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Influence of meadow management on the migration behavior of selected species of butterflies
Bubová, Terezie ; Langrová, Iva (advisor) ; Farkač, Jan (referee)
Migrations are the key process and one of the basic biological features, which allow survival of endangered species in fragmented landscape. In the last decades, agriculture intensification, industry and urbanization caused that number of natural butterfly habitats has significantly decreased. The localities originally suitable for butterflies are currnetly converted to farmland or building plots. This PhD thesis aimed to find a compromise solution of meadow management, which should allow a commercial use and concurrently do not jeopardize the continued existence of endangered or threatened species. The main idea of this study was in the intentional emigration causing in the middle of flight period, which should lead into resettlement of the population to another (potentially more suitable) locality. Possibility of aimed manipulation with butterfly emigrations would be considered as a major breakthrough in their protection.
The investigated species Phengaris nausithous (Bergsträsser, 1779) and Phengaris teleius (Bergsträsser, 1779) are both considered to be flagship species for protection of European butterflies at open meadows. This study is based on research, which was carried out in 2013-2015 at 17 patch in localities Dolní Labe, Czech Republic. In above mentioned years, one selected meadow was mowed in the middle of flight season and the emigrations were then monitored using mark-release-recapture method. Results of population and migration characteristics were calculated in MARK 8.1 software. Subsequently, the effect of mowing on emigration (comparison of emigrations from the meadow before and after mowing) was evaluated using Statistica 13.
The hypotheses of this study were based on the assumption, that the loss of resources after well-timed mowing should increase the activity of adult butterflies. During the monitoring, number of emigrations was increased only in flight season 2015. Unfortunately, the statistical evaluation did not show significant effect of mowing on migrations. On the other hand, the hypothesis dealing with colonization of nearest meadows was confirmed.
Effect of intentional emigration caused by management interventions was unfortunately not proved. However, we found out, that even though the population at one mowed meadow decreased clearly, the metapopulation size at the locality remained more or less stable.
At investigated (mowed) meadow, there was observed a sharp decline of P. nausithous abundance. On the other hand, P. teleius population was only slightly reduced. It is therefore conceivable, that P. teleius are not as susceptible to innapropriate term of mowing. The results obtained in our research conclusively displayed no possible positive effect of mowing in the middle of flight season and a necessity of suitable management maintenance at localities inhabited by Phengaris butterflies.
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Overview Copulation Strategies of European Butterflies
Baráková, Kristýna ; Vrabec, Vladimír (advisor) ; Bubová, Terezie (referee)
Daily butterflies are a very varied and diverse group of the animal kingdom. They are insects with complete metamorphosis and a complex life cycle. Different stages of the development cycle are well known and studied. However, when it comes to the reproduction biology of daily butterflies, there are still a lot of question marks. This is why we decided to compile available information on reproduction strategies of European daily butterflies. This information was gathered by the means of strategically chosen keywords in scientific databases Web of Science (WOS), Scopus and Google Scholar. Based on these sources I compiled general information on reproduction behaviour of butterflies related to the complex processes before copulation, more concretely the mating and selection behaviour of daily butterflies. Consequently I describe concretely the copulation process, where I concentrate mainly on data on the progression of copulation, i.e. duration, minimum age or possible repeated copulation. I also explain general terms connected to copulation, such as paternity or protandry. The following part of the thesis concentrates specifically on copulation strategies of European daily butterflies. For the majority of butterflies I gathered data on mating strategies before copulation, specifically on how males search for females. Furthermore, for som e butterflies I add comprehensive data on duration of copulation, minimum age for copulation or possible repeated copulation. However, the gathered data do not provide sufficient information on the stated topic. It was therefore impossible to realize a statistical evaluation, which was supposed to lead to a recount against the total number of European butterflies. The hypothesis, namely that the vast majority of daily butterflies does not show promiscuous behaviour and copulates only once, has not been affirmed, neither disproven. Scientific publications only scarcely provided concrete information on promiscuous behaviour of daily butterflies. A research on this behaviour would require a more thorough examination. But it would enable us to organize accessible data on butterflies in the Czech Republic.
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