Biased dispersal of Metrioptera bicolor, a wing dimorphic bush-cricket.

In the highly fragmented landscape of central Europe, dispersal is of particular importance as it determines the long-term survival of animal populations. Dispersal not only secures the recolonization of patches where populations went extinct, it may also rescue small populations and thus prevent local extinction events. As dispersal involves different individual fitness costs, the decision to disperse should not be random but context-dependent and often will be biased toward a certain group of individuals (e.

Observation of the Mating Behavior of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) Queens Using Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID): Factors Influencing the Duration and Frequency of Nuptial Flights.

We used radio-frequency identification (RFID) to record the duration and frequency of nuptial flights of honey bee queens (Apis mellifera carnica) at two mainland mating apiaries. We investigated the effect of a number of factors on flight duration and frequency: mating apiary, number of drone colonies, queen's age and temperature. We found significant differences between the two locations concerning the number of flights on the first three days.

The effect of translocation on movement behaviour--a test of the assumptions of behavioural studies.

Animal movement behaviour is intensively investigated with capture-mark-recapture studies. For the analysis of such experiments, the influence of marking technique, handling and translocation of marked animals on movement pattern is of crucial importance since it may mask or overrule the effects of the main research question. Here we present a capture-mark-recapture experiment on the movement behaviour of the blue-winged grasshopper Oedipoda caerulescens.