Ticks have long been known to be the vectors of diseases, to both humans and animals. Yet very little work has been done regarding tick species found in Micronesia, and much of that is now decades old. Many parts of Micronesia have long undergone considerable change by outside influences and hence the natural and social environments have undergone major upheavals. Ticks as vectors of veterinary disease have long been documented in Micronesia, but ticks connected with human disease are often presumed not to exist. Hence another look would seem justified. This paper provides an initial review of information on tick species reported from Micronesia. Some diseases that such ticks transmit are presented, along with some hypothetical consideration of other diseases potentially associated with ticks of Micronesia. As this information on the ecology of ticks in Micronesia and the environments and circumstances allowing for the possibility of transmission of disease to humans come together, there emerges an intriguing picture of an often-overlooked part of the environment in which humans live in Micronesia.

The Polynesian algal bibliographic checklist is based on records from past references for American Samoa and Samoa (380 spp.), Cook Islands (111 spp.), Johnston Atoll (190 spp.), Line Islands (250 spp.), Niue (3 spp.), Phoenix Islands (193 spp.), Pitcairn Islands (23 spp.), Tokelau (1 sp.), Tonga (109 spp.), Wake Atoll (121 spp.) and Wallis and Futuna (191 spp.) and consists of three sections. The first section (I. Classification) provides a listing of classes, orders, and families of the 238 genera of Polynesian algae. The second section (II. Species-Reference Index) provides an alphabetized listing of the 667 named algal species under the four Phyla, i.e., Cyanobacteria (68 species), Rhodophyta (373 species), Ochrophyta (59 species) and Chlorophyta (167 species) with the applicable reference citations for each island or atoll. Brief taxonomic or nomenclatural notes are provided, when appropriate, for selected species. The third section (III. Island-Reference Index) provides a chronological listing of all published references for the respective island or atoll in each island group. The complete references for all citations in the text are provided in the Reference section.

A new species of xanthid crab, Zozymodes sculptus sp. nov., from Guam is described and illustrated. Zozymodes sculptus is distinguished from its congeners Z. cavipes (Dana, 1852a), Z. nodosus Klunzinger, 1913, Z. pumilus (Hombron & Jacquinot, 1846), Z. xanthoides (Krauss, 1843), and Z. demani Odhner, 1925, by its unusual raised crests of the carapace, two anterior-pointing anterolateral teeth, deep furrow formed by parallel crests on the superior margin of the chelae, and proportionately more narrow carapace. 

In 1917, Alfred Mayor recorded rich coral communities in distinct zones on the reef flat along a permanent transect at Aua village in Pago Pago Harbor, American Samoa. In the 1950s-1980s, this area was seriously degraded by chronic pollution from two tuna canneries and fuel spills in the inner harbor and by coastal development. By the 1970s, coral communities had declined substantially. Mayor provided a map and photographs of the transect in his 1924 report and so we were able to repeat surveys along the same transect in 1973, 1980, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004 and 2007. In 1992, a large pipe was installed to export wastewater from the tuna canneries to the harbor mouth. Management of coastal development and fuel spills had improved by the early 1990s. We found that since then, there has been a significant recovery of coral communities on the reef crest and outer reef flat where there is consolidated reef substratum (up to 30 m back from the reef crest). In contrast, we found that recovery has been substantially slower or absent behind the reef crest, where the substratum is primarily loose rubble. In particular, the Acropora zone recorded on the outer reef flat in 1917 (120–140 m behind the reef crest) had disappeared completely by the 1990s. Recovery is now proceeding in this zone by the slow accumulation of Acropora muricata colonies that are large enough to become established on the loose substratum. The recovery of coral communities on a few large stable blocks of reef rock scattered across the zone of loose rubble was similar to the recovery on the solid reef crest. The large stable blocks provided a natural experiment that demonstrated resilience (rate of recovery) of the coral communities after chronic or acute disturbance was determined largely by stability of the substratum.

The spider, Argiope appensa, is one of the most abundant and widely distributed species in the Marianas archipelago. Spiders of the genus Argiope build conspicuous silk decorations which have been hypothesized to function as visual signals that attract prey, deter predators, or warn oncoming birds of the web’s presence to prevent inadvertent damage. Here, we set out to test the hypothesis that spiders will build smaller webs and larger, more complex web decorations in response to the presence of birds. The neighboring islands of Guam and Rota in the Mariana archipelago represent a unique situation to test this hypothesis in a large-scale natural setting. Guam has lost majority of its native avian fauna in the last 50 years as a result of an introduced predator, while other islands in the Mariana archipelago, including Rota, still possess intact native bird populations. We surveyed forest edges on Guam and Rota to assess the influence of two factors – extrinsic (predator exposure) and intrinsic (spider body size, i.e., age) – on web size, web decoration length, and decoration pattern. Web size, web decoration length, and web decoration pattern were correlated with the body size of spiders (ontogenic stage). Web size and web decoration length increased with body size and only smaller (younger) spiders built decorations with cruciate patterns. Exposure to birds did not result in a significant variation in webs size and web decoration between islands. Nevertheless, Guam spiders are trending towards building larger webs and shorter web decorations. The diagonal web decoration was the most dominant pattern in both islands, but the frequency of webs with cruciate patterns was significantly higher in Rota. Despite limitations in evaluating specific mechanisms and replication associated with our natural and large-scale comparative approach, correlating variations in web-building and web-decorating behavior with the ecological and ontogenic factors provides a useful model to assess the impacts of environmental changes on island ecosystems.