Scientific equipment, such as animal traps and autonomous data collection systems, is regularly left in the field unattended, making it an easy target for vandalism or theft. We tested the effectiveness of three label types, which differed in their information content and tone of the message, that is, personal,neutral or threatening, for reducing incidents of vandalism and theft of unattended scientific field equipment.
The three label types were attached to 20 scientific equipment dummies each, which were placed semi-hidden and evenly distributed in four public parks in Munich, Germany.
While the label type had no effect on the severity of the interactions with our equipment dummies, the personal label reduced the overall number of interactions by c. 40–60%, compared with the dummies showing the neutral or threatening label type.
We suggest that researchers, in addition to securing their field equipment, label it with personal and polite messages that inform about the ongoing research and directly appeal to the public not to disturb the equipment. Further studies should extend these results to areas with different socio-economic structure.
Metafruticicola is a diverse land snail genus inhabiting the north-eastern Mediterranean region from S Albania to Israel. In this study, we describe Metafruticicola kavafis sp. nov., a new species for science from Kasos Island. We also focus on the reproductive system of steno-endemic species and subspecies of the genus from small islands of the Aegean Archipelago, whose anatomy was previously completely unknown. These species are M. crassicosta, M. pieperi, M. coartata gemina and M. nicosiana conciliatrix. For the latter subspecies, only the outlines of the genitalia were previously given. Additionally, we investigated in detail for the first time the genital anatomy of M. nicosiana nicosiana from Cyprus. Hitherto, information on the genital apparatus of this subspecies was based on sparse data derived from sexually immature specimens. These new anatomical data contribute to a plethora of controversies concerning the subgeneric division of Metafruticicola, which was based solely on conchological features and especially the microsculpture of the teleoconch. We suggest that the current subgeneric division of the genus should be abandoned.
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