Wood-pastures promote environmental and ecological heterogeneity on a small spatial scale.

Wood-pastures harbor critical natural and social values and are among the most ancient land use forms of Europe. The crucial conservation value of these silvopastoral systems is generally contributed to their characteristic landscape elements, the solitary trees, which provide microhabitats for a variety of organisms. However, by accommodating four habitat types (grasslands, solitary trees, forests, and forest edges) on a relatively small spatial scale, wood-pastures might host functionally and compositionally distinct arthropod communities, thus enhancing the landscape-level biodiversity.

Functional composition of ant assemblages in habitat islands is driven by habitat factors and landscape composition.

Fragmented natural habitats within human-transformed landscapes play a key role in preserving biodiversity. Ants as keystone species are essential elements of terrestrial ecosystems; thus, it is important to understand the factors influencing their presence. In a large-scale multi-site study, we surveyed ant assemblages using sweep netting and D-vac sampling on 158 ancient burial mounds preserving grassland habitats in agricultural landscapes in East-Hungary.

The Myrmecofauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Hungary: Survey of Ant Species with an Annotated Synonymic Inventory.

Ants (Hymenoptera: Forimicidae) are exceedingly common in nature. They constitute a conspicuous part of the terrestrial animal biomass and are also considered common ecosystem engineers. Due to their key role in natural habitats, they are at the basis of any nature conservation policy.

Protective behavior or 'true' tool use? Scrutinizing the tool use behavior of ants.

In the genus workers use tools to transport liquid food to the colony. During this behavior, ants place or drop various kinds of debris into liquids or soft food, and then, they carry the food-soaked tools back to the nest. According to some authors, this behavior is not "true" tool use because it represents two separate processes: a defense response to cover the dangerous liquid and a transport of food.

Behaviours indicating cannibalistic necrophagy in ants are modulated by the perception of pathogen infection level.

Cannibalistic necrophagy is rarely observed in social hymenopterans, although a lack of food could easily favour such behaviour. One of the main supposed reasons for the rarity of necrophagy is that eating of nestmate corpses carries the risk of rapid spread of pathogens or parasites. Here we present an experimental laboratory study on behaviour indicating consumption of nestmate corpses in the ant Formica polyctena.

Large- and Small-Scale Environmental Factors Drive Distributions of Ant Mound Size Across a Latitudinal Gradient.

Red wood ants are keystone species of forest ecosystems in Europe. Environmental factors and habitat characteristics affect the size of their nest mounds, an important trait being in concordance with a colony's well-being and impact on its surroundings. In this study, we investigated the effect of large-scale (latitude and altitude) and small-scale environmental factors (e.

Karst dolines provide diverse microhabitats for different functional groups in multiple phyla.

Fine-scale topographic complexity creates important microclimates that can facilitate species to grow outside their main distributional range and increase biodiversity locally. Enclosed depressions in karst landscapes ('dolines') are topographically complex environments which produce microclimates that are drier and warmer (equator-facing slopes) and cooler and moister (pole-facing slopes and depression bottoms) than the surrounding climate. We show that the distribution patterns of functional groups for organisms in two different phyla, Arthropoda (ants) and Tracheophyta (vascular plants), mirror this variation of microclimate.