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The Balkan Water frog (Pelophylax kurtmuelleri) is the most widespread frog in Greece, occurring also in Albania, Montenegro and Serbia and recently introduced in Italy and Denmark. However, its biology remains surprisingly understudied. Here we assess for the first time the feeding ecology of the species. We focused on two populations from Attica (central Greece), one from a natural habitat (Erasinos River) and another from an artificial landscape (Diomidous Botanical Garden). We aimed to clarify the impact of the habitat on the feeding preferences of the species, and also to examine how food availability affects food composition and selectivity. For the purposes of the study a total of 75 individuals (41 from the Botanical Garden and 34 from Erasinos River) were captured and stomach content was removed following the flushing method. We measured body weight, snout-vent length and mouth width for all captured individuals and also width and length for each prey item. Prey availability was evaluated with the quadrat counts method. The diet of P. kurtmuelleri followed the same general feeding pattern of other ranid species in the broader area, with insects, spiders, isopods and gastropods dominating in stomach content. The habitat had a strong impact on the feeding preferences of the species: food composition, prey frequency, size and volume differed considerably between the two populations. Niche breadth was higher in the Botanical Garden, probably as a result of the lower invertebrate diversity and abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article concerns the Greek fauna of classical and late antiquity and changes up to the present day. The main sources for the fauna of antiquity are historical, geographical and zoological texts, as well as descriptions from travellers who visited Greece. The study of the texts of classical and late antiquity was based on the following classical authors: Xenophon, Aristotle, Aristophanes Byzantios, Pliny, Dio Chrysostom, Plutarch, Pausanias and Aelian. Some species that were included in the Greek fauna of classical and late antiquity, such as the lion and the leopard, are today extinct in Greece, whereas some other species that are now common, such as the cat, the chicken and the peacock, were introduced about that time or a little earlier from other regions. Some other species that are also common today, such as the wild rabbit and the pheasant, were unknown at that time, as they appeared later in Greece from other areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We applied multivariate analyses to an array of body measures of alpine newt specimens derived from 11 local populations in Greece to describe, analyse and detect patterns and putative causes of within-population and among-population morphometric variation. The observed morphometric variation was partitioned into several independently varying aspects of the external phenotype, frequently following variation patterns in different environmental factors. The size and features of the aquatic habitat were found to affect body size, while altitude was found to affect head-shape variation in both sexes. At the intra-population level, variation in generalized body size and shape was found to be significantly lower when competitive newt species were present in the habitat, indicating stabilizing selection towards a decrease in inter-specific competition. No clear discrimination on body size and shape proportions was detected between the two genetic lineages examined, implying ecogenetic or environmentally induced variation rather than phylogeny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multivariate analyses were applied to an array of body measures of smooth newt specimens derived from 14 local populations of two subspecies in Greece, in order to describe, analyse and detect patterns and putative causes of among-population morphometric variation. The two subspecies do not differ morphometrically, in spite of their considerable genetic differentiation. Paedomorphosis explains a significant portion of the observed morphometric differentiation of populations. Differences between the two morphs refer mostly to characters and structures relevant to feeding and locomotion, which might lead to niche segregation and subsequent reduction of intra-population competition. Body size varies in relation to altitude probably as a result of differential developmental processes or as an environmentally induced response to varying predation pressures. Variation of different aspects of the external morphology is correlated both to climatic factors and habitat characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An obituary for Francis Dov Por, professor and member of the International Society of Zoological Sciences (ISZS), is presented.