understanding of animal social and sexual evolution has seen a renaissance in recent years with discoveries of frequent infidelity in apparently monogamous species, the importance of sperm competition, active female mate choice, and eusocial behavior in animals outside the traditional social insect groups. Each of these findings has raised new questions, and suggested new answers, about the evolution of behavioral interactions among animals. This volume synthesizes recent research on the sexual and social biology of the Crustacea, one of the dominant invertebrate groups on earth. Its staggering diversity includes ecologically important inhabitants of nearly every environment from deep-sea trenches, through headwater streams, to desert soils. The wide range of crustacean phenotypes and environments is accompanied by a comparable diversity of behavioral and social systems, including the elaborate courtship and wildly exaggerated morphologies of fiddler crabs, the mysterious queuing behavior of migrating spiny lobsters, and even eusociality in coral-reef shrimps. This diversity makes crustaceans particularly valuable for exploring the comparative evolution of sexual and social systems. Despite exciting recent advances, however, general recognition of the value of Crustacea as models has lagged behind that of the better studied insects and vertebrates. This book synthesizes the state of the field in crustacean behavior and sociobiology and places it in a conceptually based, comparative framework that will be valuable to active researchers and students in animal behavior, ecology, and evolutionary biology. It brings together a group of internationally recognized and rising experts in fields related to crustacean behavioral ecology, ranging from physiology and functional morphology, through mating and social behavior, to ecology and phylogeny. Each chapter makes connections to other, non-crustacean taxa, and the volume closes with a summary section that synthesizes the contributions, discusses anthropogenic impacts, highlights unanswered questions, and provides a vision for profitable future research.

This book describes and illustrates 300 species of free-living marine nematodes from the East China Sea and includes eighteen new species. Free-living marine nematode is the most dominant and diverse meiofaunal group in marine benthic habitats. It has strong adaptability and wide distribution, and plays a very important role in the material circulation and energy flow of benthic ecosystem. Up to now, about 7,000 species of free-living marine forms (attached to 2 Class, 8 Order, 86 Family, 662 genera) have been recorded around the world. Some 500 species have so far been reported from the sea areas of China. Among them, more than 300 species were identified from the East China Sea. The book will provide basic data and information of free-living marine nematodes for ecosystem management, protection and utilization of marine biological resources in the East China Sea.

Many infectious diseases of recent concern, including malaria, cholera, plague, and Lyme disease, have emerged from complex ecological communities, involving multiple hosts and their associated parasites. Several of these diseases appear to be influenced by human impacts on the environment, such as intensive agriculture, clear-cut forestry, and habitat loss and fragmentation; such environmental impacts may affect many species that occur at trophic levels below or above the hostcommunity. These observations suggest that the prevalence of both human and wildlife diseases may be altered in unanticipated ways by changes in the structure and composition of ecological communities. Predicting the epidemiological ramifications of such alteration in community composition will require strengthening the current union between community ecology and epidemiology.

As sequel to Aquatic Animal Nutrition - A Mechanistic Perspective from Individuals to Generations, the present treatise on organic macro- and micronutrients continues the unique cross fertilization of aquatic ecology/ecophysiology and aquaculture. This treatise considers proteins and their constituents, carbohydrates from mono- to polysaccharides, fatty acids from free acids to fat, and waxes. It becomes obvious that these organic nutrients are more than only simple fuel for the metabolism of animals; rather, their constituents have messenger and controlling function for the actual consuming individual and even for succeeding generations. This aspect will become particularly clear by putting the organisms under consideration back into their ecosystem with their interrelationships and interdependencies. Furthermore, micronutrients, such as vitamins and nucleotides as well as exogenous enzymes, are in the focus of this volume with known and still-to-be-discovered controlling physiological and biomolecular functions. Aquatic Animal Nutrition - Organic Macro and Micro Nutrients addresses se veral gaps in nutritional research and practice. One major gap is the lack of com mon research standards and protocols for nutritional studies so that virtually incomparable approaches have to be compared. This applies also to the studied animals, since most approaches disregard intraspecific variabilities and the existence of epimutations in farmed individuals. Furthermore, recalling the Mechanistic Perspective from Individuals to Generations, dietary benefits and deficiencies have effects on succeeding generations. In most studies, this long-term and sustainable aspect is overruled by pure short-term production aspects. By comparing nutritional behavior and success of fishes and invertebrates, Aqua tic Animal Nutrition points out different metabolic pathways in these animal groups and discusses how, for instance, fishes would benefit when having some successful metabolic pathway of invertebrates. Application of novel ge ne tic techniques will help turn this vision into reality. However, a widely missing link in the current nutritional research is epigenetics regarding transgenerational heritages of acquired morphological and physiological properties. To in crease public acceptance, nutritional optimization of farmed animals based on this mechanism, rather than genetical engineering, appears promising.

Caenorhabditis elegans has been a popular model organism for biological research for over thirty years with a dramatic increase in interest since the publication of the entire genome sequence in 1998. It is currently the only multicellular animal to have its entire genome sequenced. This Practical Approach book provides all the essential background information required for use of C. elegans as a model system and includes information on how to use the genome sequence information.

This detailed second edition presents a wide variety of marine invertebrate model systems, from cephalochordata to holothurians, along with novel experimental protocols for taking advantage of their unique properties. The techniques range from culturing the organisms to modifying their DNA. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and up-to-date, Developmental Biology of the Sea Urchin and Other Marine Invertebrates: Methods and Protocols, Second Edition is an ideal guide for researchers working with these versatile organisms and for furthering our understanding of fundamental biological questions.

This volume offers contributions from leading experts in the biology of chaetognaths, or arrow worms--voracious carnivores which are exceptionally abundant in all the seas of the world. Until now there has been a lack of easily accessible information on this group, despite the fact that their vast numbers very likely render chaetognaths of major ecological significance in marine planktonic communities. This work is the first comprehensive survey. It deals with all aspects of chaetognath biology, including much recent and unpublished work. Two chapters are devoted to taxonomic relationships, two chapters cover morphology and anatomy, four chapters are concerned with physiology and behavior, three are devoted to ecology, and one chapter provides detailed information about the techniques necessary for studying the organism. The book will interest all marine biologists and zoologists working on plankton, along with invertebrate biologists, systematists, and advanced students of marine biology.

Nematodes are the most abundant and diversified group in the animal kingdom, with four out of five animals on earth being nematodes. Nematology was first recognized as an independent discipline during the early part of the century and since that time has made unparalleled advances to become an integral part of biological sciences.Written as two volumes, this title provides a broad overview of our current knowledge of nematology. The first volume addresses basic biology, while the second volume covers applied aspects of nematodes as parasites of plants, humans and other animals, or as disease vectors, and the control of pest nematodes. The contributors to this work include the world 's leading authorities from Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, New Zealand, UK and USA. It will provide essential reading for researchers and students with an interest in nematology.

This volume is a republication in one volume of the 10-part "CIH Keys to the Nematode Parasites of Vertebrates," first published between 1974 and 1983. For many years the "Keys" have provided a working tool to those within the field and laboratory needing to know "what is this worm?"Now due to popular demand and to coincide with the long awaited publication of the supplement volume, the "Keys" will be presented as one volume, refreshed and reformatted with the additional convenience of reordering into superfamily. As an indispensable guide the "Keys" shall continue to be an essential resource to those working within medical, veterinary and biological departments worldwide for many more years to come.

Our oceans are becoming increasingly inhospitable to life--growing toxicity and rising temperatures coupled with overfishing have led many marine species to the brink of collapse. And yet there is one creature that is thriving in this seasick environment: the beautiful, dangerous, and now incredibly numerous jellyfish. As foremost jellyfish expert Lisa-ann Gershwin describes in "Stung , "the jellyfish population bloom is highly indicative of the tragic state of the world's ocean waters, while also revealing the incredible tenacity of these remarkable creatures. Recent documentaries about swarms of giant jellyfish invading Japanese fishing grounds and summertime headlines about armadas of stinging jellyfish in the Mediterranean and Chesapeake are only the beginning--jellyfish are truly taking over the oceans. Despite their often dazzling appearance, jellyfish are simple creatures with simple needs: namely, fewer predators and competitors, warmer waters to encourage rapid growth, and more places for their larvae to settle and grow. In general, oceans that are less favorable to fish are more favorable to jellyfish, and these are the very conditions that we are creating through mechanized trawling, habitat degradation, coastal construction, pollution, and climate change. Despite their role as harbingers of marine destruction, jellyfish are truly enthralling creatures in their own right, and in "Stung ," Gershwin tells stories of jellyfish both attractive and deadly while illuminating many interesting and unusual facts about their behaviors and environmental adaptations. She takes readers back to the Proterozoic era, when jellyfish were the top predator in the marine ecosystem--at a time when there were no fish, no mammals, and no turtles; and she explores the role jellies have as middlemen of destruction, moving swiftly into vulnerable ecosystems. The story of the jellyfish, as Gershwin makes clear, is also the story of the world's oceans, and "Stung "provides a unique and urgent look at their inseparable histories--and future.

As the world's population and the demand for seafood increase, the production of seafood from aquaculture has also seen massive increase and is set to continue. With wild stocks of many molluscan species depleted, aquaculture is firmly recognised as the means now, and for the future, of bridging the gap between the supply and demand of seafood.

This important book covers the general biology of bivalves, hatchery culture methods and specific and comprehensive details of the cultivation of many commercially important species, including clams, oysters, mussels, scallops and abalone.

Based on the author's extensive experience and hands on research into this subject, Molluscan Shellfish Farming provides essential information for all involved in the culture of molluscs. The book will be particularly useful for aquaculture personnel on working fish farms and in academic research posts. Libraries in all universities and research establishments where aquaculture and biological sciences are studied and taught should have copies of this book available.

Part of this book is based on a Buckland Lecture, sponsored by the Buckland Trustees

This book is devoted to the welfare of invertebrates, which make up 99% of animal species on earth. Addressing animal welfare, we do not often think of invertebrates; in fact we seldom consider them to be deserving of welfare evaluation. And yet we should. Welfare is a broad concern for any animal that we house, control or utilize - and we utilize invertebrates a lot. The Authors start with an emphasis on the values of non-vertebrate animals and discuss the need for a book on the present topic. The following chapters focus on specific taxa, tackling questions that are most appropriate to each one. What is pain in crustaceans, and how might we prevent it? How do we ensure that octopuses are not bored? What do bees need to thrive, pollinate our plants and give us honey? Since invertebrates have distinct personalities and some social animals have group personalities, how do we consider this? And, as in the European Union's application of welfare consideration to cephalopods, how do the practical regulatory issues play out? We have previously relegated invertebrates to the category 'things' and did not worry about their treatment. New research suggest that some invertebrates such as cephalopods and crustaceans can have pain and suffering, might also have consciousness and awareness. Also, good welfare is going to mean different things to spiders, bees, corals, etc. This book is taking animal welfare in a very different direction. Academics and students of animal welfare science, those who keep invertebrates for scientific research or in service to the goals of humans, as well as philosophers will find this work thought-provoking, instructive and informative.

The Aphelenchida, Longidoridae and Trichodoridae are groups of nematodes that include almost 1,000 species from some forty genera. A number are of known agricultural importance, both in their own right as parasites of fungi or higher plants and/or as vectors of certain plant viruses. While monographs exist on the systematics and taxonomy of a number of nematode groups, no recent volume covers the three groups included here. This book aims to provide a practical, working guide to the taxa of the Aphelenchida, Longidoridae and Trichodoridae, in such a form as to facilitate usage by both specialist taxonomists and general nematologists. Keys to generic level are included, each genus being diagnosed, illustrated and provided with a comprehensive list of nominal species and, where appropriate, synonyms. General notes on the bionomics and distribution are appended and some 22 species, mostly those of economic importance, are individually described in greater detail. In addition, a general introduction to each of the three systematic sections includes an historical review, basic morphology and a summary of the bionomics. With a comprehensive bibliography, the book is a unique guide to these groups of plant parasitic and free-living nematodes.

This book, in three volumes, presents a detailed revision of the systematics and taxonomy of the platyhelminth class "Trematoda," subclasses "Aspidogastrea" and "Digenea," with keys for the identification of these parasites at the superfamily, family, subfamily and generic levels.The trematodes are parasitic worms infecting all vertebrate groups and include families of significance to human and animal health, with considerable economic impact. Volume 1 covers the subclass "Aspidogastrea" and order "Strigeida," while the second and third volumes will cover the orders "Echinostomida" and "Plagiorchiida."

Preface to the Progress Series; Preface to Volume X B; Contributors; Evolution of Steroid Hormones and Steroid-Hormone Receptors "Gerd Kauser"; Evolution of Developmental Peptide Hormones and Their Receptors "Jozef Vanden Broack, Liliane Schoofs, and Arnold De Loof"; Arthropoda-Insecta: Embryology "August Dorn"; Arthropoda-Insecta: Larval Development and Metamorphosis-Molecular Aspects "Margarethe Spindler-Barth and Klaus-Deiter Spindler"; Arthropoda-Insecta: Diapause "David S. Saunders"; Arthropoda-Insecta: Caste Differentiation "Klaus Hartfelder"; Arthropoda-Insecta: Endocrine Control of Phase Polymorphism "August Dorn, Christof Ress, Silivia Sickold, and Silke Wedekind-Hirschberger"; Arthropoda-Insecta: Migration "Jack Kent Jr. and Mary Ann Rankin"; Non-Veterbrate Chordata "Mario Pestarino"; Subject Index; Species Index.

This authoritative guide enables accurate identification of the common components of the inshore benthic invertebrates of the British Isles and adjacent European coasts, as well as a substantial proportion of fish species. This new edition builds upon the strengths of the earlier work and is thoroughly revised throughout to incorporate advances in both the taxonomy and ecology of the organisms concerned.

Studying invertebrates is a comprehensive guide to designing and carrying out ecological investigations, especially those involving sampling invertebrates. A highly practical guide to fieldwork, statistical testing and interpretation. The book introduces ways of designing and analysing experiments so that complex situations can be described and summarised, comparisons made, and interactions between organisms and their environment examined objectively. This digital reprint replaces ISBN 0-85546-313-9. First published in 2003. Editors' preface The books in this series are designed to encourage readers to undertake their own studies of natural history. Each one describes some relevant techniques, but they have not enough space to cover the substantial body of more generally applicable ideas and approaches that underlies the design and analysis of such field studies. By describing a selection of these general methods, Studying invertebrates aims to support those venturing into ecological fieldwork for the first time. The authors have plenty of experience in helping beginners to plan, carry out and interpret ecological surveys and experiments, and we hope this handbook will serve as a welcome companion and guide, especially for those who lack confidence in their knowledge of statistical and other methods.

Their story began 500 million years ago, but we only started to get to know them in 1746, when Linne described the first ostracod species. Vividly portraying the freshwater ostracods, this comprehensive reference work gathers the knowledge gained during some 250 years, but which to date has remained scattered throughout the literature. It starts with an introduction to the class Ostracoda with a special focus on freshwater ostracods and highlights practical methods in their study. The systematic part includes an introduction to all families; identification keys for all subfamilies, genera and species; diagnoses for each subfamily and genus; and lists of synonyms and distribution of species. The text is richly illustrated with distribution maps, line drawings of key generic characteristics, and numerous SEM photographs. Serving as an excellent starting point for all further research on freshwater ostracods, it can be widely used not only by ostracodologists, but also by crustaceologists, evolutionists and ecologists.