The book presents a collection of studies on the Lepidoptera, as specialized insects with distinctive features and as model systems for carrying out cutting-edge research. Leading researchers provide an evolutionary framework for placing moths and butterflies on the Tree of Life. The book covers progress in deciphering the silkworm genome and unravelling lepidopteran sex chromosomes.
Our studies in Papua New Guinea, which included sampling tens of thousands of herbivorous insects from their host plants, testing their feeding preferences in the laboratory and - in case of larvae - their rearing to adults, demonstrated that there are relatively few strictly specialised herbivores in tropical rainforests.
Our study of approximately 500 species from three herbivorous guilds feeding on foliage (caterpillars, Lepidoptera), wood (ambrosia beetles, Coleoptera) and fruit (fruitflies, Diptera) found a low rate of change in species composition (beta diversity) across 75,000 km² of contiguous lowland rainforest in Papua New Guinea, as most species were widely distributed.
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.