Twenty eight species of winter-active Heleomyzidae were collected during a long-term study in Poland. More than 130 samples of insects, including Heleomyzidae, were collected from the surface of snow in lowland and mountain areas using a semi-quantitative method. Lowland and mountain assemblages of Heleomyzidae recorded on snow were quite different. Heleomyza modesta (Meigen, 1835) and Scoliocentra (Leriola) brachypterna (Loew, 1873) dominated in the mountains, Tephrochlamys rufiventris (Meigen, 1830) mainly in the lowlands and Heteromyza rotundicornis (Zetterstedt, 1846) was common in both habitats. Heleomyzidae were found on snow during the whole period of snow cover, but the catches peaked from late November to the beginning of February. In late winter and early spring the occurrence of heleomyzids on snow decreased. Most individuals were active on snow at air temperatures between -2 and +2.5°C. A checklist of 78 winter active European Heleomyzidae is presented. Helomyza nivalis Wahlgren, 1918 is herein considered as a new junior synonym of Helomyza caesia Meigen, 1830, syn. n., Agnieszka Soszyńska-Maj, Andrzej J. Woźnica., and Obsahuje bibliografii
One of the best documented effects of climate change on biodiversity are shifts in phenology. However, long-term data quantifying and projecting the expected changes in phenology associated with climate warming are limited to a few well-recorded areas in the world. In the absence of temporal recording, an alternative approach is to determine the phenological response of species along marked gradients in climate or along latitudinal or altitudinal transects (space-for-time substitution). We studied the phenology (timing and duration of the flight period) of butterflies in 2006 along an altitudinal gradient (900-1680 m; estimated temperature lapse rate = -6.6°C/km) in the Serranía de Cuenca (central Spain) at the assemblage and individual species levels. Timing of the flight period was later for assemblages at high than at low altitudes. A similar trend of an increasing delay in the flight period with altitude was recorded for some individual species. However, there were also some exceptions to this pattern regardless of the number of sites and the altitudinal ranges of the species, suggesting possible local adaptation to regional climate. The duration of the flight period was shorter at high altitudes for assemblages, but this trend was not mirrored in the response of individual species. The results partly support substituting space-for-time when assessing the potential effect of climate change on phenophases such as the timing of the flight period, but we recommend extreme caution in extrapolating the results in the absence of information on how the responses of populations differ. and Juan Ignacio De Arce Crespo, David Gutiérrez.
Fourteen predatory species of ladybirds (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were collected from May to October 2008 from mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia) infested with the scale insect Chionaspis salicis at 31 localities in the Ore Mountains, northern Bohemia, Czech Republic. Chilocorus renipustulatus, usually a rare species, made up 85% of the individuals collected (1690). Other abundant species were Coccinella septempunctata, Calvia quatuordecimguttata, Adalia bipunctata and Adalia decempunctata. The invasive alien Harmonia axyridis was present but made up less than one per cent of the individuals collected. Niche overlap between pairs of ladybird species measured in terms of the coefficient of community, Morisita's index and cluster analysis showed that microhabitat preferences were similar and hence the possibility of competition was high in two pairs of congeneric species (Chilocorus and Calvia). Larvae of Ch. renipustulatus were abundant from mid-June through August and were still present in October. and Emanuel Kula, Oldřich Nedvěd.
1_The maritime pine bast scale, Matsucoccus feytaudi Ducasse (Hemiptera: Matsucoccidae), occurs in the western part of the Mediterranean basin and is a sap sucking insect that feeds only on maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Aiton). It causes damage in SE France and Italy, where it was accidentally introduced. In Spain information is scarce and, moreover, almost nothing is known about the predators of this species. This study was designed to determine the seasonal trends in abundance of M. feytaudi and its major predators, which might help to improve the biological control of this pest in other areas. Natural P. pinaster stands in the Valencian Community (Spain) were surveyed in 2004. In addition, the seasonal trends in abundance of M. feytaudi and its natural enemies were monitored in three stands over a period of three years (2002, 2005 and 2006). The monitoring was carried by wrapping sticky tapes around tree trunks and using delta traps baited with sexual pheromone. The maritime pine bast scale was detected in all the stands surveyed. At almost all the sites surveyed, three species of predators were captured: Elatophilus nigricornis Zetterstedt (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae), Hemerobius stigma Stephens (Neuroptera: Hemerobiidae) and Malachiomimus pectinatus (Kiesenwetter) (Coleoptera: Malachiidae). The presence of M. pectinatus is noteworthy as this is the first record of this species as a possible predator of M. feytaudi. The results show that M. feytaudi, although differing in its phenology depending on the location, is univoltine in the study area. The prepupae, pupae and adults of M. feytaudi appeared between December and March in colder areas and between October and February in warmer areas. E. nigricornis nymphs are important predators of M. feytaudi, and were abundant when the scale insect (crawlers, prepupae, pupae, male and female adults) was present., 2_The flight period of E. nigricornis and the hemerobiid H. stigma ranged from May to October. However, these flight patterns did not correlate with the presence of the different stages of the bast scale (crawlers, prepupae, pupae, male and female adults) on the surface of tree trunks. The presence of M. pectinatus in large numbers in some stands suggests it might be an important natural regulator, which helps to keep M. feytaudi populations at low densities in the areas of Spain studied. This malachiid shows a strong kairomonal attraction to the sexual pheromone of M. feytaudi and its flight activity is significantly correlated with the presence of crawlers of bast scale., Eugenia Rodrigo ... [et al.]., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Climate change may facilitate shifts in the ranges and the spread of insect pests, but a warming climate may also affect herbivorous insects adversely if it disrupts the locally adapted synchrony between the phenology of insects and that of their host plant. The ability of a pest species to colonize new areas depends on its ability to adjust the timing of phenological events in its life cycle, particularly at high latitudes where there is marked seasonality in temperature and day length. Here we incubated eggs of three species of geometrid moth, Epirrita autumnata, Operophtera brumata and Erannis defoliaria from different geographical populations (E. autumnata and O. brumata from Northern Finland, E. autumnata and E. defoliaria from Southern Finland and all three species from Germany) in a climate chamber at a constant temperature to determine the relative importance of geographic origin in the timing of egg hatch measured in terms of cumulative temperature sums (degree days above 5°C, DD5); i.e. the relative importance of local adaptation versus phenotypic plasticity in the timing of egg hatch. In all three species, eggs from northern populations required a significantly lower temperature sum for hatching than eggs from southern populations, but the differences between them in temperature sum requirements varied considerably among species, with the differences being largest for the earliest hatching and northernmost species, E. autumnata, and smallest for the southern, late-hatching E. defoliaria. In addition, the difference in hatch timing between the E. autumnata eggs from Southern Finland and Germany was many times greater than the difference between the two Finnish populations of E. autumnata, despite the fact that the geographical distances between these populations is similar. We discuss how these differences in hatching time may be explained by the differences in hatch-budburst synchrony and its importance for different moth species and populations. We also briefly reflect on the significance of photoperiod, which is not affected by climate change. It is a controller that works parallel or in addition to temperature sum both for egg hatch in moths and bud burst of their host plants., Julia Fält-Nardmann, Tero Klemola, Mechthild Roth, Kai Ruohomäki, Kari Saikkonen., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The effects of photoperiod on pre-imaginal development and reproductive maturation of adult females of the multicolored Asian lady beetle, Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), were investigated at 20°C and at photoperiods from 10L : 14D to 18L : 6D. Experiments were conducted on a laboratory strain that originated from the Russian Far East. Larvae and adults were fed on the green peach aphid Myzus persicae. Under short day conditions the pre-imaginal development was faster than under long day conditions. The acceleration of pre-imaginal development occurred when day length was shorter than 16 h and the threshold day length was ca 14 h. The rate of reproductive maturation of adult females, in contrast, was twice as high under long day conditions, with the threshold between 14L : 10D and 12L : 12D, although even under short day conditions ca 10% of the females show a tendency to mature more quickly. This difference between the thresholds of these two photoperiodic reactions indicates they are relatively independent of one another. and Sergey Ya. Reznik, Nina P. Vaghina.
1_Insects feeding on the foliage of oak were studied on a mountain where species of Mediterranean deciduous and evergreen oak coexist. There were 58 insect species (54 Lepidoptera, 1 Coleopteran and 3 Hymenoptera) belonging to twenty families in the assemblage feeding on eight species of Quercus, two of which are introduced from nearby regions. The overlap in occurrence in time and of feeding niches of the insects feeding on the foliage of the different species of oak was determined using the: (a) Poole-Rathcke method, which tests phenological overlap and (b) Petraitis method, which tests niche overlap. This indicated that insect families partition seasonal time in a random and the entire assemblage in a regular way. All groups of insects partitioned season randomly except for the pairs of monophagous-oligophagous and Palearctic-Eurosiberian species, which partition season regularly. Oak folivorous insects correctly perceive the three subgenera of oaks with the exception of the planted Q. robur pedunculiflora. The folivorous insects recorded on the Mediterranean evergreen oaks (subgenus Sclerophyllodrys) differ from those on the other two subgenera (Quercus and Cerris) and co-occurring deciduous trees. The hypothesis of complete general overlap is rejected for groups based on feeding specialization, zoogeographical categories and taxonomic families. The same was the case when the entire insect assemblage was considered. The percentage of specific niche overlap of the folivorous insects is low and greatest among the monophagous species (13.8%) and those with a Mediterranean distribution (15.4%). Voltinism is not very important for this assemblage and only seven species are bivoltine of which four fed on a different species of oak in the second generation., 2_The overall conclusion is that the co-occurrence in space of these species is possible because they occur regularly at different times during the season whereas that of insect groups based on zoogeographical, taxonomic or feeding specialization are randomly dispersed in time., Maria Kalapanida, Panos V. Petrakis., and Obsahuje seznam literatury