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Dotilla myctiroides, the soldier crab, digs burrows in sand flats and extracts nutrients from sediment. The present study investigated the burrow morphology of this soldier crab, at Laem Juhoi Beach, Libong Island, Koh Libong Subdistrict, Kantang District, Trang Province, Thailand. Randomly selected burrows were examined by injecting molten paraffin into them. The crab found inside a burrow was collected and measured for its carapace length. The shapes of the complete burrow casts were identified, and various morphological characteristics of the burrow casts were recorded. A total of 84 burrows were identified, all of them were the I-shaped or single-tube burrows. The burrows were categorized into two groups based on the burrow opening diameter: the

An efficient induction of protocorm-like bodies (PLBs) from seedlings of dwarf Dendrobium was accomplished in order to develop mass-scale propagation. The effect of N6-benzyladenine (BA) and thidiazuron (TDZ) on the in vitro induction of PLBs was studied. TDZ was found to be a more effective inducer of PLBs and their proliferation than BA. The highest percentage for the induction of PLBs (86%) and the highest number of PLBs (3.6) per protocorm were observed after 9 weeks of culture in modified Murashige and Skoog (MS) liquid medium supplemented with 18 ?M TDZ.

Stone tool use is a rare behavior across nonhuman primates. Here we report the first population of common long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis fascicularis) who customarily used stone tools to open rock oysters (Saccostrea forskali) on a small island along the Thai Gulf in Koh Ped (KPE), eastern Thailand. We observed this population several times during the past 10 years, but no stone-tool use behavior was observed until our survey during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in July 2022. KPE is located in Pattaya City, a hotspot for tourism in Thailand. Tourists in this area frequently provided large amounts of food for the monkeys on KPE. During the COVID-19 curfew, however, tourists were not allowed to access the island, and monkeys began to face food scarcity. During this time, we observed stone-tool use behavior for the first time on KPE. Based on our observations, the first tool manipulation was similar to stone throwing (a known precursor of stone tool use). From our observations in March 2023, we found 17 subadult/adult animals performing the behavior, 15 of 17 were males and mostly solitary while performing the behavior. The M. f. fascicularis subspecies was confirmed by distribution, morphological characteristics, and mtDNA and SRY gene sequences. Taken together, we proposed that the stone tool use behavior in the KPE common long-tailed macaques emerged due to the COVID-19 food scarcity. Since traveling is no longer restricted many tourists have started coming back to the island, and there is a high risk for this stone tool-use behavior to disappear within this population of long-tailed macaques., (© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)