No abstract

Geophagia has been commonly reported for bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) and other ungulates worldwide. The phenomenon is often attributed to the need to supplement animal diets with minerals available in the soil at mineral lick locations. Sodium is the mineral most frequently cited as being the specific component sought, although this has not been found universally. In this study area, bighorn sheep left normal summer-range to make bimonthly 26-km, 2,000-m-elevation round-trip migrations, the apparent purpose of which was to visit mineral licks on normal winter-range. Lick soil and normal summer-range soil were sampled for their available mineral content and summer-range forage was sampled for total mineral content, and comparisons were made to determine the specific components sought at the lick by bighorn sheep consuming soil. It was concluded that bighorn sheep were attracted to the lick by a desire for sodium but that geophagia also supplemented a diet deficient in the trace element selenium. Where sheep are denied access to licks, populations may be limited by mineral deficiency.

No abstract

The effects of parameters associated with a Delta sticky trap on the sex pheromone-mediated responses of maleEpiphyas postvittana (Walker) were tested in a wind tunnel. Males flying to a pheromone source landed closer to the source when other males were stuck on the base, suggesting the importance of visual cues in the landing behavior of males of this species. With an increase in time (numerical order of the male in the experiment), males became stuck on the base farther from the source whether or not other males were stuck on the base. The alignment of the trap to the wind or the location of the pheromone source within the trap did not significantly affect the percentages of males that entered the trap, but both significantly affected the position at which males entered the trap. When these data were corrected for the probability of catching males, a treatment with the source to the side of the trap was predicted to catch more moths than the other treatments tested, although this difference was not significant. However, in a field-trapping experiment the treatment with the source to the side caught significantly more moths than treatments with the source either in the middle or near the top of the trap. This latter result is probably due to the greater efficiency of the trap when the source is in this position, as indicated in the wind-tunnel experiment, rather than an increase in the numberof males entering the trap. Finally, the pheromone-mediated responses of malePlanotortrix octo were tested to the various trap alignments. As the angle of the trap to the wind increased, significantly fewerP. octo males entered the trap, due principally to both fewer males orienting to the source and proceeding to enter the trap after having landed on it. This difference between the responses ofP. octo andE. postvittana males is, we believe, due to the breakdown in plume structure from the source as the trap angle to the wind increases and to a greater sensitivity ofP. octo males to a more structured pheromone plume. This accounts, at least to some extent, for the consistently greater field catches ofE. postvittana overP. octo (and possibly other New Zealand leafroller moths) in many locations throughout New Zealand.

The compound 1-(2,2,3,3,-tetrafluoropropoxy)-3-(4-sec-butylphenoxy)-2-propanol, also called Cs-7SB, is used as a solvent modifier in formulations containing calixarenes and crown ethers for cesium and strontium extraction from nuclear waste solutions. The compound solvates complexes of both metals and decreases in its concentration result in lowered extraction efficiency for both. The use of Cs-7SB in nuclear-solvent extraction ensures that it will be exposed to high-radiation doses, and thus its radiation-chemical robustness is a matter of interest in the design of extraction systems employing it. The behavior of the compound in irradiated solution, both in the presence and absence of a nitric acid aqueous phase was investigated here using steady state-and pulsed-radiolysis techniques. The rate constants for the aqueous reactions of Cs-7SB with • H, • OH, • NO 3 , and • NO 2 radicals are reported. UPLC-UV-MS results were used to identify major products of the radiolysis of Cs-7SB in contact with nitric acid, and revealed the production of hydroxylated nitro-derivatives. Reaction mechanisms are proposed and it was concluded that the aryl-ether configuration of this molecule makes it especially susceptible to nitration in the presence of radiolytically-produced nitrous acid. Fluoride yields are also given under various conditions.