A catalogue of aphid parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae) from India

A catalogue of aphidiine parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Aphidiinae) associated with various aphids species occurring in India was compiled. The present catalogue with 125 species under 22 genera has been further reinforced with not only all the latest taxonomic changes but also host names, host plants, distribution in India etc

A recursive online algorithm for the estimation of time-varying ARCH parameters

In this paper we propose a recursive online algorithm for estimating the parameters of a time-varying ARCH process. The estimation is done by updating the estimator at time point $t-1$ with observations about the time point $t$ to yield an estimator of the parameter at time point $t$. The sampling properties of this estimator are studied in a non-stationary context -- in particular, asymptotic normality and an expression for the bias due to non-stationarity are established. By running two recursive online algorithms in parallel with different step sizes and taking a linear combination of the estimators, the rate of convergence can be improved for parameter curves from H\"{o}lder classes of order between 1 and 2.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/07-BEJ5009 in the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm

Replicated INAR(1) processes

Replicated time series are a particular type of repeated measures, which consist of time-sequences of measurements taken from several subjects (experimental units). We consider independent replications of count time series that are modelled by first-order integer-valued autoregressive processes, INAR(1). In this work, we propose several estimation methods using the classical and the Bayesian approaches and both in time and frequency domains. Furthermore, we study the asymptotic properties of the estimators. The methods are illustrated and their performance is compared in a simulation study. Finally, the methods are applied to a set of observations concerning sunspot data.PRODEP II

Molluscs

Molluscs constitute a major group in the animal kingdom. In number of species, the mollusca is the second largest phylum after arthropoda. About 1,00,000 living species of molluscs are reported to be occuring in the world. They occupy almost all possible habitats - marine, brackish water, freshwater, land and also arboreal in some groups. India harbours an approximate total of 3,271 species of molluscs spread over nearly 591 genera and 220 families (Mitra and Dey, 1992). On the other hand, a checklist of molluscs of Indian estuaries includes a total of 245 species (120 gastropods and 125 bivalvs) [Subba Rao and Surya Rao ,1985]. They play a significant role in maintaining the steady state of the mangrove ecosystem and enhance its biological potentiality. Molluscs constitute an important faunal component in the food web of any estuarine-marine coastal environment. Previously several taxonomic and ecological survey of estuarine-marine molluscs of India was conducted by several workers (Banford,1867; Annandale and Kemp, 1916; Annandale and Prasad, 1919; Subba Rao et al., 1983; Subba Rao et al., 1992, Khalua et al., 2003). The present study deals with the taxonomic survey (34 species, 24 genera, 22 families and 9 orders) of intertidal macrobenthic molluscs