Archaeological excavations at a 17^th century multi-building latte household in the village of Litekyan (Ritidian) in northern Guam yielded a rich assemblage of mollusk shells. Analysis of the assemblage provided new insights on gendered labor as it was enacted through the foraging, cooking, consumption, and discard of mollusk shells where the labor of men and women was spatially segregated at two adjacent and contemporaneous latte buildings. The archaeological excavation of sixteen 1 x 1 m units alongside each of the two latte buildings recovered the mollusk shell assemblages from a single stratigraphic layer. Together, the analysis of eight units from the latte household excavation yielded an aggregate of 5,052.8 g of mollusk shell and a NISP count of 2603 intact shells and shell fragments. Taxonomic identification of shell from the two latte excavations offered an opportunity to compare their respective assemblages and determine whether (or not) they aligned with the expectations of ethnographic accounts of gendered labor in coastal societies. The unexpected diversity of mollusk taxa at the men’s latte building (compared to the women’s latte building), may reflect their access to a relatively broad resource catchment through inter-island trade and travel. If so, this pattern qualifies (but does not dismantle) the worldwide ethnographic generalization that women typically dominate mollusk foraging due to its compatibility with childcare and other domestic tasks. Moreover, unless a heretofore undocumented cultural taboo required women and men to eat in separate places, mollusks were consumed and discarded at both latte by all household members (i.e., women, men, and children). These findings raise new questions and provide valuable baseline information for developing further research in the Mariana Islands.

Edwin H. Bryan, Jr.'s monograph The Plants of Guam (1936–1941; 1956–1960) was an important addition to the botany of Guam and the Mariana Islands. It was also unique in Micronesian botany in that it was serialized twice in the popular press, appearing as a total of 191 brief articles in two now discontinued periodicals lacking wide circulation. This has made bibliographic referencing of the work challenging; no catalog of the series' contents or article titles exists. This note recounts the publication and citation history of The Plants of Guam and provides a complete bibliography of articles.

The Tinian Monarch (Monarcha takatsukasae) and Yap Monarch (M. godeffroyi) are forest birds in the monarch flycatcher family (Monarchidae) and are endemic to their respective islands. I collected data on the Tinian Monarch during the post- delisting monitoring in 2006 and 2007. I made field observation on the Yap Monarch on 13-14 May 2005. I describe the juvenile plumage of the Tinian Monarch and a predefinitive plumage of the Yap Monarch, neither of which have been described previously. I estimated annual survival of each species using simple methods based on the proportion of adults in the population. Juvenile Tinian Monarchs differ from adults by having a yellow (instead of gray) base to the lower bill, and buff-colored feather tips on the wing bars and rump, instead of entirely white feathers as in adults. First-year birds in formative plumage are similar to older birds but can continue to be identified by the yellow coloration to the bill and molt limits among wing feathers. Predefinitive plumages of male and female Yap Monarchs differ from the black and white definitive basic (adult) plumages by having irregular brownish patches throughout the body that are similar in color to juvenile plumage. The annual survival rate of Tinian Monarchs was 0.89 based on the proportion of adults captured in mist nets. The annual survival rate of Yap Monarchs was 0.89 based on the proportion of adults observed during field surveys. These survival estimates may be overestimates because younger birds are more difficult to observe and capture, but are useful for helping to assess the conservation status of the species.

Cycas micronesica is an arborescent, dioecious cycad native to Micronesia. Once the most abundant tree species in Guam, the native C. micronesica population on the island has sharply declined due to invasive insect predation. While conservation efforts have focused on restoring in situ populations with ex situ propagated plants, sexing at the time of outplanting remains challenging in the absence of sexually dimorphic traits. Despite these limitations, a reliable method of sexing remains critical in ensuring reproductive function within a population for the conservation of the species. Recently, a PCR-based method was reported for sexing Cycas panzhihuaensis using primers that amplify a male-specific MADSY/CYCAS_034085 gene and its nearest autosomal homolog CYCAS_010388 as an internal control. However, the compatibility of this sexing primer set with C. micronesica is not well understood given the lack of genetic information for C. micronesica. The present study evaluated these PCR-based methods in sexing male (n = 17) and female (n = 13) C. micronesica individuals, finding amplification inconsistencies indicative of primer incompatibility with C. micronesica. From our findings, we developed an improved primer set with redesigned male-specific primers CYCmic_MADSY (F/R) demonstrating its improved accuracy and reliability in correctly sexing all C. micronesica individuals. Our revised PCR-based method provides a rapid, reliable protocol for sexing C. micronesica. The information generated from this method has potential for guiding conservation studies and efforts aimed at re-establishing viable, seed-producing populations of this native species.