The relative effects of two components of mountain environmental heterogeneity, altitude (1500, 1700 and 2000 m a.s.l.) and habitat (pastures, coniferous forests, wet meadows, scrub and anthropogenic woods) on the diversity of dung beetles in an Italian alpine valley were determined. The additive gamma diversity analysis indicated that differences among habitats (ßH) were always smaller than those among altitudes (ßA), irrespective of the measures used; it also showed that the contribution of ßA to γ-diversity was higher than expected by chance for all the measures of species diversity used, whereas the contribution of ßH was significantly higher in the case of one measure only. Generalized linear models confirmed that altitude was the most important factor associated with local diversity, with all the diversity parameters considered progressively and significantly increasing with increasing altitude. Indicator species analyses revealed that dung beetle altitudinal and habitat diversity patterns depended on local choice of species, with preferences for altitudinal levels being more numerous and apparent than those for habitats. Despite the minor effect of habitat differences, comparing a three-habitat with a single-habitat scenario it was possible to demonstrate that greater habitat heterogeneity is associated with a significantly greater diversity of dung beetles. This study suggests that preservation of local environmental heterogeneity by means of traditional pastoral activities should be encouraged as a means of conserving the diversity of dung beetle species in the Alps. and Matteo NEGRO, Claudia PALESTRINI, Maria Teresa GIRAUDO, Antonio ROLANDO.
Pitfall trapping is the most frequently used sampling technique for epigeal arthropods. Trap design could significantly affect the catch so the results of studies using different trap designs may be difficult to compare. Although species composition is frequently investigated in ecological studies, however when pitfall trapping is employed, the effect of trap design on the recorded species composition is rarely considered. In the present study, we investigated the effect of trap construction (funnel or cup trap) and the preservative used (formaldehyde or propylene glycol) on total catch, catch of particular species, species richness and species composition of the ground beetle assemblage sampled. We were interested in the extent to which trap design could bias these characteristics. Total catch was significantly affected by trap construction and preservative used, with the effect of the latter being the stronger. Species richness was only slightly affected by trap design when assemblages caught by traps of a particular type were corrected for unequal sample size. Moreover, we show that the traps of different designs differ in their efficiency for catching particular species of carabid and thus the composition of assemblages recorded using pitfall traps is affected by trap construction and the preservative used. We conclude that to assess the full significance of the effect of pitfall trap design on the results of ecological studies on epigeal arthropods it is necessary to simultaneously use traps of various designs., Michal Knopp, Jan Růžička., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Environmental degradation caused by climate change greatly affects the forest ecosystems of the Mediterranean region, in particular the sclerophyllous Quercus forests typical of central and southern Spain. An important pest that damages oak trees in this area is Coraebus florentinus (Herbst), a heliophilous and thermophilous insect whose survival could be favoured by the temperature increase associated with climate change. The main objective of this paper was to determine the effect of temperature on the duration and percentage survival of the preimaginal stage of C. florentinus and provide data for determining more precisely when to control for this pest by applying silvicultural techniques. The experiment included six treatments, with 25 branches infested with C. florentinus in each of the treatments, which were kept at different temperatures over the range 15–28°C. The results clearly support the hypothesis that higher temperatures affect the post-larval development of C. florentinus by increasing the percentage survival and shortening the developmental time. In fact, partial correlations confirm that the highest percentages of emergence and survival were recorded when the developmental times were shortest, which occurred at the highest temperatures used. Despite the clear influence of temperature on the development of the preimaginal stage of C. florentinus, additional trials are required to accurately determine future trends in C. florentinus populations. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop monitoring programs in zones affected by C. florentinus and to apply scheduled management techniques that ensure the control of this species., Ana M. Cárdenas, Patricia Gallardo., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
The coccinellid Harmonia axyridis is a recent arrival in the UK and is an intraguild predator of the entomopathogenic fungus Pandora neoaphidis. Harmonia axyridis entirely consumes P. neoaphidis-sporulating cadavers and this may have a negative effect on the epizootic potential of P. neoaphidis. Here we assessed within plant transmission, and between plant vectoring, of P. neoaphidis in the presence of either H. axyridis or Coccinella septempunctata, a native coccinellid that only partially consumes fungal cadavers. Transmission was greater in the presence of coccinellids, with 21% of aphids becoming infected with the fungus whilst only 4% were infected in the control. However, there was no significant effect of coccinellid species or sex on fungal transmission. Between plant vectoring occurred infrequently in the presence of both species of coccinellid. The effect of H. axyridis on P. neoaphidis transmission is, therefore, likely to be similar to that of the native coccinellid C. septempunctata. and Patricia M. WELLS, Jason BAVERSTOCK, Michael E.N. MAJERUS, Francis M. JIGGINS, Helen E. ROY, Judith K. PELL.
Larvae of Hermetia illucens feed on different types of decomposing organic matter and their development depends on the quality and quantity of food ingested. In this study the effect of three artificial diets was analyzed, namely hen feed, meat meal and a mixture of these two diets. The effects of diet on ovarian development, size, mortality, duration of the larval and pupal stages and sex ratio were studied. Results indicate that the meat meal diet was the worst of the three diets in terms of percentage mortality and duration of the larval and pupal stages. We conclude that food ingested by the black soldier fly larvae determines both the physiological and morphological development of the adults., Paola Gobbi, Anabel Martínez-Sánchez, Santos Rojo., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
1_Coraebus florentinus (Herbst) is one of the most important wood borer pests of oaks in forest ecosystems in the Mediterranean Region. It is considered to be a heliophilous species as it prefers the sunniest parts of the canopy of isolated trees. The biological significance of this preference is still unknown. Recently, the effect of temperature on the preimaginal development of this insect was established: high temperatures increase its probability of survival and shorten its developmental time. Continuing this line of research, this study was designed to determine whether C. florentinus exhibits selective oviposition behaviour and how variation in temperature due to differences in the position of the branches in which the larvae develop could affect the subsequent development of this species. To determine whether this insect selects the branches in which to lay its eggs, location data (north, south, upper half and lower half of the tops of the trees) for 112 damaged branches were analysed. The results confirm that females of C. florentinus do not lay their eggs at random at the tops of trees but rather choose branches that are exposed to the sun. To determine the effects of larval rearing temperature on the later development stages, an experiment consisting of five treatments was performed., 2_Four of these treatments, each containing 25 infested branches derived from different orientations and positions in a tree (upper half of tree and north facing, upper half and south facing, lower half and north facing and lower half and south facing) were kept in culture chambers maintained at optimal conditions for pupal development (28 ± 2°C and 60–65% relative humidity). The fifth treatment with 25 branches infested collected from the most sun-exposed locations were kept in outdoor conditions. The results indicate that variation in temperature during larval development due to differences in branch location does not significantly affect survival, duration of developmental of pupae, emergence success or sex ratio of the adults., Ana M. Cárdenas, Patricia Gallardo., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
The aim of this review is to explain the functional significance of mantis peering behaviour from an entomological perspective. First the morphological and optical features of the mantis compound eye that are important for spatial vision are described. The possibility that praying-mantises use binocular retinal disparity (stereopsis) and other alternative visual cues for determining distance in prey capture, are discussed. The primary focus of the review is the importance of peering movements for estimating the distance to stationary objects. Here the following aspects are examined: (1) Direct evidence via object manipulation experiments of absolute distance estimation with the aid of self-induced retinal image motion; (2) the mechanism of absolute distance estimation (with the interaction of visual and proprioceptive information); (3) the range of absolute and relative distance estimation; (4) the influence of target object features on distance estimation; and (5) the relationship between peering behaviour and habitat structures, based on results of studies on three species of mantis., Karl Kral., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
a1_The infraspecific taxonomy of the European populations of the Large Blue (Maculinea arion) is confusing. Several subspecies have been described mostly based on external morphological features. In the Carpathian Basin two subspecies have been distinguished. Maculinea arion arion flies from mid-May to mid-June and Maculinea arion ligurica is on the wing from the end of June to mid-August. The two forms show some differentiation in habitat use, but occasionally can also share habitats with two peaks in the appearance of butterflies. Our aim was to study the level and structure of genetic variation in a set of populations of the two phenologically different M. arion. Imagos were collected from 8 localities between 2000 and 2006. Enzyme polymorphism was analysed at 13 enzyme loci using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In the analysis of the data, we estimated the parameters of polymorphism. To study the pattern of genetic differentiation F-statistics, hierarchical F-statistics and AMOVA were computed. GeneClass and Structure were both applied to analyse the differentiation between the two phenologically different sets of populations. Cavalli-Sforza and Edwards' arc distances were calculated and a UPGMA dendrogram was constructed on the basis of the distance matrix. PCA analysis was also carried out using the allele frequencies of the individuals. The level of polymorphism was relatively high in M. arion. The results of all analyses indicated that the differences between the two sets of phenologically different populations accounted for a low percentage of the total differentiation. In addition, a sizeable amount of variation could be attributed to the differences among the samples collected from the same population in consecutive years. Thus, we concluded that the "spring" and "summer arion" could not be considered as separate ESUs, although we could attribute conservation value to both forms on the basis of, a2_their phenological differentiation and habitat use., and Judit Bereczki, János P. Tóth, Andrea Tóth, Edit Bátori, Katalin Pecsenye, Zoltán Varga.
Operophthera brumata Linnaeus, 1758). Our calculations are based on data collected by the Hungarian Forestry Light Trap Network at four sites from 1961 to 2008. We also tried to estimate the influence of polarized moonlight and collecting distance, which also depends on moonlight. Our investigations revealed that the catches were the greatest in the First and the Last Quarters, and the lowest at Full Moon. The reason for this is that the proportion of polarized moonlight in the different lunar quarters varies, with the catches highest when the proportion is greatest. Collecting distance has only a minor role. and Obsahuje seznam literatury
1_The ladybird beetle Harmonia axyridis (Pallas 1773) has been used for biological control in several countries. However, it became invasive in some of those countries. Coccinella septempunctata (Linné 1758) is a native species in Europe. It feeds mainly on aphids and can be very abundant. As far as is known there are no effective natural enemies of the grape phylloxera Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (Fitch 1855) in Europe. The potential of the above two ladybird species for reducing the abundance of the grapevine pest D. vitifoliae has not been previously investigated. In this study, the consumption and developmental parameters of H. axyridis and C. septempunctata fed on D. vitifoliae were determined in the laboratory. In a field trial, the occurrence of H. axyridis on grapevines with or without leaf galls of D. vitifoliae was compared. In contrast to C. septempunctata, H. axyridis was able to complete its development using D. vitifoliae as a source of food. In addition, adult H. axyridis consumed significantly more D. vitifoliae eggs than C. septempunctata. Within 24 h H. axyridis consumed up to 1400 eggs of D. vitifoliae. However, based on the fitness parameters "developmental time", percentage "survival" and "adult weight", this diet was less suitable for H. axyridis than the eggs of Ephestia kuehniella., 2_During field observations over a period of two years H. axyridis was repeatedly observed feeding on grape phylloxera leaf galls, which indicates that H. axyridis uses grape phylloxera as prey. H. axyridis was significantly more abundant on leaves with leaf galls of D. vitifoliae than on leaves without galls. C. septempunctata was rarely found on grape leaves with or without leaf galls. These results indicate that overall H. axyridis, unlike C. septempunctata, is a predator of D. vitifoliae and could potentially reduce grape phylloxera numbers in vineyards., Susanne Kögel, Manuela Schieler, Christoph Hoffmann., and Obsahuje seznam literatury