Adaptations to Terrestrial Environments

The present volume contains selected papers of the International Symposium on Adaptations to Terrestrial Environment, held in Halki- diki, Greece from Sept 26th to Oct 2nd, 1982. The meeting was designed to consider the means as weIl as the mechanisms whereby organisms adapt to their environment. The papers presented dealt with a large variety of species from insects up to and including mamrnals. What became apparent during the course of the meeting was the incredible variety of means that organisms use to survive in their particular environmental niche. The ploys utilized are almost as numerous as the number of species investi- gated. This will become clearly apparent in the accompanying manu- scripts which are published in this book. The Editors allowed the authors of the accepted papers great leeway in terms of the thorough- ness of their contributions. Some of the presentations contain exclusively new findings, whereas others extensively review the existing literature. The Volume is divided into two parts: Invertebrates and Verte- brates. The first provides information on adaptations of inverte- brat es on environmental stresses (such as low er high temperatures and water deficits) from the physiological and/or biochemical points of view as weIl as behavioral responses resulting from their life strategies and interactions with other organisrns. In the second part papers selected deal with vertebrates. Adaptations to special environmental factors such as light and temperature are discussed as weIl as behavioral, physiological and biochemical solutions to problems imposed.

Table of Contents:
1 — Invertebrates.- — Limiting similarity in rove beetles (Col. Staphylinidae) of a habitat inland.- — Low temperature induced diapause still extant in a tropical parasitoid species.- — Cold tolerance in Canadian arctic insects.- — Seasonal activity of soil fauna in a phryganic (East Mediterranean) ecosystem.- — Comparative studies of orthopteran species adapted to living on the ground and of some strong fliers from the same order.- — Adaptation insect — plant in Cynipid galls.- — Adaptation of gall mites (Acari, Eriophyoidea) to live in galls.- — Diversity and unity by arthropod galls. An example: The bud galls.- 2 — Vertebrates.- — Altruism, inclusive fitness, and evolutionary game theory.- — Antipredator adaptations of Salamanders: Evolution and Convergence among terrestrial species.- — The inter-nesting intervals of Zakynthos loggerheads.- — Reproduction strategies in birds of the tropics.- — Nutritionally related metabolic adaptations of carnivores and ruminants.- — Superoxide dismutase activity in the rat exposed to extreme environmental conditions.- — Adaptations of the reproductive system of rodents to changing photoperiodic conditions.- — Endocrine cycles and hibernation in the hedgehog: mechanisms of adaptation to natural variations in the environment.- — Comparative mechanisms of physiological, metabolical and eco-ethological adaptation to the winter season in two wild European mammals: the European Badger (Meles meles L.) and the red Fox (Vulpes vulpes L.).- Author Index.- Systematic Insex.