Enregistrement de l'activité dans les conditions naturelles sur les pistes deFormica polyctena
Résumé1oOn donne une technique simple d'enregistrement de l'activité des fourrageuses deF. polyctena sur leurs pistes.2oL'activité dépend non seulement de la distance par rapport au nid, mais encore de la piste considérée.3oL'activité n'est nullement comparable d'une piste à l'autre; l'activité nocturne apparaît très souvent dans les pistes populeuses et peut manquer dans les moins populeuses.4oLes pistes différent donc non seulement quant à leur capacité d'apprentissage et leur agressivité (Chauvin, 1962, 1964), mais aussi quant à leur activité; le comportement est également différent suivant l'âge de la piste, tout au moins dans les pistes qui relient les fourmilières filles à la fourmilière mère.5oL'aller et le retour prédominent à des périodes du jour très irrégulières et qui diffèrent pour chaque piste.6oLa température mesurée près du sol n'a qu'une faible corrélation avec l'activité des fourmis.Summary1oA technique is described which permits an easy recording of forager ants activity ofFormica polyctena on their trails.2oAnts activity is regulated by the distance from the nest, but this regulation is not the same in all the trails.3oAnts activity is not the same in all the trails; nocturnal activity appears very often on roads upon which the rate of flow is very high and may lack entirely on neighbouring, less crowded, roads.4oThe ants on, the differend roads are very heterogeneous regarding not only their activity but also their agressivity, their learning facilities (Chauvin, 1963–1964); their behaviour differ also according to road age; i. e. time clapsed from the road foundation, at least in the trails between a mother-colony and a daughter-colony.5oOutgoing and ongoing are very irregular and don't occur at the same time in different roads.6oTemperature close to the ground shows only a weak correlation with and activity.
Some aspects of the biology of the mound ant Iridomyrmex Detectus (Smith)
Counts of foragers of Iridomyrmex detectus (Smith) leaving the nest during the day revealed, over a 4-month period, bimodal diurnal activity patterns under natural conditions. It is likely that the patterns are basically endogenous, modified by environmental factors. The number of ants active in a foraging trail at any time decreases with distance from nest and the trails are often impermanent, though some lasted almost unchanged for 4 months. Nests were made from excavated earth and capped with a variety of materials. The behaviour on the nest surface mostly consisted of apparently random wandering which sometimes resulted in the ant leaving the nest, and sometimes its return to its hole of emergence or to another hole. The uncoordinated behaviour of the ants when the nest is molested and the inefficient way in which they handle objects and carry food and building materials, are suggestive of an unspecialized type of behaviour life. Attempts to reverse the orientation of the ants have shown how difficult this is and the possibility that smell and sight govern orientation has been discussed. Territoriality among nests is described together with a phenomenon of "common trails," thought to represent still-existing links between parent and "branch" nests.
Mental health services for rural elderly: Innovative service strategies
This paper reviews issues in planning and delivering mental health services to rural dwelling elderly. First, comparative data on the prevalence of mental illness among rural elderly, and the availability and accessibility of mental health services in rural areas are presented to provide a basis for subsequent discussion. Next, several strategies for improving the development and delivery of geriatric mental health services to rural areas are discussed. These include: increasing the number and quality of rural mental health providers; adapting or developing diagnostic techniques to improve case identification among rural elderly; providing culturally sensitive mental health services; strengthening informal and formal care linkages in rural communities; developing innovative service delivery models building upon the strengths of rural settings; and emphasizing fluidity as well as continuity in treatment models.