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Diptera in food webs of wetland ecosystems
Pijálková, Helena ; Hadrava, Jiří (advisor) ; Kolář, Vojtěch (referee)
Families of the order Diptera are frequently found in freshwater wetlands, affecting nearly all trophic levels, serving as detritivores, herbivores and predators. Diptera are characterised by an enormous ecological variability of their larval life strategies, which often differ even within individual families. Their adults form an important connection between the aquatic environment of a wetland with its terrestrial surroundings. As a result, adults of various wetland Diptera may serve as pollinators, predators and a prey of other animals including humans. Until now, research of food webs in wetland ecosystems has been focused mainly on a few economically significant groups of Diptera such as mosquitoes, or has been focused on the role of Diptera in transfer of heavy metal from wetlands to other ecosystems. However, overall wetland dipteran diversity still remains understudied. Examining the roles of insects as well as other organisms in food webs is important for example to simulate possible consequences of introduction or extinction of certain species on ecosystems. Further research is therefore necessary to understand how do various dipteran taxa affect other organisms in wetlands as well as their surroundings. Keywords: Diptera, wetlands, ecological webs, detritivory, herbivory, predation
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Periodic Water Bodies and Their Biota.
Bušová, Tereza ; Říhová, Dagmar (advisor) ; Škodová, Jana (referee)
This thesis is focused on a description of small periodic water bodies and their biota. These telms are formed as a result of heavy spring rains, floods, melting snow or the ground water level rising. They are formed on green parts, non-green parts or fallen parts of a plant (in that case they are called phytotelmes), in water-filled tree-holes (dendrotelmes), in fissures of rocks (lithotelms) or in various cavities, artificially created by human - in empty jars, water- filled tires, flower-holding vases in cemeteries etc. The thesis deals mainly with dendrotelmes and phytotelmes which are the most frequent, especially in tropics. It provides the information about their formation and animals that lives in these small habitats. Also, a taxonomical review of the main reported fauna was added for better orientation of the reader. The most common taxa which occur in temporary pools are families of mosquitoes (Culicidae), chironomids (Chironomidae) and ceratopogonids (Ceratopogonidae). There are also present other Dipteran larvae or larvae of scirtid beetles from the family Helodidae. Some of the animals living in the pools used different evolution strategies to be well adapted to deal with periodicity and drying out of the water bodies. Their overview is also included in this thesis. Furthermore,...
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Succession and sezonality of necrobiont insects communities on carcasses of small mammals
Mikátová, Šárka ; Šípek, Petr (advisor) ; Šuláková, Hana (referee)
The presented master thesis describes the changes of insects communities on carcases of small mammals in course of the decay. We focused both on aspects of (temporal) succession as well on season dependent differences in carrion insect community. The study was carried out during the seasons 2014 and 2015; in each of the years we used a different carrion type (2014: mice (Mus musculus) +/- 20g, 2015: brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) 400-500g). Because we wanted to record the actual successional stage, we used a "walk-through" type of traps instead of commonly used pitfall traps. The general succession pattern was similar in both seasons; however the succession course of brown rat carcasses was slightly delayed. The succession was strongly influenced by the first species colonizing the carrion and morover, most of the carcasses were dominated or monopolized by a single species (or species group). Only the carcasses of mice were buried by the burying beetles (Silphinae: Nicrophorus). Bow flies (Calliphoridae) have been identified as the most common members of carrion insect communities. The other important members were the flesh flies (Sarcophagidae), and beetle families Silphidae and Staphylinidae. The highest abundance of insect was observed in summer, lowest abundance either in spring or fall depending on the...
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Preferences of the main groups of pollinators for the functional floral traits
Malá, Karolína ; Janovský, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Hadrava, Jiří (referee)
This bachelor thesis summarizes the preferences of the main functional groups of pollinators towards floral traits of plants. Due to coevolution and mutual selection pressures, these two life forms have begun to adapt to each other and develop traits on which the future of their life depends. The plant seeks to attract its pollinators, thus ensuring efficient pollen transfer or reproduction for its species. Attractants are used to motivate visitors to its flowers. These attractants provide pollinators with either direct rewards (food, shelter, brood) or rewards in the form of sensory perceptions (colour, scent, morphology). Recently, it has become apparent that flower colour, morphology and the type of food reward offered by the flower have the greatest influence on pollinator choice. Based on preferences towards attractants, we can organize several functional groups whose representatives have the same or similar choice preferences. Key words Pollination syndromes, pollinator, selection pressures, plant traits, coevolution, preferences, fidelity, diptera, coleoptera, lepidoptera, hymenoptera, birds, colour, morphology, rewards
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Selected Meadow Pollinators and Their Didactical Use
Huňková, Helena ; Říhová, Dagmar (advisor) ; Hanel, Lubomír (referee)
This Master thesis is focused on selected pollinators of our meadows and their didactic integration into education. The thesis is divided into two parts - theoretical and practical. In theoretical part, there are defined two orders (Hymenoptera and Diptera), process of pollination, plants pollination strategies and pollen grain. Practical part is focused on research of dipterans (particularly on hoverflies) of which purpose was to find out which plants are most pollinated. Subsequent section deals with analysis of secondary school Biology textbooks in terms of representation of selected pollinators. Next section contains plan of practical exercise, which deals with whether honey contains pollen grains. In final section of practical part, a worksheet is presented, which verifies pupil's knowledge about pollinators. KEYWORDS Hymenoptera, Diptera, hoverfly research, pollinators, pollen, textbook analysis
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Pollination efficiency as a function of plant spatial aggregation and pollinator functional traits
Štenc, Jakub ; Janovský, Zdeněk (advisor) ; Tropek, Robert (referee)
Pollen transfer between zoogamous plants is strongly influenced by spatial structure of plant population and functional traits of its vectors - pollinators. Spatial structure of plants can be described by attributes that may affect pollen transfer, such as population size, density, aggregation and composition of surrounding plants. Both the main pollintor groups and individual pollinators differ in pollen transfer distance, pollen carry-over capacity, food specialisation, preferences and sensoric abilities. Due to these differences, they vary in impact on pollen transfer in a different spatial structure of plant population. Understanding the impact of individual attributes of both of these components and their influence on pollination can help us to get a better idea of how sexual reproduction works at the plant population level. Key words pollination, plant-pollinator interactions, spatial structure of population, pollen transfer, pollinators, sexual reproduction of plants
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Aplikace molekulárních metod na identifikaci nekrofágních zástupců řádu Diptera, typických pro Jihomoravský kraj
Mifková, Tamara
Necrophagous insects plays an important role, especially in forensic practice, especially in determining the time of death. This work was aimed to monitor necrophagous species of the Diptera order in selected localities of South Moravian Region - Rakvice and Sokolnice. Furthermore, these necrophagous species were identified with anatomical-morphological and molecular genetic methods, which have been compared to each other. For this purpose it was necessary to isolate a DNA segment and amplify cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene by the PCR method and with further processing to obtain the sequence of selected individuals from the mitochondrial genome. The results of the experiment more coincided with morphological identification database BOLD outputs than with outputs from the BLAST database. Anatomical and morphological identification cannot always accurately determine the genus and species necrophags, the assesment is not dependent not only on the development stage of the insect and its condition, but also on the expertise of the determinator. Most accurater results are achieved with use the combination of anatomical and morphological and molecular-genetic methods of determination, which is confirmed by the results of this thesis.
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Alternative vectors of Leishmania (Kinetoplastida: Trypanosomatidae)
Jursová, Klára ; Sádlová, Jovana (advisor) ; Dvořák, Vít (referee)
The life cycle of Leishmania (Kinetoplastida: Tripanosomatidae) alternates between vertebrate hosts and insect vectors. Phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) were supposed to be the only arthropod vectors supporting morphological and functional development of the parasite including production of infective metacyclic forms capable to infect the vertebrate host. Recently also other bloodsucking arthropods have been suggested for possible transmission of some Leishmania species. The bachelor thesis summarizes the recent knowledge about these alternative vectors of Leishmania.
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Succession and sezonality of necrobiont insects communities on carcasses of small mammals
Mikátová, Šárka ; Šípek, Petr (advisor) ; Šuláková, Hana (referee)
The presented master thesis describes the changes of insects communities on carcases of small mammals in course of the decay. We focused both on aspects of (temporal) succession as well on season dependent differences in carrion insect community. The study was carried out during the seasons 2014 and 2015; in each of the years we used a different carrion type (2014: mice (Mus musculus) +/- 20g, 2015: brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) 400-500g). Because we wanted to record the actual successional stage, we used a "walk-through" type of traps instead of commonly used pitfall traps. The general succession pattern was similar in both seasons; however the succession course of brown rat carcasses was slightly delayed. The succession was strongly influenced by the first species colonizing the carrion and morover, most of the carcasses were dominated or monopolized by a single species (or species group). Only the carcasses of mice were buried by the burying beetles (Silphinae: Nicrophorus). Bow flies (Calliphoridae) have been identified as the most common members of carrion insect communities. The other important members were the flesh flies (Sarcophagidae), and beetle families Silphidae and Staphylinidae. The highest abundance of insect was observed in summer, lowest abundance either in spring or fall depending on the...
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Peritrophic matrix of bloodsucking Dipteran insects.
Homola, Miroslav ; Sádlová, Jovana (advisor) ; Votýpka, Jan (referee)
The peritrophic matrix is an acellular envelope which surrounds the food bolus in the midgut of many animal species (especially in insects). It fulfils many functions in the midgut e. g.: protects the gut against an abrasion and against toxic substances, improves the digestion of food and protects the gut epithelium against pathogens. The last function might be the main reason of the occurrence of the peritrophic matrix in large amount of insect species. The peritrophic matrix is composed of chitin fibres and proteins. Chitin provides the peritrophic matrix strength and flexibility. Chitin fibres can be organised into three elementary structures: random, hexagonal and squared. The size of pores in peritrophic matrix depends on incorporated proteins - especially peritrophins. These pores determine the permeability of the peritrophic matrix for various penetrating molecules including digestive enzymes. This bachelor thesis is focused on Insecta sensu stricto (Hexapoda) and mainly on the order Diptera, especially bloodsucking species. Following chapters review recent information about the peritrophic matrix and its nomenclature, occurrence, assembling, composition and functions. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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