STRI NEWSLETTER 
No. 17 April 29, 1988 :...::::..:~=---
On Tuesday. May 3. the noon semi-
nar speaker will be STEVEN ZACK. 
Purdue University. 
Delayed Breeding and 
Distance Dispersal in 
tively Breeding Birds. 
NEXT WEEK 
Short-
Cooper a-
On Tuesday. May 3. the noon semi-
nar speaker will be JEFF BRAWN. 
Northern Arizona University. 
I've Got 15 Years of Data. What 
Do I Do With It? 
Arrived last week. JULIO ARIAS R •• 
Universidad Nacional de Costa 
Rica. to work in the Iguana Man-
agement Project as statistician. 
April 29 - Arriving. HOWARD 
LASKER. University of New York. 
Buffalo. to continue his study on 
predators and defenses of 
gorgonian corals. He will be in 
San BIas until July. 
May 1 - Arriving. GONZALO CORREAL. 
Bogota. Colombia. to work for ten 
days with Richard Cooke on editing 
the volume "Cazadores y Recolec-
tores de Sur America". 
May - Arriving. STEVEN ZACK. 
Purdue University. to visit STRI. 
May 1 - Departing. JEREMY JACKSON. 
for Washington. D.C. on official 
business for three days. 
May 2 - Arriving. ANNA GRAYBEAL. 
to work as Haris Lessios's 
lab assistant until August 19t19. 
ANTHONY RANERE is having a 
demonstration/workshop on pre-
Columbian stone tool making on 
Tuesday. May 3. at 2:30 p.m. at 
Surfside. Transportation to Surf-
side will be available at Ancon. 
APRIL 1988 
S M T W T F S 
I 2 
3 4 5 6 789 
10 II 12 13 14 15 16 
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 
May 2 - Panamanian national holi-
day to celebrate May 1. Labor Day. 
May 10 - STRI Scientific Staff 
Meeting. 
May 30 - Memorial Day is a STRI 
holiday. 
CARL HANSEN will be out of Panama 
for four months. beginning April 
2tl. During May. he will be at his 
head office in Washington. D.C •• 
and in June. July and August he 
will be on leave in Montana. 
MARCOS GUERRA will be in charge of 
the photography Department until 
the first week in September. 
~~~ AY~11~~1E L EQ~l~lQ~E~ 
.MllE.IlH~ 
Se avisa a todos los empleados que 
se est!n abriendo las siguientes 
vacantes para poslcl0nes tempo-
rales por un ano: 
mec!nico de aire acondicionado 
WG-10 
2 mec!nicos de mantenimiento WG-tl 
2 ayudantes de cocina WG-2 
2 trabajadores de la limpieza WG-2 
1 mensajero GS-2 
1 oficinista para el Depto. de 
Compras (debe ser bilingue) GS-3 
Los interesados deben enviar su 
curriculum vitae 0 SF-171 con 
referencias al Depto. de Personal. 
Apartado 2072. Balboa. especifi-
cando la posici6n a la cu a l de sean 
aplicar. 
The following STRI scientists 
received Scholarly Studies awards: 
NANCY KNOWLTON 
"Predation on Caribbean staghorn 
corals". April 1988-1990. 
Almost nothing is known about the 
predators on corals in the Carib-
bean. despite the documented 
importance of predation on Pacific 
reefs. The purpose of this study 
is to determine the role of preda-
tors in the population biology of 
a dominant reef-builder. which 
appears to respond to predation 
pressure in a threshold fashion. 
OLGA LINARES 
"Jola urban migrants in Senegal: 
social and economic networks". May 
1988 - spring 1990. 
It is commonly assumed that 
migration to urban areas and the 
exodus from the countryside have 
profound negative effects on the 
rural sector of a peasant economy. 
This approach masks the numerous 
social and economic relations 
binding migrants and their rural 
relatives. and hides the fact that 
villages may still be important 
reservoirs of social security for 
migrants. It also ignores the 
role migrants playas vital sourc-
es of new revenues and inputs into 
the countryside. The network of 
social and economic relationships 
linking Jola individuals in Sene-
gal permanently established in 
secondary towns. with their rela-
tives and friends in their village 
of origin. will be investigated. 
STANLEY RAND 
"Why do female Tungara frogs 
~b~~R1R~ID~~ ~~~t~lQ~~~ find 
complex calls more attractive than 
simple ones: a search for the 
sensory basis of sexual 
selection". 1988-1989. 
This study. in collaboration 
Michael Ryan. will test 
responses of female frogs 
computer synthes i zed calls . 
with 
the 
to 
-Taken from Biotropica. Vol. 20 
(1). March 1988. 
Nitrogen. Phosphorus. and Sulfur 
Properties of Some Forest Soils on 
]~IIQ~ Colorado Island. Panama. by 
J. B. Yavitt and R. K. Wieder. 
-Taken from Canberra Blrd Notes 
10: 91-92. 
~~llQ~~~b~l~D fimDIi~t~ID Used Left 
Foot in all 114 Observations. 
-Taken from Raptor Res 20 : 65-68. 
The Behavioral Response of a Red-
Tailed Hawk to Military Training 
Activity. 
Taken from the Chronicle of Higher 
Education, December 9. 1981. 
"What of spelling in general? Is 
it any different today from what 
it was 20 years ago? Many years 
before that. while I was a gra·· 
duate student at the University of 
Michigan. the Late Albert H. 
Marckwardt. one of my teachers. 
conducted a survey of problems he 
found in student writing. among 
them spelling errors. He found 
that the most frequent errors 
involved: 
-Words that contain unstressed 
vowels: Is it ~~~~I~t~ or 
~~~RI~t~. iD.Qi~~~D~iD.l.~ or 
iD.Qi~~~D~Rj)l~? 
-Metathesis. the name we give that 
wrong ordering of car and horse 
that makes us write calvary for 
cavalry. 
-Problem s that arise when we add 
derivative suffixes. as in 
RI&y~ID~D1 and .Q~~iI~~j).l.~. 
-Problems in handling an unstress-
ed i. as in efficient. 
The problems Marckwardt found. 
along with others . such as the 
typographical transpositions I 
regularly make when I type ~1~.QD~t 
for ~t~.Q~Dt. were still bedeviling 
my students when I left them in 
1966. Not much has changed 
today." 
:ONSTRUCTION ON BARRO COLORADO ISLAND 
In order to "replace existing obsolete. inefficient. and 
badly deteriorated facilities". construction of new facilities 
was begun in February 19t1tl on Barro Colorado Island. The exist-
ing buildings on BCI date to the beginning of the century. built 
of wood at a time when no other materials could be conveniently 
transported to the island. These buildings are situated in a 
cleared area approximately 115 feet above the lake level. and 
have been expensive to maintain because of their susceptibility 
to the constant humidity and termite infestations. 
There was no area remaining in the existing clearing on 
which additional buildings could be constructed. and further 
clearing was undesirable for valid scientific and conservation 
reasons. So the new construction will take place nearer the 
shoreline. New facilities will replace over time those that have 
reached the end of their useful life. such as dormitories. food 
facilities and others. 
(Photographs below. taken by Carl Hansen. show the construction 
site. which is situated just to the left of the existing growing 
house and sewage treatment plant.) 
 LIBRAR Y NEWS 
New Books: 
THE ABORIGINES OF TRINIDAD (JA Bullbrook, 1960) F2119.B84X 1960 STRI. 
BIOGEOGRAPHY AND TAXONOMY OF HONEYBEES (F. Ruttner, 1988) 
QL568.A6R88 1988X STRI. 
THE BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF LUNGFISHES (WE Bemis, WW Burggren, and 
NE Kemp, editors, 1987) QL638.3.B56 1987X STRI 
THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA (K. Simpson and N. Day, editors, 1986) 
QL693.B57 1986X STRI 
COMMON STRATEGIES OF ANADROMOUS 'AND CATADROMOUS FISHES (MJ Dadswell, 
et.al., editors, 1987) QL639.5.C73 1987 STRI 
THE COMMUNITY ECOLOGY OF SEA OTTERS (GR VanBlaricom and JA Estes, 
. editors, 1987) Ecological Studies, vol.65. QL737.C25C66 1987X 
STRI 
COMPARATIVE BEHAVIOR OF AFRICAN MONKEYS (EL Zucker, 1987) 
QL737.P93C58 1987X STRI 
COMPARATIVE PRrMATE BIOLOGY CHD Steklis and J. Erwin, editors, 1986) 
vol. 4 Neurosciences. QL737.P9C577 1986X STRI 
A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY OF TROP~CAL MANGROVE FORESTS OF SUNDARBANS 
AND ANDAMANS (AB Chaudhuri and HB Naitbani, 1985) Pt.1 
QK938.M27C49 1985 pt.1 STRI 
THE EVOLUTION OF REEF COMMUNITIES (JA Fagerstrom, 1987) 
QE565.F34 1987X STR! 
THE EVOLUTION OF SEX: AN EXAMINATION OF CURRENT IDEAS (RE Michod and 
BR Levin, editors, 1988) QH443.E96 1988X STRI 
EVOLUTIONARY GENETICS OF INVERTEBRATE BEHAVIOR (MD Huett el , editor , 
1986) QL4§3.E96 1986X STRI 
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES AND THEORY' (S. Karlin and E . Nevo, editors, 
1986) QH359.E938 1986X STRI 
A FIELD GUIDE TO CARlBBEAN REEF INVERTEBRATES (N. Sefton and SK Webster, 
1986) QL134.5.S44 1986X STRI 
GENETIC REGULATION OF DEVELOPMENT (WF Loomis, editor, 1986) 
QH453.S63 1986X STRI. 
GENETIC RESOURCES OF TROPICAL AND SUB-TROPICAL FRUITS AND NUTS (EXCLUDING 
MUSA) SB359.G32 1986 STRI 
GUIDE TO INFORMATIO~ SOURCES IN THE BOTANICAL SCIENCES (EB Davis, 1987 ) 
Z5351.D38 1987X STRI REF. 
GUIDE TO SOURCES FOR AGRICULTURAL AND BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH (JR Blanchard 
and L. Farrell, 1981) Z5071.G83X STRI &EF. 
INSECT OUTBREAKS (P. Barbosa and JC Schultz, editors, 1987) 
QL496.15.I57 1987X STRI. 
AN INTRODUCTION TO BEHAVIOURAL ECOLOGY (JR Krebs and NB Davies, 1987) 
QH371 . K73X 1987 STRI. 
METHODS FOR THE STUDY qF SEDIMENTARY STRUCTURES (AH Bouma, 1979) 
QE472.B67 1979X STRI. 
MODERN ASPECTS OF SpECIES (K. Iwatsuki, PH Raven, and WJ Bock, editors, 
1986) QH83 . M68 1986 STR!., 
EL MUNDO DE LA BIOLOGIA: CURSO TEORICO PRACTICO. 4 vols. 
qQH307.2.M96 1987 V.1-4 STRI REF. 
THE NATURAL H1STORY READER ~N EVOLUTION (N . Eldredge, editor, 1987) 
QH366. 2. N38 i987X STRI'. 
NOTES CONCERNING EXCAVATION OF SHELL MOUNDS OR KHCHEN ~UDDENS 
(JA Bullbrook, 1963) CC75.B84X 1963 STR!. 
ORIGIN OF SEDHIENTARY ROCKS (H.Blatt, G. Middleton, and R. Murray, 1980) 
O~471.B64 1980 STRI. 
PAST CLIMATES (LM Libby, 1983) QC884.L5 1983X STRI. 
POPULATION ECOLOGY OF INDIVIDUALS (A. LomnickJ, 1988) QH352 , L66 1988X STRI. 
PROCEED INGS OF THE INTERNATIONAL SYI.\POSIUM ON RED SOILS (Institute of 
Soil SCience, Academia Sinica, editor, 1983) S599.6 .I61 1983 STRI. 
RHYTMIC PHENOMENA IN pLANTS (BM Sweeney, 1987) 2nd edition, 
QK761 . S95 1987X STRI. 
ROCKS AND ROCK MINERALS ' CRV Dietrich and BJ Skinner, 1979) 
QE431.2.D53X 1979 STRI. 
RURAL DEVELOPMENT FOR POVERTY ALLEVIATION. HN980.J91 1985 STRI. 
SEGUNDA REUNION SOBRE PLANTACrONES FORESTALES, SDl18.R44 1980 STRI. 
THE SKIPPER BUTTERFLIES (HESPERIIDAE) OF TRINIDAD. PART U. A SYSTEMATIC 
LIST OF THE TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO HESPERIIDAE. (MJW Cock, 1(82) 
Occasional Papers no.5. qQL561.H5C66 1982 STRI. 
TROPICAL AND SUB-TROPICAL APRICULTURE. FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 
no.68 . qSF531.T73T85 1986 STRI. 
WORDPERFECT TIPS AND TRICKS (AR Neibauer, 1986) Z52 . 5.W65N397 1986 STR!.