No fim do século XVIII, ocorreu a Viagem Filosófica ao Rio Negro (Região Amazônica, Brasil) do naturalista Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira. Realizada entre 1783 e 1792 foi a primeira expedição científica patrocinada pelo Império Português, naquele vasto território, a qual produziu um enorme volume documental, com registros de grande riqueza e diversidade, na área da agricultura, botânica,etnologia, economia, zoologia e antropologia. No presente estudo, realizou-se uma releitura analítica da obra de Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, ou seja, a Viagem Filosófica ao Rio Negro, enaltecendo contextos históricos que a antecederam, bem como comparando-a com obras de viajantes, como Gabriel Soares de Sousa (1587) e André João Antonil (1711).As obras desses três autores parecem ter um papel social e econômico em comum, podendo-se dizer que seus textos têm uma razão política. Todos eles parecem ser influenciados ou motivados pelo mercantilismo. A expedição realizada por Ferreira recebeu influências da modernidade e do iluminismo, bem como das peculiaridades da reforma pombalina de Portugal.A Viagem Filosófica ao Rio Negro de Alexandre Ferreira da Silva é uma obra de grande importância no mundo colonial português, sendo um verdadeiro tratado de história natural, agropecuária e economia do Brasil, mas que ainda é pouco divulgado nos circuitos acadêmicos. O trabalho de um homem, servidor fiel de Sua Majestade que, com poucos recursos e uma equipe reduzida, fez o primeiro grande levantamento socioeconômico e ambiental da Amazônia brasileira. / In the late XVIII century was the Viagem Filosófica ao Rio Negro (Amazon Region, Brazil) of the naturalist Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira. Conducted between 1783 and 1792 was the first scientific expedition sponsored by the Portuguese Empire, that vast territory, which produced a huge volume documentary with records of great wealth and diversity, in agriculture, botany, anthropology, economics, zoology and anthropology. In the present study, there was na analytical rereading the work of Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira, the Viagem Filosófica ao Rio Negro, highlighting historical contexts and comparing it to traveler works as Gabriel Soares de Sousa (1587) and André João Antonil (1711). The works of these three authors seem to have a social and economic role in common and could be said that his texts have a political reason. They all seem to be influenced or motivated by mercantilism. The expedition carried out by Ferreira received influences of modernity and the Enlightenment as well as the peculiarities of Pombal reform Portugal. The Viagem Filosófica ao Rio Negro of Alexandre Ferreira da Silva is a great work of importance in the Portuguese colonial world and is a true treatise of natural history, agriculture and Brazil\'s economy, but that is still not well known in academic circles. The work of one man, faithful servant of His Majesty that, with few resources and a reduced staff, made the first major socioeconomic and environmental survey of the Brazilian Amazon.

Na região centro-oriental da Amazônia, a formiga Pseudomyrmex concolor forma associação mutualista com plantas da espécie Tachigali myrmecophila, onde a formiga estabelece sua colônia nas domácias dessa Fabaceae. Apesar dessa planta não disponibilizar diretamente nenhum recurso alimentar, as formigas funcionam como agentes anti-herbivoria. Esse fenômeno torna o modelo Pseudomyrmex-Tachigali apropriado para testar hipóteses sobre relações ecológicas mutualistas formiga-planta. Espécies que vivem juntas tem como característica o desenvolvimento de estratégias defensivas para manutenção do valor adaptativo de ambas. Esta tese trata da ecologia comportamental e de interações no sistema Pseudomyrmex-Tachigali com o objetivo principal de descrever padrões e explicar processos ecológicos que contribuam para o esclarecimento desse fenômeno. O modelo mutualista utilizado é distribuído em sub-bosques de Florestas de Terra Firme amazônica na Área de Proteção Ambiental do Rio Curiaú, Amapá. Esta tese foi organizada em quatro capítulos que se propõem a responder perguntas, a partir de uma abordagem experimental e observacional, sobre história natural, morfologia, ecologia e comportamento animal dessa relação ecológica. O capítulo 1 teve como objetivo caracterizar o ninho e descrever a estrutura e composição colonial de P. concolor, demonstrando que características como tamanho da planta e espaço da domácia são fatores limitantes para o crescimento colonial. Além disso, evidenciou-se que operárias de P. concolor patrulham e investigam T. myrmecophila diuturnamente durante a estação chuvosa e estação seca amazônico. No capítulo 2 foi corroborada a hipótese de que P. concolor funciona como defesa biótica induzida, e que essas formigas investem mais esforços na defesa de partes mais valiosas para sua planta hospedeira. O capítulo 3 demonstrou que operárias de P. concolor apresentam variação espaço-temporal em T. myrmecophila associada a divisão de trabalho na defesa da colônia. No quarto e último capítulo, evidenciou-se que operárias de P. concolor são eficazes em reconhecer companheiras de ninho e discriminar intrusos, baseadas em sinais químicos, através de comportamentos agressivos. Os quatro capítulos em conjunto retratam a história natural de um mutualismo bem-sucedido entre uma formiga e uma planta mirmecófita na Amazônia brasileira. / In the central-eastern region of the Amazon, the ant Pseudomyrmex concolor (Pseudomyrmecinae) establishes obligatory mutualistic relationship with the plant Tachigali myrmecophila (Caesalpinaceae), where the ants nest inside the domatia. These plants dont directly provide any food resource, even though the ants act as anti-herbivory agents. This phenomenon makes Pseudomyrmex-Tachigali an appropriate model to test hypotheses about obligatory mutualistic ecological relationships. Species living together are characterized by the development of defensive strategies for maintaining the fitness of both organisms related. This thesis addresses the behavioral ecology and interactions of the Pseudomyrmex-Tachigali system, with the major aim to describe patterns and explain ecological processes that contribute to the elucidation of this issue. The mutualistic model analysed is distributed in the Terra Firme Amazonon Forest environments of River Curiaú Reserve, Amapá-Brazil. We organized the study into four chapters that intend to answer questions, from an experimental and observational approach, about natural history, morphology, ecology and animal behavior of this ecological relationship. In chapter 1, we characterized the nest as well as we described the structure and colonial composition of P. concolor. We verified that features such as size of plant and domatia space are factors that limit the colonial growth in P. concolor. In addition, we showed that workers patrol and investigate T. myrmecophila during day and night throughout the winter and summer Amazonian. In Chapter 2, we corroborate the hypothesis that P. concolor works as induced biotic defense and they invest more efforts toward defend the most valuable parts to their host plant. In Chapter 3, we showed that workers of P. concolor have spatio-temporal variation in T. myrmecophila plants associated with division of labor related to defense of the colony. In the fourth and final chapter, we found that P. concolor are effective to recognize nestmates and discriminate intruders through aggressive behaviors, based upon chemical cues. The four chapters together portray the natural history of the successful mutualism between an ant and their myrmecophytic plant in the Brazilian Amazon.

O município de São Paulo possui 62.356 ha e apenas 16 % de áreas verdes. Desenvolvemos um estudo sobre a composição de espécies, história natural, diversidade e distribuição das serpentes no município. Ao longo de 44 meses, registramos 38 espécies de cinco famílias. Comparamos a diversidade de espécies de três unidades climáticas: áreas Norte, Central e Sul. Houve predominância de espécies terrícolas e anurófagas. Maior abundância foi observada na estação chuvosa, e deve estar relacionada à abundância de presas e/ou reprodução. A espécie dominante foi Oxyrhopus guibei, com 24 % de dominância, seguida por Sibynomorphus mikanii (21 %) e Bothrops jararaca (16 %). A área Central apresentou maior diversidade, com espécies típicas de diferentes fisionomias vegetais, como Cerrado, Serra da Mantiqueira e Serra do Mar. Historicamente, a região do município apresentava um mosaico de diferentes formações vegetais, que apesar de encontrarem-se fragmentadas atualmente, ainda abrigam conjuntamente alta diversidade de serpentes. / The municipality of São Paulo has 62,356 ha, and only 16 % of green areas. We developed a study on species composition, natural history, diversity and distribution of snakes of the municipality. In 44 months, we recorded 38 species of snakes belonging to five families. We compared the species diversity of three climatic units: Northern, Central and Southern areas. The terrestrial and anurophagous species were predominant. Greater abundance was observed in the rainy season, and should be related to prey abundance and/or reproduction. The dominant species were Oxyrhopus guibei, with 24% of dominance, followed by Sibynomorphus mikanii (21 %), and Bothrops jararaca (16 %). The Central area showed larger diversity, with typical species from different physiognomic forms as Cerrado, Serra da Mantiqueira, and Serra do Mar. Historically, the municipality region showed a mosaic of different physiognomic forms that despite of being fragmented nowadays, still enclose together a high diversity of snakes.

Situated at the very juncture of the aquatic and terrestrial, exposed riverine sediments (ERS) are poorly vegetated alluvial deposits of silts, sands and gravels, which are habitat for a wide range of rare and highly specialised beetles. The thesis aimed to assess: (1) the conservation value of ERS beetles; (2) their changing habitat requirements and spatial population structure over a range of spatio-temporal scales; and (3) their vulnerability to anthropogenic threats, in particular, trampling by livestock. A database of British occurrence records was used to assess the conservation value of ERS specialist beetles. Beetle sampling implemented quadrat hand searches and modified dry pitfall traps, and spatial distribution and population structure in relation to a suite of environmental variables was analysed using correlation, SADIE analysis, and mark recapture methods. ERS beetles were found to have considerable conservation importance and their spatial distribution was related to habitat characteristics at the within-patch, patch, reach, and stream segment scales. These distributions varied temporally in response to flow level and trampling intensity, and trampling intensity was shown to reduce the conservation value of beetle assemblages. The likely responses to a variety of threats, such as regulation and channelization, mediated by varying inter-patch spatial population structure were evaluated.

Phytoremediation is a plant-based remediation process for treating contaminated soils. The overall aim of this thesis was to determine whether phytoremediation could be applied to co-contaminated soils. Copper (Cu) and pyrene, and Chromium (Cr) and Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) were used as contaminants. The first study involved the joint effect of Cu and pyrene or Cr and B[a]P on the early seedling growth of Lolium perenne. Results suggest that co-contamination showed several types of interactions for seedling growth with different combinations of the pollutants. The second study involved the role Brassica juncea and Zea mays during the remediation of Cu and/or pyrene, and Cr and/or B[a]P co-contaminated soils respectively. Brassica juncea and Z. mays showed contrasting results for metal and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) remediation. The third study compared freshly spiked soils and aged soils. Ageing affected the plant biomass, metal phytoextraction and PAH dissipation in different ways when compared to fresh soils. Finally, the efficiency of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-EDTA and/or citric acid as chelators in co-contaminated soils was studied. The combined application of EDTA and citric acid was more effective in co-contaminated soils. The overall findings from the four studies suggest that phytoremediation could be applied to co-contaminated soils.

O estudo desenvolvido enfoca o Museu de História Natural do Colégio Anchieta (Porto Alegre, RS), constituído pelo padre jesuíta Pio Buck, no ano de 1908. A investigação objetiva construir a história do Museu, dando ênfase à atuação dos professores e pesquisadores jesuítas, o padre Pio Buck e o padre Balduíno Rambo, cujas práticas científicas foram fundamentais para a criação e existência deste Museu. A sua fundação ocorreu dentro do cenário de criação dos primeiros museus brasileiros, em que se pode inserir os museus de História Natural, e de criação de museus de Educação em todo o mundo, em que se pode inserir os museus escolares. As coleções formadas por objetos produzidos pela indústria e por elementos coletados na natureza formavam as coleções de História Natural do museu escolar. Esses materiais funcionavam como modelos para a compreensão e representação da natureza e da realidade, no âmbito do Método Intuitivo e Lições de Coisas. O museu escolar se configurava como um novo espaço nas escolas, em especial para o ensino de Ciências e História Natural, vinculados ao contexto científico da época. Nos colégios jesuítas, havia a tradição de estudos na área de Ciências Naturais. O Museu de História Natural do Colégio Anchieta, assim, voltava-se para o ensino de História Natural e para a pesquisa, associando a tradição científica dos jesuítas com a modernidade pedagógica do ensino no novo contexto de uma sociedade científica. A abordagem deste estudo envolve a Educação e a Museologia, estabelecendo um encontro entre a história da educação e a história dos museus, estabelecendo relações entre os museus escolares e os Museus de História Natural. O estudo tece relações do Museu voltado para as práticas do ensino, no âmbito de um museu escolar, e para as práticas da pesquisa científica, no âmbito de um museu de História Natural. A investigação verifica que o Museu reunia acervo didático e científico, com caráter voltado para o ensino e para a Ciência. A pesquisa identifica o Museu como um espaço de produção científica dos jesuítas. O estudo constrói a história do Museu através de suas práticas a partir das atuações de seus agentes como professores, pesquisadores e cientistas. Adota os pressupostos teóricos e metodológicos da História Cultural, elegendo o conceito de práticas para a abordagem. Constitui o corpus documental da pesquisa, um conjunto de documentos textuais e visuais, e artefatos. Destaca que o Museu Anchieta de Ciências Naturais, denominação atual, está entre os mais antigos museus escolares e museus de História Natural no país. Constata a importância do trabalho desenvolvido no Museu do Colégio Anchieta para o escopo das Ciências Naturais e dos museus escolares. Conclui que o museu foi associado a uma rede de Museus de História Natural e de comunicação com outros cientistas e instituições / The study developed is focused on the Natural History Museum at Anchieta School (Porto Alegre, RS), by the Jesuit Priest Pio Buck, in 1908. The investigation aims to build the history of the museum, emphasizing the work of teachers and Jesuits researchers, Priest Pio Buck and Priest Balduíno Rambo, whose scientific practices were fundamental to the creation and existence of this museum. Its foundation took place in the scenario of creation of the first Brazilian museums in which you can insert the Natural History Museums and creation of Education museums all over the world, where you can insert the school museums. The collections composed by objects produced by the industry and elements collected in nature formed the collections of the Natural History Museum School. These materials served as models for the understanding and representation of nature and reality, in the framework of the intuitive Method and Thing Lessons. The school museum is configured as a new space in schools, especially in the teaching of Science and Natural History, linked to the scientific context of that time. At the Jesuit schools, there was a tradition of studies in the field of Natural Sciences. The Natural History Museum at Anchieta School, like this, was turned to the teaching of Natural History and research, combining the Jesuit scientific tradition with the pedagogical teaching modernity in the new context of a scientific society. The approach of this study involves Education and Museology, establishing a meeting between the history of Education and the history of museums, establishing relations between the school museums and the Natural History Museums. The study makes relations of the museum related to teaching practices, in a school museum and for the practices of the scientific research as a part of a Natural History Museum. The research finds that the museum brought together educational and scientific collection with character for teaching and science. The investigation identifies the museum as a space of scientific production of the Jesuits. The study builds the history of the museum through its practices from the actions of its agents as teachers, researchers and scientists. It adopts the theoretical and methodological assumptions of Cultural History, choosing the concept of practices to the approach. It constitutes the documental corpus of the research, visual and textual documents and artifacts. It points out that the Anchieta Museum of Natural Sciences, the current name, is among the oldest school museums and Natural History Museums in Brazil. It shows the importance of the work developed in the museum at Anchieta School for the scope of the Natural Sciences and school museums. It concludes that the museum was associated with a network of Museums of Natural History and communication with other scientists and institutions.

O objetivo desta pesquisa é investigar a concepção de História da Natureza que Kant desenvolve em ensaios pequenos publicados entre 1775 e 1788. Para isso, nós expomos a teoria kantiana de ciência, primeiramente, de um ponto de vista tipológico geral e, posteriormente, de um ponto de vista específico, isto é, inicialmente apresentamos os tipos de ciência (as genuínas e as não genuínas), e depois nos aprofundamos na ciência genuína (matemática e física). No segundo capítulo, apresentamos os esquemas gerais da história da natureza, que são: ciência das origens e separada; a ideia de adaptação das espécies e o fixismo; os germes e disposições; as influências de Buffon, Maupertuis e Stahl. No último capítulo, tratamos de desenvolver as características mais importantes da teleologia empregue no julgamento dos organismos. / The aim of this research is to investigate Kants idea of History of Nature developed in minor essays publicated between 1775 and 1788. For this, we expound the Kantian theory of science, firstly in a general typological point of view, that is, we show the types of sciences (genuine or not genuine). Secondly in a specific point of view, we study the genuine science (mathematics and physics). Then we investigate the general schemes of history of nature, that is, the idea of species adaptation and the fixism; germs and dispositions; influences of Buffon, Maupertuis and Stahl. In the last chapter we focus on the most important characteristics of teleology used in organisms judgement.

Este estudo foi realizado em laboratório entre fevereiro de 1995 e dezembro de 1997. Os grilos (Strinatia brevipennis) foram coletados de diversas cavernas do Parque Estadual Intervales, no Vale do Ribeira, SP, e mantidos no porão do Edifício Ernesto Marcus, Departamento de Zoologia do IBUSP para estudo da história natural da espécie. Outra espécie de grilos (Endecous itatibensis) foi acompanhada devido a uma coleta acidental da mesma. As duas espécies foram mantidas separadamente, uma vez que a primeira não sobrevive em contato com a segunda. A reprodução de S. brevipennis ocorreu com sucesso em caixas de isopor, principalmente no verão. A reprodução de E. itatibensis, por outro lado, ocorreu apenas entre indivíduos mantidos livremente na câmara de criação, onde observou-se grande sucesso reprodutivo, com várias gerações e uma grande população proveniente de apenas uma fêmea. O período embrionário médio de S. brevipennis foi de 56 dias. O desenvolvimento pós-embrionário também foi acompanhado, onde observou-se provável variação no número de mudas (10 ou 11) antes de tornarem-se adultos. A identificação de macho e fêmea é facilmente observada nos três últimos instares ninfais e nos adultos através do surgimento do ovipositor (para ambas espécies) nas fêmeas, e das tégminas no último instar ninfal para S. brevipennis e no penúltimo para E. itatibensis nos machos. As fêmeas são ápteras nas duas espécies estudadas. A caracterização morfométrica mostra que os primeiros estágios da vida podem se confundir quanto às dimensões corporais para S. brevipennis. Nos últimos instares e adultos a caracterização torna-se mais facilitada através das medidas do comprimento do fêmur e da tíbia da perna III, e dos dimorfismos sexuais. / This study was conduced in laboratory between February 1995 and December 1997. The crickets (Strinatia brevipennis) have been collected in several caves from Parque Estadual Intervales, Ribeira Valley, São Paulo state. They were kapt in a room in the basement of Edifício Ernesto Marcus, Departamento de Aoologia IBUSP, to develop a study focusing their natural history. Another species of crickets (Endecous itatibensis) was studied due to an accidental collection. The two species were maintained in different compartments because the first did not survive whem in direct contact with the second. Reproduction of S. brevipennis was successful inside boxes, mainly during summer. Reproduction of E. itatibensis was only successful when animals were kept freely inside the compartment, where a large reproductive success for several generations was originated from a single female. S. brevipennis showed a mean period of embryonic development of 56 days. Post-embryonic development showed a variation of 10-11 molting events to achieve adulthood. Telling males from females is an easy task during the last three nymphal stages and among adults because of the development of ovipositor among females of both species; and development of mesothoracic wings during the last nymphal stage os S. brevipennis or the penultimate nymphal stage of E. itatibensis among males. Females are wingless in both species. Morphometric characterization showed that the first nymphal stages are hardly told from each other. Last stages and adults can be distinguished both from sexual dimorphisms and length of femur and tibia of leg III.

This thesis analyses a growing metropolitan British fascination with northern Scandinavia and Scotland towards the end of the eighteenth century. These two northern regions underwent a dramatic transformation, from being places people avoided to being realms writers considered worthy of visiting, observing and narrating. This thesis examines the importance of the primitivist discourse of northern noble savagery in that transformation. While encounters with the ‘noble savage’ were largely associated with the extra-European world, the fascination with the north was in observing Europe’s very own native examples of the breed. The Highlanders and Islanders of Scotland and the northern Scandinavians, the Sami people in particular, were often romanticised in this context. Despite the Sami being celebrated in British fiction and natural-history works at the time, there has been, in contrast with Scandinavia’s ‘Vikings’, little scholarly attention given to them in a British context. The origin and function of the northern-noble-savage discourse is anchorerd in naturalhistory texts. This study emphasises the importance of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), who travelled in Lapland in 1732, in constructing idealised depictions of the Sami. Linnaeus also provided a model of domestic exploration in which naturalists produced inventories of regions and their inhabitants previously relatively unmapped by the state. Although the image of the northern savage often bore little resemblance to reality, it had real application and effect. Such imagery allowed allegedly backward regions to be incorporated into the national narrative, and through this the national community sought to benefit from these peripheries and their communities. The thesis also studies the consequences of actual encounters between metropolitan observers and the local populations of these northern regions. The travelogues of the celebrated natural historian and traveller Edward Daniel Clarke (1769-1822), who sojourned in Scotland and Scandinavia in 1797-1799, is the focus of the investigation. In a comparative analysis of his Scottish and Scandinavian accounts, this study presents Clarke as an ambivalent primitivist who both praised and condemned the Highlanders and Sami. Clarke was, for example, critical of what he regarded as the superstitious beliefs of both peoples. His narrative on the Highlanders was, however, far more positive than that on the Sami because of Clarke's adherence to racial classifications, which paradoxically Linnaeus had instigated, which demoted the Sami to mere savages. After Clarke’s death in 1822, attitudes towards the Highlanders and Sami continued to diverge against a backdrop of increased racialisation in British thought. While the Highlander became firmly integrated into a British narrative, the Sami was displaced by growing interest in a Scandinavian invader of Britain, the Viking, whose image went on to provide a robust challenge to the romanticisation of the Celtic Highlander in the century that followed. Meanwhile, the optimism over the Highlands’ economic prospects that had permeated the Linnaean project of exploration in Scotland was now gone. Whereas the idealised gaze of the eighteenth-century explorer had surveyed Highland history in order to chart a course to the future, the focus of the nineteenth-century tourist tended to be firmly on the past.

This thesis traces the changing conceptions and uses of myth in the poetry and prose of Percy Shelley. Its main argument is framed from a critical-theoretical perspective inspired by Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. From this methodological standpoint, the study of myth can be related to other aspects of Shelley’s work, like his understanding of history and the problem of necessity and agency. The body of the dissertation is divided into three main parts, each of which is constituted by a series of shorter chapters. The first part deals with the mutually constituting negation of myth by enlightenment, where simultaneously several different but related conceptions of myth are produced and the preliminary principles of enlightenment advanced. Shelley’s earlier conceptions and uses of myth are identified (personification, euhemerism, and allegory), and compared to those of his probable sources as well as of useful analogues, among whom David Hume, William Godwin, the Baron d’Holbach, and John Frank Newton are given special attention. These conceptions of myth are also situated in their intellectual contexts in the fields of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century mythography and theological debate. At the same time, the philosophical underpinnings of Shelley’s earlier writings (naturalism, scientism, and necessitarianism) are brought to light, and interpreted as having been strategically advanced in his critique of myth and religion. The main subject of the second part is the partial reification of enlightenment as a narrative of natural history. The interaction of theological debate and natural history of religion is explored in the light of literary form and pragmatic situation. Shelley’s political and social writings are described as a natural history of civil society based on political economy, and are situated within the historiographical tradition developed in the Scottish Enlightenment by authors like William Robertson, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and John Millar. These narratives contained embedded within themselves an early concept of sociological necessity, and developed in opposition not only to sacred history but also to the classical narratives of individual political agency. I argue that this historiographical framework became problematic for Shelley in the wake of the Manchester massacre, since it was at odds with his pacifist values and utopian expectations. The final part treats of the reincorporation of some elements originally suppressed in the critique of myth. Shelley’s later mythical dramas are read as an alternative representation of history to that of natural history, where a new conception of collective political agency was developed. Simultaneously, a new concept of truth as praxis is identified as emerging in some of Shelley’s political writings, whereby the truth value of myth and poetry could be reassessed as that of a guide for political action. Finally, I argue that Shelley’s debate with Thomas Love Peacock concerning the social function of poetry catalysed the process by which the attributes of myth were transferred to poetry, and the latter was set against science and other expressions of the calculating faculty.