Given that many animals are sexually dimorphic and many predators hunt their prey based on its size, conspicuousness or behaviour, sex-selective predation should be widespread. In an article recently published in PloS ONE, David Boukal, Luděk Berec and Vlastimil Křivan from the Department of Theoretical Ecology highlight that this phenomenon is surprisingly poorly covered in the research on...
For the first time, chemical nature of an oviposition-deterring pheromone was identified in predatory insects by the use of bioassay guided fractionation. Active oviposition-deterring component in tracks of the aphidophagous coccinellid, Cheilomenes sexmaculata larvae, was (Z)-pentacos-12-ene. The alkaloid coccinelline and saturated hydrocarbons that occur in larval tracks and in the extract of...
Ecologists commonly work with the concepts of competition and negative density dependence. Negative density dependence means that with increasing population size Darwinian fitness of each its member declines. Competition for common resources is one of the mechanisms causing such dependence. It appears, however, that especially at low population sizes where competition is weak this does not need...
The Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model is one of the earliest and, perhaps, the best known example used to explain why predators can indefinitely coexist with their prey. The population cycles resulting from this model can be found in every ecology textbook. Dr. Vlastimil Krivan, a mathematical ecologist at the Biology Center at Ceske Budejovice, shows that adaptive behavior of prey and...
Gene Methoprene-tolerant (Met) controls metamorphosis by regulating expression of the Broad-Complex gene, which is required for the metamorphic changes
Our research revealed repellent effects of larval tracks on conspecific larvae in aphidophagous coccinellids. Searching behaviour of insects was monitored in double choice tests with the assistance of automatic video tracking system EthoVision.
The peat bogs preserve relict ecosystems related to subarctic biomes, and characteristic isolated populations of cold-adapted insects live there. The insects of boreal peat bogs therefore are of great biogeographical and ecological interest, and their sensitivity to change makes them valuable as bioindicators.
In collaboration with the laboratory of Prof. Reppert, in the monarch eyes we have identified photoreceptors specialized for detection of polarized light in the UV spectrum. Furthermore we have discovered and characterized a molecular neural wiring connecting circadian biological clock with the signal pathway of polarized light entering the brain of the migratory butterfly.
This book, as the first volume of the "Illustrated Catalogue of Aphididae in the Korean Peninsula", includes only one subfamily, Aphidinae, the major group of the family Aphididae.
RNA interference (RNAi) allows gene silencing, and thus analyses of gene function, even in non-model organisms, where targeted mutagenesis is not feasible. The main problem is how to deliver the interfering double-stranded RNA, sufficient for a specific degradation of the target mRNA, into the organism's cells. We have solved this problem using a recombinant virus Sindbis.
