Habitat fragmentation and endangerment of snakes in Croatia

Zmije su izduženi, beznogi, karnivorni reptili koji se mogu naći na svakom kontinentu osim Antartika. To su hladnokrvni kralježnjaci sa karakterističnim ljuskama na površini kože. Mnoge zmije su zaštićene IUCN – ovom listom zaštite ili Zakonom o zaštiti prirode. Najveći razlozi ugroženosti zmija u Hrvatskoj su onečišćenje tla, vode i zraka, gubitak i fragmentacija staništa, pretjerano iskorištavanje zemljišta, nestanak neinvazivne tradicionalne poljoprivrede, sukcesija, bolesti, klimatske promjene, požari uzrokovani ljudskim djelatnostima, unošenje invazivnih stranih vrsta, nedovoljna edukacija ljudi (zamjena neotrovnih vrsta zmija sa otrovnima), neplanska gradnja raznih infrastrukura (od vjetroelektrana do autocesta). U ovom radu izložen je pregled ugroženih zmija Hrvatske i razlozi njihove ugroženosti. Smatram da bi najbolji način zaštite i očuvanja broja vrsta zmija u Hrvatskoj bio: • edukacija stanovništa o zmijama i njihovoj važnosti u ekološkom sustavu • ugradnja smjernica za izradu prijelaza za male divlje životinje (gmazove) u planove cestovne infrastrukture, zbog velikog stradavanja na cestama. • edukacija javnosti o štetnosti požara u područjima važnima za biološku raznolikost i strože sankcije počinitelja takvih djela • prilikom planiranja izgradnje infrastrukture sagledavati i kumulativni efekt zahvata.Snakes are elongated, legless, carnivorous reptiles that can be found on every continent except Antarctica. They are ectothermic vertebrates covered in characteristic scales. Many of them are protected by the IUCN list of protection and national Law of Nature Protection. Biggest reasons of endangerment of snakes in Croatia are pollution of soil, water and air, loss and fragmentation of habitats, over-exploitation of land, disappearance of non-invasive traditional agriculture, succession, disease, climate changes, forest fires caused by human activities, importation of invasive alien species, insufficient education of people (substitute of non-venomous species for venomous snakes), unplanned construction of various infrastructures (from wind power to the highway). This paper presents an overview of endangered snake of Croatia and the reasons for their status. I believe that the best way of protecting and preserving the number of snake species in Croatia is: • educate the population about snakes and their importance in the ecosystem • installation of guidelines for making the transition for small wild animals (reptiles) in road infrastructure plans, because of the great casualties on the road • educating the public about fire hazards in areas important for biodiversity and stronger sanctions against perpetrators of such acts • when planning the construction of infrastructure observe cumulative effect of the procedure

Pokretljivost bakterija po inertnoj površini posredovana kapilarnim silama

Here we describe an additional type of bacterial migration in which bacterial cells migrate vertically across a non-nutritive solid surface carried by capillary forces. Unlike standard motility experiments, these were run on a glass slide inserted into a Falcon tube, partly immersed in a nutrient medium and partly exposed to air. Observations revealed that capillary forces initiated upward cell migration when biofilm was formed at the border between liquid and air. The movement was facilitated by the production of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). This motility differs from earlier described swarming, twitching, gliding, sliding, or surfing, although these types of movements are not excluded. We therefore propose to call it “capillary movement of biofilm”. This phenomenon may be an ecologically important mode of bacterial motility on solid surfaces.Primijećen je i prikazan dosad neopisan način pokretljivosti bakterija u obliku biofilma. Pokazano je kako se bakterijske stanice iz biofilma formiranoga na razmeđi tekućine i zraka gibaju okomito po staklenom predmetnom stakalcu, inertnoj, nehranjivoj ali djelomično vlažnoj površini. Takva površina, izložena zraku, uvelike se razlikuje od površine hranjivog agara, ili od površine prekrivene hranjivim agarom, kakve se koriste u standardnim testovima za ispitivanje bakterijske pokretljivosti u biofilmu. Sudeći prema opažanjima, stanice se prvotno gibaju posredstvom kapilarnih sila, a kada se formira biofilm, stvaranje izvanstanične polimerne tvari (EPS) potiče daljnju migraciju bakterija. Takva pokretljivost opažena je kod svih testiranih a fiziološki bitno različitih bakterijskih vrsta. Kako se eksperimentalni postav značajno razlikuje od standardnih testova praćenja bakterijske pokretljivosti, kao što su rojenje (swarming), trzanje (twitching) ili klizanje po površini (gliding, sliding ili surfing), predložen je generički naziv “kapilarna pokretljivost biofilma”. Ovdje opisani fenomen mogao bi biti značajan ekološki čimbenik pokretljivosti bakterija u okolišu

Aquatic dance flies (Diptera, Empididae, Clinocerinae and Hemerodromiinae) of Greece: species richness, distribution and description of five new species

Volume: 724Start Page: 53End Page: 10

Figure 14 from: Ivković M, Ćevid J, Horvat B, Sinclair BJ (2017) Aquatic dance flies (Diptera, Empididae, Clinocerinae and Hemerodromiinae) of Greece: species richness, distribution and description of five new species. ZooKeys 724: 53-100. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.724.21415

All records of aquatic dance flies (37 species in subfamily Clinocerinae and 10 species in subfamily Hemerodromiinae) from the territory of Greece are summarized, including previously unpublished data and data on five newly described species (Chelifera horvati Ivković & Sinclair, sp. n., Wiedemannia iphigeniae Ivković & Sinclair, sp. n., W. ljerkae Ivković & Sinclair, sp. n., W. nebulosa Ivković & Sinclair, sp. n. and W. pseudoberthelemyi Ivković & Sinclair, sp. n.). The new species are described and illustrated, the male terminalia of Clinocera megalatlantica (Vaillant) are illustrated and the distributions of all species within Greece are listed. The aquatic Empididae fauna of Greece consists of 47 species, with the following described species reported for the first time: Chelifera angusta Collin, Hemerodromia melangyna Collin, Clinocera megalatlantica, Kowarzia plectrum (Mik), Phaeobalia dimidiata (Loew), W. (Chamaedipsia) beckeri (Mik), W. (Philolutra) angelieri Vaillant and W. (P.) chvali Joost. A key to species of aquatic Empididae of Greece is provided for the first time. Information related to the European Ecoregions in which species were found is given. Compared to the other studied countries in the Balkans, the Greek species assemblage is most similar to that of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia