Search results for " Systematics."

Large herbivore population and vegetation dynamics 14,600–8300 years ago in central Latvia, northeastern Europe

2019

Abstract This study seeks to explain how the large herbivore (large vertebrate, megafauna – terrestrial taxa with adults > 45 kg) population density changed during abrupt postglacial climate and environmental change. The Lateglacial and Early Holocene (14,600–8300 years ago) were represented by various environmental and climate changes and a transition from a cold to a warm climate, with subsequent changes in flora and fauna. Using Lake Āraisi as a case study (Latvia, northeastern Europe), local to regional vegetation was reconstructed by analyzing plant macroremains and pollen from the lake sediment profile. Here, we present the first dung fungus spore-based qualitative reconstruction of l…

Does quality of winter food affect spring condition and breeding in female bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus)?

2004

We studied the effects of food supplementation on 16 bank vole populations in spring. We manipulated food quantity and quality in eight populations that were enclosed and eight other populations th...

Values and challenges in the assessment of coprophilous fungi according to the IUCN Red List criteria: the case study of Poronia punctata (Xylariales…

2020

Coprophilous fungi are specialized microorganisms, playing key roles in ecosystems and in several other contexts, whose protection requires more substantial efforts. This paper aims to highlight and discuss valuable and critical aspects faced during the process of the threat status assessment of Poronia punctata, providing inspirations for future conservation actions.

Volatile-mediated foraging behaviour of three parasitoid species under conditions of dual insect herbivore attack

2016

Infochemicals play an important role in structuring intra-and interspecific interactions. Many parasitoid wasp species rely on herbivory or oviposition-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs/OIPVs) to locate their herbivorous hosts, and must cope with variation in the volatile blends due to factors such as plant/host species, herbivore density or attack by several herbivores. However, little is known about how dual herbivory or changes in herbivore density affect multiple parasitoid species, each attacking a different herbivore, in the same system. In a natural system, we investigated the effect of dual attack on the ability of three parasitoid species to differentiate between volatiles induced by …

Using latent variable models to identify large networks of species‐to‐species associations at different spatial scales

2015

Summary We present a hierarchical latent variable model that partitions variation in species occurrences and co-occurrences simultaneously at multiple spatial scales. We illustrate how the parameterized model can be used to predict the occurrences of a species by using as predictors not only the environmental covariates, but also the occurrences of all other species, at all spatial scales. We leverage recent progress in Bayesian latent variable models to implement a computationally effective algorithm that enables one to consider large communities and extensive sampling schemes. We exemplify the framework with a community of 98 fungal species sampled in c. 22 500 dead wood units in 230 plot…

Urania sloanus (Cramer, 1779) (Lepidoptera: Uraniidae), an Enigmatic Extinct Species in Polish Museum Collections

2019

Urania sloanus is an endemic species in Jamaica. The species probably became extinct at the end of the 19th century or the beginning of the 20th century. During the work on combining the collections of exotic butterflies in the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom, one specimen of this taxon was found. The discovery of this species in the Museum of Upper Silesia in Bytom led us to search for entomological collections in other Polish museums. As a result of our search, we found three additional specimens: two specimens in the collection of the Museum of Natural History of the University of Wrocław and one at the Zoological Museum of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. In total, in the Polish…

A revision of the new world species of Gymnoclasiopa Hendel (Diptera, Ephydridae)

2012

Species of the shore-fly genus Gymnoclasiopa Hendel from the New World are revised, including G. grecorum, sp. n. (Alaska. Juneau: Gastineau Channel, Thane Road (S Juneau; 58°16.9’N, 134°22.4’W)) and G. matanuska, sp. n. (Alaska. Matanuska-Susitna: Palmer (Matanuska River; 61°36.5’N, 149°04.1’W)). We also clarify the status of previously described species, including those now discovered to have Holarctic distributions and/or for which sexual dimorphism was not appreciated and the species was described twice, including G. montana (Cresson) as a syn. n. of G. bohemanni (Becker). Two species, G. bella (Mathis), comb. n., and G. chiapas (Mathis), comb. n., are transferred from Ditrichophora to …

Resemblance of a model species and its mimic: Response to Bury and Cichoń

2018

Within trophic level shifts in collagen-carbonate stable carbon isotope spacing are propagated by diet and digestive physiology in large mammal herbi…

2018

Stable carbon isotope analyses of vertebrate hard tissues such as bones, teeth, and tusks provide information about animal diets in ecological, archeological, and paleontological contexts. There is debate about how carbon isotope compositions of collagen and apatite carbonate differ in terms of their relationship to diet, and to each other. We evaluated relationships between δ13Ccollagen and δ13Ccarbonate among free-ranging southern African mammals to test predictions about the influences of dietary and physiological differences between species. Whereas the slopes of δ13Ccollagen–δ13Ccarbonate relationships among carnivores are ≤1, herbivore δ13Ccollag…

Novel sexual dimorphism in a new genus of Bathynellidae from Russia, with a revision of phylogenetic relationships

2019

Bathynellidae is the neglected family of Bathynellacea, a groundwater group of crus- taceans with 33 genera and 107 species described and almost half of them included in the `catch-all¿ genus Bathynella. Due to the morphological homogeneity of the spe- cies, the taxonomic uncertainties have accumulated over time. Therefore, to explore the phylogenetic relationships among taxa, a combined approach using morphologi- cal and molecular data is needed. In this paper, we performed a phylogenetic analysis based on partial sequences of COI and 18S including 30 species of Bathynellidae. This data set represents the most updated one, including a new genus and a new spe- cies (Altainella calcarata gen…