Aquatic insects
My main focus is on evolutionary ecology and population dynamics of predatory freshwater insects.
Ongoing projects include laboratory experiments on prey selectivity and habitat use,
outdoor experiments on colonization and community assembly in newly created habitats, and
long-term surveys of water beetle communities at a few selected sites in southern Bohemia.
We are also kept busy with experiments measuring key life history traits for a few
selected taxa of predatory aquatic insects. See projects and
students for details.
Czech Water Beetle Group
CWBG is a working group with a fairly loose structure, founded in 1996 and formally part of the Czech Entomological Society. Members and affiliates in alphabetical order: David Boukal, Milan Boukal, Martin Fikacek, Jiri Hajek, Alois Hamet, Jan Klecka, Vaclav Krivan, Jaroslav Stastny (chairman), Michal Straka, Jan Sychra, Dusan Travnicek, Zdenek Vancl.
We have summarized all important information on the distribution and bionomics of Czech water beetles in the
Catalogue of water beetles of the Czech Republic,
which appeared at the end of 2007.
Download reporting form for trapping data (in Czech) /
Škrtací list pro data z pastí ke stažení.
Faunistic inventories
Previous faunistic surveys in the Czech Republic:
Mapping of current populations of diving beetle Graphoderus bilineatus (co-investigator, 2009-2010)
Trebonsko Protected Landscape Area (participant, 2004-2006)
Novohradske hory Mts. (main coordinator, 2001-2003)
Palava Biosphere Reserve (main coordinator, 1999)
Our expertise includes identification of water beetles (as well as other major freshwater insect groups), sampling design and modern statistical analyses of the data.
Detailed information on sampling techniques in tropical streams is here (old frames version).
Taxonomy
My pet study objects are tiny beetles from the families Elmidae and Dryopidae.
I have described some Oriental and Australian species and genera and
have several unfinished taxonomic projects that need to be wrapped up.
Contact information:
Biology Centre AS CR, Institute of Entomology, Laboratory of Theoretical Ecology
Branisovska 31, CZ-37005 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
tel: +420 387 772 327, fax: +420 387 775 367
email: my_surname AT entu dot cas dot cz
© 2009 David Boukal | last modified 13 Feb 2011 | based on A. Viklund's template