The raccoon (Procyon lotor) as potential rabies reservoir species in Germany: a risk assessment.

Terrestrial wildlife rabies has been successfully eliminated from Germany predominantly as a result of the distribution of oral rabies vaccine baits. In case that wildlife rabies would re-emerge among its known reservoir species in Germany, swift action based on previous experiences could spatially and temporally limit and subsequently control such an outbreak. However, if rabies emerged in the raccoon population in Germany (Procyon lotor), there are no tools or local experience available to cope with this situation. This is especially worrisome for urban areas like Kassel (Hesse) due to the extremely high raccoon population density. A rabies outbreak among this potential reservoir host species in these urban settings could have a significant impact on public and animal health.

Female bushcrickets fuel their metabolism with male nuptial gifts.

In many arthropods, such as bushcrickets, males donate protein-rich nuptial gifts-so-called spermatophores-to females, which females ingest while the sperm enter the female's reproductive tract. Previously, it was shown that females route spermatophore nutrients over the course of hours and days to egg production or body synthesis. We investigated whether female bushcrickets fuel their metabolism with spermatophores immediately after consumption. We fed two male groups diets that were either enriched or depleted in 13C, and then tracked the isotopic changes in exhaled breath in female bushcrickets after spermatophore consumption. Within 3 hours, the stable carbon isotope ratio (delta13C) of female breath converged on the ratio of the male donor of the nuptial gift. This supports the idea that females quickly routed nutrients to metabolism, receiving immediate benefits from spermatophore feeding.