Béla Mester

A Review of a Rare Type of Anomaly in Amphibians, Tail Duplication and Bifurcation, with Description of Three New Cases in European Species (Triturus dobrogicus, Triturus carnifex, and Hyla arborea)

Abstract We review the natural occurrence of tail duplications and tail bifurcations in amphibians as well as experimental studies that induced tail duplications. For natural populations, we found 10 publications that mention tail duplications or bifurcations in a total of 24 individual larval amphibians belonging to 15 species, mainly from Europe and South America. Nineteen publications describe the incidence for 34 individual postlarval urodeles from 12 species from North America, Europe, and Asia. Here we add three new observations: a subadult female Triturus dobrogicus with a duplicated tail and an adult female Triturus carnifex with a bifurcated tail from Hungary, and a tadpole of Hyla arborea with a bifurcated tail tip from Greece. The causes of tail duplications in wild amphibians remain unknown. Similar tail anomalies have been obtained in the laboratory when parts of the chorda dorsalis were destroyed, when tar is injected into the tail, or when the lumbar region is irradiated.

Unusual Fishing Behavior of the Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

The Eurasian Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus; hereafter sparrowhawk) is a generalist predator (Quinn and Cresswell 2004), feeding primarily on birds (over 90% of prey items in most studies; Newton 1986, Zawadzka and Zawadzki 2001, Bujoczek and Ciach 2009). Sparrowhawks occur frequently in human-altered landscapes, including residential areas, where some individuals overwinter (e.g., McGrady 1991, Mér} o and Žuljević 2010). Hunting success can be higher at low temperatures, and lower when precipitation is present and the wind is strong (Hilton et al. 1999, Quinn and Cresswell 2004). Under unfavorable conditions, sparrowhawks can alternatively consume other small prey, such as small mammals (Tomešek and Čermák 2009). We here report on unusual prey selection and hunting behavior of the sparrowhawk. Our observation took place in Debrecen (462 km), the third largest city in Hungary, where the sparrowhawk is one of the most common raptors (Bozsko and Juhász 1985). During a walk in the Botanical Garden of the University of Debrecen (47833.49N, 21837.29E, 126 masl) on 18 January 2017, we spotted a subadult (2 yr old; SY) sparrowhawk engaged in several short, quick, low flights above the nonfrozen part of a koi (Cyprinus carpio haematopterus) pond (water garden). These apparent predation attempts on koi usually started with hovering flight similar to that of the Eurasian Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), followed by quick, sharp turns as if in pursuit of a fish, followed by immersion of the sparrowhawk’s feet into the water (Fig. 1). Each predation attempt took up to several seconds. Resting time between predation attempts lasted about 3 min while the sparrowhawk stood on the edge of the ice, intently watching the water. The bird always rested on the opposite side of the previous resting point. While the sparrowhawk was ‘‘fishing,’’ we approached from 20 m to 4 m so that we could take better photographs. Although the sparrowhawk noticed us immediately, it continued its activity, and made a total of 15 unsuccessful attempts before being disturbed by a man walking near the pond. To our knowledge, no such fishing behavior has previously been reported for the sparrowhawk. The part of the koi pond where this sparrowhawk attempted to fish was not frozen because of a water circulation system in constant operation, and perhaps because of feeding activity of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos). Our observation started at 0950 H and lasted until 1045 H. The weather was clear and sunny with mild gusts of wind; the temperature was 18C and the relative humidity was 61% (both measured at 2 m above the ground). The average daily temperature had been consistently below 08C since mid-December, and the average depth of snow cover had been approximately 4 cm since late December. We suggest three possible explanations for the fishing behavior of this sparrowhawk. First, the most common fish species in the koi pond were goldfish (Carassius auratus auratus) and koi. Swimming slowly near the surface, white, orange, or red koi may appear to be easy prey. Aquarists have reported that avian predators such as herons and kingfishers easily catch koi or goldfish (Stickley 1990). The garish coloration and slow swimming of koi and goldfish near the surface might have attracted the sparrowhawk. A second possible explanation might be the prolonged presence of snow cover that year. Our previous experience observing and trapping sparrowhawks suggests that avian prey may more easily detect a hunting sparrowhawk against a white background (snow cover) than against other background colors. This may reduce hunting success in winter, prompting sparrowhawks to hunt alternative prey. A third explanation may be related to the age of the observed sparrowhawk. Prey such as the slowly swimming, garishly colored koi may trigger innovative hunting attempts among subadult and inexperienced, but motivated individuals. 1 Email address: mester.bela@okologia.mta.hu

TH. HOBBES’ VISIBLE RHETORIC: A CASE STUDY OF HISTORY OF POLITICAL IDEAS / T. HOBBESO VIZUALIOJI RETORIKA: POLITINIŲ IDĖJŲ ISTORIJOS ATVEJO ANALIZĖ

In the topic of this article, it is the early modern intellectual history; it will be offered at first an overview of the approaches of the parallelism between the researches of words, pictures, and gestures, based on the authors personal experiences as a researcher of this epoch. The first examples will be several loci of English classics, John Milton, and John Locke; then it will be mentioned the significance of the methodology of the “Iconic Turn,” with the concept of “pictorial (speech) act”, and with the history of religious art. At the end of this overview it will be mentioned briefly the methodological contribution of the Cambridge school of intellectual history, and that of the Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe of Reinhart Koselleck.Second part of this article will offer a historical example from the early modern age. The first one is an analysis of several details of Thomas Hobbes’ ambivalent relationship with the antique tradition of rhetoric, and their consequences for the visual sphere.

Human Nature and the Nature Itself: Natural and Social Aspects of the Human Nature

This paper offers a historical contribution for understanding of the relationship between nature and culture, based on an analysis of a highly influential text of the European philosophical tradition, About the Ends of Goods and Evils of Cicero. Human morality has three different roots on the Ciceronian pages: 1) a human can be an animal – a part of the live nature – in the concept of oikeiōsis; 2) a human has obligations as a cosmopolitēs, a part of the cosmos; and 3) social obligations rooted in human rationality, in other words – human being is a part of the society. Analyzing these three roots of the Stoic ethics in a Roman interpretation, we can understand their contradictory consequences. By the analysis of the relevant texts it will be demonstrated that the Stoic philosophers and their interpreters were unconscious of the ambiguity of the roots of human morality offered by them. A tension in our anthropological thinking about the human nature as a natural or a social phenomenon has its roots partly...

Philosophers in the public sphere of the cities - the birth of the national philosophies from the spirit of the editorial offices and saloons in the 19th century

The aim of our paper is to offer an analysis of the phenomenon of the national philosophy of the 19th century. We will analyse this concept as a consequence of the emergence of the public sphere of the city in the function of the cultural capital of a national culture and the centre of the press. Our instance is the development of the philosophical public sphere of the double cities on the opposite banks of the Danube, Buda and Pest (today Budapest). This public sphere was organised in native language by the newly established organisations of the literature, humanities and sciences, such as different societies of writers, with a distinguished role of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS, since 1825). By our hypothesis, it is not an accident phenomenon that the topic of the national philosophy has emerged within the framework of this new public sphere. Expressed more clearly, the concept of the national philosophy depends on a special grade of the development of the public sphere of the centre of the nat...

I. Cultural images : Time and space: A comparative historiography of the Hungarian and Slovakian national philosophies: A central European case

The paper analyses a well‐known phenomenon, that of the 19th century Central European so‐called “national philosophies”. However, the philosophical heritages of the Central European countries have their roles in the national identities; historians of philosophy in these countries know; our philosophies have common institutional roots with our neighbours. The paper deadlines paradigmatic problems from the Hungarian and Slovakian philosophy: the Latin language in philosophy, the different role of Kantianism and Hegelianism in the national cultures, and the problems of canonisation.