ALBERT

Description: Males of Eledone cirrhosa grow to a size little over 600 g and normally have well-developed, and presumably active, reproductive organs from about 200 g upwards. Total weight of the genital bag is well correlated with total body weight (r= 0·906). Growth of the testis precedes that of the spermatophoric sac, and the size of neither of these reproductive components is predictable from body weight. The sizes of these organs and the estimated number and length of stored spermatophores are given for 100 g intervals of total body weight. No evidence was obtained for a seasonal trend in male maturity.

Description: During 1950, the Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris Lamarck) was to be found along the south coast of England in greater numbers than at any time since Garstang (1900) reported on the ‘plague’ on the coasts of Devon and Cornwall in 1899–1900. In earlier papers (Rees, 1950, 1952) the distribution of the octopus in our northern waters was reviewed, and it was demonstrated that this species is an immigrant which breeds on our south coast only rarely. It reaches these coasts by being brought there as a planktonic larva by the water circulation in the English Channel and by migrations of the adult. The most important factor in controlling the movements of the adult, however, might be expected to be the water temperature in the English Channel—where the species is at the northern limit of its breeding range and might therefore be extremely sensitive to slight changes in temperature.

Description: The reproductive ecology of three sympatric hermit crab species from the Bay of Panama is examined. All three species reveal patterns of size and reproduction mediated by their supply of shells. Shells are demonstrated to be in limited supply. Crabs with shells large enough to allow growth, put effort into growth at the expense of reducing reproductive expenditures, while crabs in shells too small to permit growth allocate more time and effort into immediate reproductive gains. This resource regulated trade-off between growth and reproduction gives these tropical crabs plasticity in important life-history traits. Crabs with a relatively poor supply of shells reproduce at smaller sizes, reproduce more frequently, have larger clutches, and are unable to reach the larger sizes of crabs with a less limiting supply of shells. This flexibility in life-history traits allows these crabs to tailor their reproductive schedules to resource supplies controlled by gastropod mortality, as well as the presence of competitors and predators.

Description: Many of the difficulties of staining plastic embedded tissues for light and electron microscopy derive from physical exclusion of hydrophilic staining reagents by hydrophobic embedding media. Structures which stain most intensely with hydrophilic reagents usually contain less hydrophobic plastic than do non-staining structures. Such incomplete infiltration is apparently caused by exclusion of viscous, hydrophobic monomers by physically dense and/or well hydrated tissue elements. In keeping with this, generalized staining of tissues embedded in hydrophobic media does occur when hydrophobic reagents are used. Staining of plastic-free structures with single hydrophilic reagents or with sequences of such reagents, is, however, largely rate-controlled. The surprising similarity of hydrophilic and hydrophobic plastic embedding media is discussed. Limits of this simple model are explored, with a consideration of the roles of fixative and of monomer-tissue reactions

Description: We present chemical data on magmatically heterogeneous pyroclastic deposits of late Quaternary age erupted from zoned magma systems underlying Tenerife (Canary Islands), Sao Miguel and Faial (Azores), and Vesuvius. The most fractionated magmas present at each centre are respectively Na-rich phonolite, trachyte, and K-rich phonolite. Within any one deposit, chemical variation is either accompanied by changes in the phenocryst assemblage (petrographic zonation) or is largely manifested in trace element abundances, unaccompanied by any petrographic change (occult zonation). Zoning is analogous to that in calc-alkaline systems where the most fractionated products are high-silica rhyolites. When a range of magma types are considered, a correlation emerges between roofward depletion of trace elements (especially REE) in the zoned system and compatability of those same trace elements in the accessory phenocryst phases present. Thus, allanite- or chevkinite-bearing rhyolitic systems are light-REE depleted roofwards, the sphene-bearing Tenerife system is middle-REE depleted roofwards, the melanite-bearing Vesuvius system is heavy-REE depleted roofwards, while the Azores systems, which lack these phases, display roofward REE enrichment. Therefore, the behaviour of trace elements may in each case be explained by fractionation of observed phenocryst assemblages. The resemblance between features of zoned magma systems and published work on the dynamic consequences of cooling saturated aqueous solutions prompts us to suggest that sidewall crystallization and consequent boundary-layer uprise to form a capping layer at top of the system may be a plausible mechanism for the generation of both petrographic and occult zonation. Reverse zoning occurs among the first-erupted tephra of some deposits, demonstrating that the most highly differentiated magma available is not always the first to be tapped during an eruption from a zoned system.