Impact of artificial light at night on diurnal plant-pollinator interactions

Artificial light at night has rapidly spread around the globe over the last decades. Evidence is increasing that it has adverse effects on the behavior, physiology, and survival of animals and plants with consequences for species interactions and ecosystem functioning. For example, artificial light at night disrupts plant-pollinator interactions at night and this can have consequences for the plant reproductive output. By experimentally illuminating natural plant-pollinator communities during the night using commercial street-lamps we tested whether light at night can also change interactions of a plant-pollinator community during daytime. Here we show that artificial light at night can alter diurnal plant-pollinator interactions, but the direction of the change depends on the plant species. We conclude that the effect of artificial light at night on plant-pollinator interactions is not limited to the night, but can also propagate to the daytime with so far unknown consequences for the pollinator community and the diurnal pollination function and services they provide

Fern and bryophyte endozoochory by slugs

Endozoochory plays a prominent role for the dispersal of seed plants, and dispersal vectors are well known. However, for taxa such as ferns and bryophytes, endozoochory has only been suggested anecdotally but never tested in controlled experiments. We fed fertile leaflets of three ferns and capsules of four bryophyte species to three slug species. We found that, overall, spores germinated from slug feces in 57.3% of all 89 fern and in 51.3% of all 117 bryophyte samples, showing that the spores survived gut passage of slugs. Moreover, the number of samples within which spores successfully germinated did not differ among plant species but varied strongly among slug species. This opens new ecological perspectives suggesting that fern and bryophyte endozoochory by gastropods is a so-far-overlooked mode of dispersal, which might increase local population sizes of these taxa by spore deposition on suitable substrate

Weeds and endangered herbs have unforeseen dispersal helpers in the agri-environment: gastropods and earthworms

Agri-environmental schemes involving organic farming or set-aside management aim at promoting biodiversity and restoring ecosystem functioning in agrarian landscapes. Application of pesticides in these crop fields is strongly regulated facilitating the spread of weeds but also allowing for the establishment of endangered herbs and a variety of animals. Recent studies found gastropods and earthworms to be legitimate dispersers of seeds of wild plants. We assumed that both groups also play a significant role in the spread and establishment of wild plants within crop fields. Therefore, we are conducting a series of experiments in three different study systems on (1) the role of earthworms and gastropods as dispersers of rare herbs and weeds in an organic rye field in Germany, (2) the seed feeding behavior of gastropods of plants sown in fallow ground in Switzerland, and (3) weed dispersal in irrigated rice fields by golden apple snails in the Philippine

Penestragania apicalis (Osborn & Ball, 1898), another invasive Nearctic leafhopper found in Europe: (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae, Iassinae)

Penestragania apicalis (Osborn & Ball, 1898), eine weitere invasive nearktische Zikade in Europa gefunden (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae, Iassinae). – Im Jahr 2010 wurde die nearktische Zikadenart Penestragania apicalis (Osb. & Ball) erstmalig in Europa gefunden. Insgesamt sind derzeit 16 Fundorte in Frankreich, der Schweiz, Deutschland und Österreich bekannt; daher ist davon auszugehen, dass die Art bereits seit längerer Zeit fest etabliert und in Europa und vielleicht weltweit weiter verbreitet ist. Wie in Nordamerika lebt sie an Gleditschie (Gleditsia triacanthos L.), überwintert im Eistadium und hat eine oder zwei Generation pro Jahr, mit adulten Tieren von mindestens Ende Juni bis Anfang Oktober. Ob in Europa wirtschaftlich relevante Schäden verursacht werden, ist noch unklar.In 2010 the Nearctic leafhopper Penestragania apicalis (Osb. & Ball) was found for the first time in Europe. Altogether there are now 16 known localities in France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria indicating that the species is well es‐ tablished for a rather long period and more widespread in Europe and perhaps worldwide. As in North America it lives on honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos L.), overwinters in the egg stage and probably has one or two generations a year, with adults at least from late June until early October. It is yet unclear if it causes relevant damage to the host plant in Europe

New and remarkable leafhoppers and planthoppers (Hemiptera: Auchenorrhyncha) from Switzerland

Uploaded for Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft by Plaz

Evaluating next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods for routine monitoring of wild bees: metabarcoding, mitogenomics or NGS barcoding

Implementing cost-effective monitoring programs for wild bees remains challenging due to the high costs of sampling and specimen identification. To reduce costs, next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based methods have lately been suggested as alternatives to morphology-based identifications. To provide a comprehensive presentation of the advantages and weaknesses of different NGS-based identification methods, we assessed three of the most promising ones, namely metabarcoding, mitogenomics and NGS barcoding. Using a regular monitoring data set (723 specimens identified using morphology), we found that NGS barcoding performed best for both species presence/absence and abundance data, producing only few false positives (3.4%) and no false negatives. In contrast, the proportion of false positives and false negatives was higher using metabarcoding and mitogenomics. Although strong correlations were found between biomass and read numbers, abundance estimates significantly skewed the communities' composition in these two techniques. NGS barcoding recovered the same ecological patterns as morphology. Ecological conclusions based on metabarcoding and mitogenomics were similar to those based on morphology when using presence/absence data, but different when using abundance data. In terms of workload and cost, we show that metabarcoding and NGS barcoding can compete with morphology, but not mitogenomics which was consistently more expensive. Based on these results, we advocate that NGS barcoding is currently the seemliest NGS method for monitoring of wild bees. Furthermore, this method has the advantage of potentially linking DNA sequences with preserved voucher specimens, which enable morphological re-examination and will thus produce verifiable records which can be fed into faunistic databases

Penestragania apicalis (Osborn & Ball,1898),another invasive Nearctic leafhopper found in Europe

In 2010 the Nearctic leafhopper Penestragania apicalis (Osb.& Ball) was found for the first time in Europe. Altogether there are now 16 known localities in France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria indicating that the species is well established for a rather long period and more widespread in Europe and perhaps worldwide. As in North America it lives on honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos L.), overwinters in the egg stage and probably has one or two generations a year, with adults at least from late June until early October. It is yet unclear if it causes relevant damage to the host plant in Europe

Insektenvielfalt in der Schweiz: Bedeutung, Trends, Handlungsoptionen

Die Situation der Insekten in der Schweiz sei besorgniserregend, schreiben Forschende im ersten umfassenden Zustandsbericht «Insektenvielfalt in der Schweiz», publiziert vom Forum Biodiversität der Akademie der Naturwissenschaften Schweiz. Sie haben die verfügbaren Daten der Roten Listen, von Monitoringprogrammen und Studien analysiert. Demnach gingen Vielfalt und Grösse der Insektenbestände vor allem im Mittelland stark zurück, mittlerweile aber auch im Jura und in den Alpen. Um die teils dramatischen Entwicklungen zu stoppen, schlagen die Autorinnen und Autoren das wissenschaftlich basierte «12-Punkte-Programm Insekten» vor