Abstract: We review the existence of teams in animal societies. Teams have previously been dismissed in all but a tiny minority of insect societies. “Team” is a term not generally used in studies of vertebrates. We propose a new rigorous definition of a team that may be applied to both vertebrate and invertebrate societies. We reconsider what it means to work as a team or group and suggest that there are many more teams in insect societies than previously thought. A team task requires different subtasks to be performed concurrently for successful completion. There is a division of labor within a team. Contrary to previous reviews of teams in social insects, we do not constrain teams to consist of members of different castes and argue that team members may be interchangeable. Consequently, we suggest that a team is simply the set of individuals that performs a team task. We contrast teams with groups and suggest that a group task requires the simultaneous performance and cooperation of two or more individuals for successful completion. In a group, there is no division of labor--each individual performs the same task. We also contrast vertebrate and invertebrate teams and find that vertebrate teams tend to be associated with hunting and are based on individual recognition. Invertebrate teams occur in societies characterized by a great deal of redundancy, and we predict that teams in insect societies are more likely to be found in large polymorphic (“complex”) societies than in small monomorphic (“simple”) societies.

Abstract: In human sports medicine exercise tests are normally used to check training progression. Correlation tests between blood lactate concentration and exercise speed are often used for this purpose. Studies have been done to adjust exercise tests for athletic horses using the same principle. The aim of this work was to verify the practical possibility that the anaerobic threshold in elite endurance horses could be calculated by adjusting a submaximal exercise field test in order to obtain reference parameters for endurance horses. Ten selected horses from the Italian National Endurance Team were used for this study. The tests were conducted on an 800 meters grass oval. Horses performed three steps (800 meters every step), at increasing speed with two minute intervals between each step. Riders were informed of the ideal speed for every step (5, 7.5, 10 m/s) and the real velocity was calculated on the basis of time taken to finish a single step. Blood samples were obtained via venipuncture from the jugular vein, immediately before the beginning of the test and 60 seconds after the end of each step. The following parameters were evaluated for each horse: individual anaerobic threshold (VSI), anaerobic threshold (V4) and exercise velocity corresponding to a lactate concentration of 2 mM/I (V2). Analysis of results indicate that lactate concentration is exponentially related to exercise speed for the entire test. VSI, V4, V2, were (mearttsd): 25.7±5.1; 30.5±2.5; 21.1±2.9 km/h respectively.

Abstract: It is believed that environmental enrichment techniques can play an important part in creating suitable captive environments for horses. There has, however, been little scientific investigation into the effectiveness of 'stable-toys' which claim to reduce the performance of equine stereotypies. This study investigated the effect of a foraging device known as 'The Equiball' on equine stereotypies. Six horses were given their evening feed in an Equiball, and the occurence of stereotypic behaviour recorded using scan sampling of video observations. Pre-enrichment, horses spent a mean(SD) of 5.27 ? 8.17 per cent of their time in the stable performing stereotypies; and significant individual variation in mean time performing stereotypic behaviour was found (P < 0.05). Several peaks in stereotypy over the day were found, the two main ones corresponding to the times before feeding. A reduction in stereotypic behaviour in five horses, and a small increase in stereotypic behaviour in one horse was observed during enrichment. During enrichment, there was an overall trend for stereotypic behaviour to decrease (P < 0.1). When used in conjunction with other measures such as behaviour therapy, companionship, increased exercise, and so on, the Equiball may help to create an environment less likely to lead to the development of stereotypic behaviours.

Abstract: Samples of seven of the 10 morphological species of midges of the Culicoides imicola complex were considered. The importance of this species complex is connected to its vectorial capacity for African horse sickness virus (AHSV) and bluetongue virus (BTV). Consequently, the risk of transmission may vary dramatically, depending upon the particular cryptic species present in a given area. The species complex is confined to the Old World and our samples were collected in Southern Africa, Madagascar and the Ivory Coast. Genomic DNA of 350 randomly sampled individual midges from 19 populations was amplified using four 20-mer primers by the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique. One hundred and ninety-six interpretable polymorphic bands were obtained. Species-specific RAPD profiles were defined and for five species diagnostic RAPD fragments were identified. A high degree of polymorphism was detected in the species complex, most of which was observed within populations (from 64 to 76%). Principal coordinate analysis (PCO) and cluster analysis provided an estimate of the degree of variation between and within populations and species. There was substantial concordance between the taxonomies derived from morphological and molecular data. The amount and the different distributions of genetic (RAPD) variation among the taxa can be associated to their life histories, i.e. the abundance and distribution of the larval breeding sites and their seasonality.