Morphology-based classification of the flying capacities of aquatic insects: A first attempt.

Flight is a key feature of the reproduction and dispersal of emerging aquatic insects. However, morphological measurements of insect flight are mostly available for terrestrial taxa and dragonflies, while aquatic insects have been poorly investigated. We analyzed 7 flight-related morphological parameters of 32 taxa belonging to 5 orders of emerging aquatic insects (Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera, Plecoptera, Diptera, and Megaloptera) with different life history traits related to flight (dispersal strategy, voltinism, adult lifespan, and swarming behavior).

Preferred temperature in the warmth of cities: Body size, sex and development stage matter more than urban climate in a ground-dwelling spider.

Most ectotherms rely on behavioural thermoregulation to maintain body temperatures close to their physiological optimum. Hence, ectotherms can drastically limit their exposure to thermal extremes by selecting a narrower range of temperatures, which includes their preferred temperature (Tpref). Despite evidence that behavioural thermoregulation can be adjusted by phenotypic plasticity or constrained by natural selection, intraspecific Tpref variations across environmental gradients remain overlooked as compared to other thermal traits like thermal tolerance.

Effects of phthalate and bisphenol plasticizers on the activity of glycolytic enzymes of the moth Spodoptera littoralis.

Environmental plastic pollution has significantly increased in the recent decades, and severely impacts economies, human and biodiversity health. Plastics are made of several chemical additives, including bisphenol and phthalate plasticizers such as bisphenol A (BPA) and Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP). In some animal species, both BPA and DEHP are known as endocrine disruptor compounds, and can alter physiological and metabolic homeostasis, reproduction, development and/or behavior.

Northern range shift may be due to increased competition induced by protection of species rather than to climate change alone.

Few long-term, large-scale studies have been conducted about the factors likely to explain changes in species abundance and distribution in winter. Range shifts are generally attributed to the climate change or land use. This study shows that other factors such as species protection and the ensuing increasing numbers of individuals and competition could be involved.

When local extinction and colonization of river fishes can be predicted by regional occupancy: the role of spatial scales.

Background: Predicting which species are likely to go extinct is perhaps one of the most fundamental yet challenging tasks for conservation biologists. This is particularly relevant for freshwater ecosystems which tend to have the highest proportion of species threatened with extinction. According to metapopulation theories, local extinction and colonization rates of freshwater subpopulations can depend on the degree of regional occupancy, notably due to rescue effects.

Habitat fragmentation impacts mobility in a common and widespread woodland butterfly: do sexes respond differently?

Background: Theory predicts a nonlinear response of dispersal evolution to habitat fragmentation. First, dispersal will be favoured in line with both decreasing area of habitat patches and increasing inter-patch distances. Next, once these inter-patch distances exceed a critical threshold, dispersal will be counter-selected, unless essential resources no longer co-occur in compact patches but are differently scattered; colonization of empty habitat patches or rescue of declining populations are then increasingly overruled by dispersal costs like mortality risks and loss of time and energy.

Metacommunity dynamics: decline of functional relationship along a habitat fragmentation gradient.

Background: The metacommunity framework is crucial to the study of functional relations along environmental gradients. Changes in resource grain associated with increasing habitat fragmentation should generate uncoupled responses of interacting species with contrasted dispersal abilities.

Methodology/principal Findings: Here we tested whether the intensity of parasitism was modified by increasing habitat fragmentation in the well know predator-prey system linking the parasitoid Cotesia glomerata (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) to its main host Pieris brassicae (Lepidoptera: Pieridae).