The controversial phylogenetic position of the recently described South-East Asian endemic bovid, Pseudonovibos spiralis, was evaluated on the basis of phylogenetic analyses of originally obtained nearly complete 12S mitochondrial rDNA sequences for this species and Bubalus bubalis and 26 sequences of Bovidae from the Genbank using Cervus elaphus (Cervidae) as outgroup. In most of the phylogenetic analyses performed using PAUP 4.0 (maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and neighbour-joining), Bovidae consisted of two major clades: Bovinae including the tribes Bovini, Tragelaphini and Boselaphini, and Antilopinae + Caprinae, incorporating all other bovids. In most trees P. spiralis fell within the buffalos (subtribe Bovina) between Bubalus and Syncerus. Therefore, our phylogenetic analyses of bovid mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene sequences suggest the close relationship of this enigmatic species with the buffalos and its placement within the subtribe Bovina.

A 1995 Nutntional estimate of populations of some wild free-ranging African ungulates in grassland (Nechisar national park, Ethiopia) in dry season -Ecography 18 164-172The amount and nutntive value of forage plants, diet composition, digestibility of dry matter and nutrients were recorded for zebra. Grant's gazelle, Swayne's hartebeest and hippopotamus in November-December 1991 Besides, daily egest of feces, the level of food and nutrient consumption, energy and protein requirements were recorded for zebra and Grant's gazelle The digestibility of pasture forage was determined as a ratio of lignin concentration in food to the concentration m feces (lignm tracer technique), a daily intake was calculated on the basis of the daily feces egest Protein percentage m the diet of zebra and hartebeest consuming dry parts of grasses did not exceed 5% Gazelle diet consists of green parts of plants and included 18% of protein The digestibility of dry matter in nonruminants (zebra, hippopotamus) was 40-45%, in hartebeest -50%, in gazelle -60% Due to the abundance of dry grasses (3 7 ton ha"') the daily food consumption of zebra was high -7 2 kg ind"' (dry weight), the metabolizable energy intake (ME) being 51 MJ Adult gazelles consumed 1 5-2 5 kg ind"' of food and 14-24 MJ of ME The energy requirements of adult males and non-lactating females of zebras and gazelles (48 and 13 MJ respectively) were met, the energy balance bemg negative for lactating animals The daily protein requirement was not met in zebra (392-704 g md"' vs 134 g ind"' of intake) and in lactating gazelles (250 g ind"' vs 197 g md"') Non-lactating gazelles consume sufficient amount of both energy and protein due to the high feeding selectivity of the species and thanks to the abundance of burnt areas with young green after-grass m the dry penod B D AbaturovAccepted 12 January 1995 Copynght © ECOGRAPHY 1995 ISSN 0906-7590 Pnnted in Denmark -all nghts reserved 164 by herbivorous mammals depends on the abundance of forage available, and the amount of nutnents and energy utilized IS determined by the nutntive value of forage (e.g Sinclair 1974, Batzli et al 1981, Tnidell and White 1981, Sinclair et al 1985, Eisfeld 1985, Abaturov and Magomedov 1988 ECOGRAPHY 18 2 (1995)

In the course of a long term (1988-2009) study of butterflies carried out in Volgograd region, a total of 117 Papilionoidea species is report for this region.

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