3. Two referees are ackmowledged for their comments and suggestions that helped improve the paper. “
“Sexual conflict drives evolution of sexually antagonistic adaptations that give advantages to the bearer. As a consequence of sexual conflict, male scorpionflies (Mecoptera: Panorpidae) provide nuptial gifts for the female and use grasping organs to repress female resistance. These organs, except

notal organ, have not been satisfactorily studied. In this paper, Small molecule library in vitro the mating behavior of Dicerapanorpa magna (Chou) was investigated to reveal the role of the anal horns (a pair of posterior processes on tergum VI) of males. The males initiate copulation through grasping the female with the notal organ and anal horns, prolonging copulation by providing salivary masses to the female as nuptial gifts and maintaining copulation after the female consumed the salivary masses. The results of a manipulative experiment show that the anal horns play a significant role in the mating success for the males of D. magna by promoting male domination in copulation through increasing the duration of pre- and post-gift-providing copulatory Acalabrutinib manufacturer stages against female resistance and by avoiding wasting of nuptial gifts. The anal horns of male D. magna seem to be a male adaptation

evolved to overcome female mating resistance. “
“The grey wolf Canis lupus has the largest geographical range of large mammalian carnivores in west Asia. However, it is one of the least studied species, particularly in Iran. Feeding ecology is a critical aspect of predator ecology and has important implications when formulating species and ecosystem management strategies. Also, predation on livestock is a crucial cause of wolf–human conflicts throughout the wolf’s global range. Accordingly, we investigated the diet

of the grey wolf in Ghamishlou, an area with high population densities of wild and domestic ungulates in central Iran, between July 2007 and April 2009. Scat analysis indicated that livestock was the single most important prey species for wolves with 47.1% of total biomass consumed, whereas Persian gazelle comprised 27.0% and wild sheep 15.9%. Wild kills selleck were significantly skewed towards males relative to their proportion in the population, and were mainly preyed on during post-rutting months. Based on interview surveys, less than 1% of mean herd size was lost to wolf depredation; however, almost six times more died from non-depredation causes during each winter. We concluded that the high occurrence of livestock in the wolves’ diet is mainly because of scavenging rather than depredation; however, owing to high pressure of wolves on local herds during non-winter seasons in other areas with depleted prey populations, local people dislike wolves and try to eradicate them. Finally, management implications are discussed and solutions are recommended.