1. The honeybee 'Apis mellifera' is currently in decline worldwide because of the combined impacts of Colony Collapse Disorder and the 'Varroa destructor' mite. In order to gain a balanced perspective of the importance of both wild and managed pollination services, it is essential to compare these services directly, a priori, within a cropping landscape. This process will determine the capacity of other flower visitors to act as honeybee replacements. 2. In a highly modified New Zealand agricultural landscape, we compared the pollination services provided by managed honeybees to unmanaged pollinator taxa (including flies) within a 'Brassica rapa var. chinensis' mass flowering crop. 3. We evaluate overall pollinator effectiveness by separating the pollination service into two components: efficiency (i.e. per visit pollen deposition) and visit rate (i.e. pollinator abundance per available flower and the number of flower visits per minute). 4. We observed 31 species attending flowers of 'B. rapa'. In addition to 'A. mellifera', seven insect species visited flowers frequently. These were three other bees ('Lasioglossum sordidum', 'Bombus terrestris' and 'Leioproctus' sp.) and four flies ('Dilophus nigrostigma', 'Melanostoma fasciatum', 'Melangyna novae'-zelandiae and 'Eristalis tenax'). 5. Two bee species, 'Bombus terrestris' and 'Leioproctus' sp. and one fly, 'Eristalis tenax' were as efficient as the honeybee and as effective (in terms of rate of flower visitation). A higher honeybee abundance, however, resulted in it being the more effective pollinator overall. 6. Synthesis and applications. Alternative land management practices that increase the population sizes of unmanaged pollinator taxa to levels resulting in visitation frequencies as high as 'A. mellifera', have the potential to replace services provided by the honeybee. This will require a thorough investigation of each taxon's intrinsic biology and a change in land management practices to ensure year round refuge, feeding, nesting and other resource requirements of pollinator taxa are met.

This study investigated the factors that influence the home-range size of a tropical Australian rodent, 'Melomys cervinipes', using radio-tagged individuals. 'Melomys cervinipes' frequently used the canopy and, when measured according to height level, its home-range areas were much larger than calculated by traditional two-dimensional home-range calculations. Home-range size did not significantly differ between the sexes, with an average home range of 0.42 ± 0.06 ha and core area of activity of 0.091 ± 0.074 ha. 'M. cervinipes' did not maintain exclusive home ranges and overlapped with both other focal individuals and individuals not fitted with tracking devices. There was a relationship between the core range of 'M. cervinipes' and individual trees of the dominant canopy species at the site. Core ranges of 'M. cervinipes' included 2 (1.96 ± 0.27) individual canopy trees independent of the area of that core range, whereas the number of individual trees within their total range was proportional to the size of that range. This suggests that 'M. cervinipes' sets the core of its range to include a specific level of canopy resources regardless of the size required to achieve that level, but that its overall range is merely a representative sample of trees from the site.

Mammal assemblages of rainforest communities are commonly vertically stratified. This can be associated with competition for, or access to, resources in the upper canopy layers of the forest. This study investigated the extent of vertical stratification in a small mammal community of a tropical rainforest and whether any structure was related to resource abundance. The mammal community was vertically stratified, with 'Pogonomys mollipilosus' and 'Cercartetus caudatus' found only in the upper canopy layers and 'Rattus' sp., 'Isoodon macrourus' and 'Antechinus flavipes rubeculus' on the ground and in the understorey layer. 'Melomys cervinipes' and 'Uromys caudimaculatus' were found at all four height layers. Total rodent captures were not significantly correlated with the abundance of fruit and flower resources, but arboreal captures of 'M. cervinipes' and 'P. mollipilosus' were correlated with the number of individual canopy trees of four prominent flower- and fruit-yielding species: 'Syzigium sayeri', 'Acmena graveolens', 'Argyrodendron perelatum' and 'Castanospermum australe'. We suggest that arboreal behaviour in these rodents serves to provide the advantages of first access to food resources, the availability of abundant resources in the canopy, and, ultimately, reduced competition in the upper strata.

The consumption of fruits by vertebrates and invertebrates can be both advantageous or detrimental to the survival of the seeds they contain. This study investigated the effect of fruit size and consumption of fruit pulp by rodents and beetles on the germination of the seeds of 'Acmena graveolens', a tropical rainforest canopy tree found in northern Australia. As fruit size increased, germination success and the amount of pulp remaining on the fruits was greater. When beetles were absent, germination success was highest when most of the pulp was removed by rodents, suggesting that they removed an inhibitor of germination. When beetles were present, germination success did not differ significantly across pulp categories, so beetles apparently enhanced germination in seeds with little pulp initially removed, possibly by further removal of fruit pulp. In this study, both rodents and beetles enhanced germination success of 'A. graveolens' seeds by consumption of fruit pulp. Acting as facilitators of germination is a relatively unusual role for both these frugivores that are generally considered to act as seed predators or (in the case of rodents) dispersers.

Many studies have reported success with respect to tagging crabs purpose of population and home range studies (McConaugha, 1995; et al., 1998; Chen & Kennelly, 1999; Diaz & Conde, 1999; Brousseau Gonzalez-Gurriarán et al., 2002; McGarvey et al., 2002; Maitland et Few studies, however, clearly outline exact methods and materials used other researchers can replicate the tagging technique. The purpose of to describe a technique for tagging small crabs individually, so that followed for field studies. 'Aratus pisonii' (H. Milne Edwards, 1837) is a small, scansorial grapsid inhabiting Atlantic and Pacific shores from Florida to Brazil and Mexico respectively. Males and females attain a maximum size of 26 mm carapace and breed throughout the year (Warner, 1967). Being a small, agile tree-crab, 'A. pisonii' do not make easy subjects for marking or observing for studies.