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Ability to Discriminate Floral Morphotypes by Hoverflies
Matoušková, Eva ; Janovský, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Klečka, Jan (referee)
The attractiveness of flowers to pollinators is mediated by several floral traits. The ability to discriminate the flowers based on these floral traits is crucial for the flower reproduction and pollinator nutrition and reproduction. We tested three floral traits - colour, size and shape - along with their combinations using artificially 3D printed flowers on model organism Eristalis tenax in laboratory conditions. Our findings revealed that the most important floral trait was the colour followed by size. Additionally, the effect of colour was enhanced by size, but only for the preferred colour. This suggests that preferences for specific floral traits can be structured. The effect of symmetry was not significant. Subsequently, we observed non-naïve hoverflies and bumblebees in the field on flower patch consisting of devil's-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis). We were interested in the role of other floral traits when the colour and size were indistinguishable. The most important characteristics were height and effective number of florets in the inflorescence. The hoverflies tend to do longer visits than bumblebees and visited more flowers as well. Conversely, bumblebees did shorter but more efficient visits, likely due to their eusociality. Keywords: Syrphidae, Apidae, Eristalis tenax, Bombus spp.,...
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Factors affecting behaviour of avian predators to hoverflies (Syrphidae) and their models (Aculeata)
Truhlářová, Marie ; Exnerová, Alice (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
Batesian mimicry is an antipredator strategy used by harmless species to mimic dangerous models by their appearance. The so-called imperfect mimics are a phenomenon within Batesian mimicry. It would be expected that Batesian mimics are selected to resemble the model as perfectly as possible. However, in some species the resemblance is very poor. The aim of this study was to test reaction of predators towards a textbook example of Batesian mimics with imperfect mimicry, i.e., hoverflies (Syrphidae) and to verify some of the hypotheses describing imperfect mimicry. We conducted two experiments in which the model predators were great tits (Parus major). The topic of the first experiment was the effect of diversity of models on categorization and generalization of hoverflies. Birds were divided into two groups, with the first group receiving high diversity of models (10 species of Hymenoptera) and second group receiving low diversity of models (2 species of Hymenoptera). There were two parts of this experiment. Categorization training when great tits learn to discriminate between two categories of prey, palatable and unpalatable and generalization test, when great tits generalized their experience from categorization training to novel prey. Palatable prey was represented by non-mimetic flies (Diptera),...
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Pollinator movement and orientation at small spatial scales
Matoušková, Eva ; Janovský, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Tropek, Robert (referee)
Pollination is interesting andcomplex interaction between insects and plants which is essential for a wide spectrum of plants and animals. Hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) and bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) are one of the most common pollinators in the Central Europe and are mostly involved in pollination of local plants. To maintain pollination, it is necessary the movement of pollinator from one flower of a specific species to another flower of the same species. This movement is affected by a number of factors based on both the environmental and pollinator traits. The aim of this work is to explore the nature of traits affecting pollinator flight between plants on small spatial scales, to classify the knowledge about the influence of pollinator and ambient effects to compare the differences between hoverflies and bees and suggest further possible fields of research. Keywords: pollination, hoverflies, bees, Syrphidae, Anthophila, movement
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The role of biotic interactions in population biology of meadow plants
Janovský, Zdeněk ; Herben, Tomáš (advisor) ; Lepš, Jan (referee) ; Ehrlen, Johan (referee)
In present thesis, I treat the topic of impacts of plant-animal interactions, namely herbivory and pollination, on plant life cycle and lifetime fitness. First, I identify the components of the impact of plant-animal interactions: i) interaction frequency; ii) per-interaction effect; iii) sensitivity of the plant's life cycle to the changes in vital rate impacted by the animals. Furthermore, I also classify other causes changing the outcome of a plant-animal interaction into two categories: i) plant's traits; ii) plant's environment. A review of extant literature on the topic revealed that especially the role of plant's environment in changing the outcome of plant-animal interactions is largely understudied and I attempt to reduce this gap in knowledge in the five detailed studies encompassed in this thesis. The detailed studies focus on a model system of Central European wet grasslands and especially on three species typical to it: Succisa pratensis, Achillea millefolium and A. ptarmica. The first two studies examine the effects of environment on frequency of plant- animal interactions. The next two studies are more integrative, one focusing on the impacts of different herbivore groups on the complete life cycle and the other on interaction of herbivory and pollination on plant lifetime fitness....
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Mimicry in hoverflies
Daňková, Klára ; Hadrava, Jiří (advisor) ; Raška, Jan (referee)
Batesian mimicry, the imitation of harmful species manifested by harmless ones, could bring a lower risk of predation to the mimetic species. Therefore, it occurs in many different taxa. Hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) could stand for one of the most various mimics. This worldwide-distributed family is known for taking shape of many Aculeata species using plenty of different adaptation connected with colouration, morphology and even behaviour. The aim of this work is to review the diversity of mimicry in Syrphidae, highlight the main selection pressures and to put forward a potential field of future research. Hoverflies are being studied for the last two hundred years. However, just several study approaches are dominating the field. In order to open a new chapter of their research, I bring a wider synthesis of knowledge related to the ecological and evolutionary context of this phenomenon.
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Changes in pollinator behaviour under different plant spatial aggregation
Štenc, Jakub ; Janovský, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Bartoš, Michael (referee)
Plants often occur aggregated into clusters and this spatial pattern is supposed to affect pollinator behaviour and pollen dispersal. Such pollinator reaction may influence reproductive success of zoogamous plant species both in terms of number of available mates and their genetic diversity (nearby growing plant individuals are also often closely related, especially in clonal plants). In the present thesis, I investigated the influence of plant spatial aggregation on pollinator behaviour and how this translates into pollen transfer. For that purpose, I carried three experiments. In the Experiment 1, I used potted plants placed into arrays and aggregated into four patches in order to track the pollen dispersal by means of a UV-dye pollen analogue. I manipulated distances between plants within clusters (dense × loose) and between clusters (near × far). I conducted this experiment for three plant species differing in their pollinator spectra. In the Experiment 2, I observed pollinator foraging sequences (sequences of visited plant individuals) under the same experimental design as for the first experiment, but I carried out this experiment for five plant species. In addition in one study species, Dianthus carthusianorum, I conducted the Experiment 3 to get better insight into pollination effectiveness...
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Effect of floral rewards on specialization of hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae) in meadows of Železné hory
Filip, Jan ; Tropek, Robert (advisor) ; Keil, Petr (referee)
Traditionally managed temperate semi-natural meadows are generally considered as one of the most diverse habitats worldwide. During the past decades, management changes and abandonment of meadows pose serious threats to communities of both flowering plants and pollinators. However, the extent to which are pollinators affected by changes in floral resources still remain unknown. To investigate the effect of floral resources on visitation specialization, species richness and abundance of hoverflies, pollination networks from 13 meadows in the Železné hory PLA were constructed and analysed. Moreover, patterns were recorded on two spatial scales, in transects and in the whole meadows. To specify the specialization of hoverfly pollinators, unvisited plant species and all resources present on a site (transect/meadow), offered by plants as floral abundance and nectar rewards, was added in the networks. Relationships between plant species richness, floral abundance and nectar sugar production were positively correlated with visitation specialization of hoverflies on the meadow scale. Species richness and abundance of hoverflies was affected by floral resources on the transect scale, unlike the specialization of hoverflies. The usage of extended network indices may act as an improvement towards the better...
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The role of biotic interactions in population biology of meadow plants
Janovský, Zdeněk
In present thesis, I treat the topic of impacts of plant-animal interactions, namely herbivory and pollination, on plant life cycle and lifetime fitness. First, I identify the components of the impact of plant-animal interactions: i) interaction frequency; ii) per-interaction effect; iii) sensitivity of the plant's life cycle to the changes in vital rate impacted by the animals. Furthermore, I also classify other causes changing the outcome of a plant-animal interaction into two categories: i) plant's traits; ii) plant's environment. A review of extant literature on the topic revealed that especially the role of plant's environment in changing the outcome of plant-animal interactions is largely understudied and I attempt to reduce this gap in knowledge in the five detailed studies encompassed in this thesis. The detailed studies focus on a model system of Central European wet grasslands and especially on three species typical to it: Succisa pratensis, Achillea millefolium and A. ptarmica. The first two studies examine the effects of environment on frequency of plant- animal interactions. The next two studies are more integrative, one focusing on the impacts of different herbivore groups on the complete life cycle and the other on interaction of herbivory and pollination on plant lifetime fitness....
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Changes in pollinator behaviour under different plant spatial aggregation
Štenc, Jakub ; Janovský, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Bartoš, Michael (referee)
Plants often occur aggregated into clusters and this spatial pattern is supposed to affect pollinator behaviour and pollen dispersal. Such pollinator reaction may influence reproductive success of zoogamous plant species both in terms of number of available mates and their genetic diversity (nearby growing plant individuals are also often closely related, especially in clonal plants). In the present thesis, I investigated the influence of plant spatial aggregation on pollinator behaviour and how this translates into pollen transfer. For that purpose, I carried three experiments. In the Experiment 1, I used potted plants placed into arrays and aggregated into four patches in order to track the pollen dispersal by means of a UV-dye pollen analogue. I manipulated distances between plants within clusters (dense × loose) and between clusters (near × far). I conducted this experiment for three plant species differing in their pollinator spectra. In the Experiment 2, I observed pollinator foraging sequences (sequences of visited plant individuals) under the same experimental design as for the first experiment, but I carried out this experiment for five plant species. In addition in one study species, Dianthus carthusianorum, I conducted the Experiment 3 to get better insight into pollination effectiveness...
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Mimicry of hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) in the context of selection pressures from predators, thermoregulation and sexual selection
Daňková, Klára ; Janšta, Petr (advisor) ; Pekár, Stanislav (referee)
Thermoregulation plays an important role in organisms' lives during foraging, escaping from predators, sexual selection or overwintering. Moreover, pressure on efficient thermoregulation could affect species on an evolutionary level and was recently hypothesized to maintain imperfect mimicry in hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae). We set these two aims: 1) to study relationships between thermoregulation, mimicry accuracy and resembled model, 2) to closely study effect of developmental temperature in an intermediately accurate honeybee mimic, Eristalis tenax. In the first part of the project, we examined temperature excess of 566 specimens in 47 species of hoverflies in the field. We did not find significant effect of mimicry accuracy on temperature excess in our data. However, we found a strong sexual dimorphism. Females had lower temperature excess, which was very resilient to internal and external factors, whereas males had higher temperature excess, influenced by activity at time of capture (flying > sitting) and resembled model (bumblebee-mimics > honeybee- mimics > wasp-mimics > solitary bee-mimics). We suggest, that males are pushed to higher temperature excess by sexual selection within lekking. In the second part of the project, we reared E. tenax in three different temperatures in laboratory...
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