Review
Plant Sciences
Perla Tenorio-Escandon, Alfredo Ramirez-Hernandez, Joel Flores, Jorge Juan-Vicedo, Ana Paola Martinez-Falcon
Summary: This study conducted a systematic review of the pollination ecology of Opuntia spp. plants, highlighting the current state of research and identifying gaps, particularly in the understanding of the insects involved. The findings reveal that only a small percentage of Opuntia species have been extensively studied in terms of pollination ecology, with most studies focusing on individual species biology. Further research is needed to improve the conservation status of the insects associated with Opuntia species and to enhance biodiversity, agricultural sustainability, and productivity in arid and marginal lands.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
James Desaegher, Francois Chiron, Carmen Bessa-Gomes
Summary: Studies on the effects of urbanization on pollinator diversity have produced contrasting results, with some suggesting urban areas as ecological sinks and others as possible refuges. The diversity of non-urban areas being compared and the interactions among habitats may contribute to these divergent results. In this study, we investigated the interactive effects of urban, agricultural, and semi-natural areas on flower-visiting insect richness at the landscape scale. Our findings showed that urbanization negatively impacted the overall richness of flower visitors, especially when associated with agricultural areas. However, we also observed synergistic effects between agricultural and semi-natural areas, with the highest richness found in agricultural landscapes composed of approximately 30% semi-natural areas. Additionally, our study revealed different richness patterns for different visitor taxa, with urban areas being less detrimental to bee richness compared to agricultural areas, and highest richness observed in agricultural and semi-natural areas for syrphids and butterflies, respectively.
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Mathematics
Mohamed Abdel-Basset, Reda Mohamed, Safaa Saber, S. S. Askar, Mohamed Abouhawwash
Summary: The paper introduces a modified flower pollination algorithm (MFPA) and a new variant HFPA, which are competitive in various test cases according to the experimental findings.
Article
Forestry
Riko Komamura, Kohei Koyama, Takeo Yamauchi, Yasuo Konno, Lingshuang Gu
Summary: The study identified the most important pollinators of Cardiocrinum cordatum as the bumblebee, sweat bee, and marmalade hoverfly, while the contribution of a flower-visiting ant species was found to be small. The research also highlighted the need for more information on flower-visiting species to accurately assess pollination contribution.
Article
Plant Sciences
Xiaokai Ma, Mahpara Fatima, Jing Li, Ping Zhou, Madiha Zaynab, Ray Ming
Summary: Reproductive growth in spinach involves high energy consumption. Pollination induces changes in energy-associated pathways in sepal tissues, particularly in central carbon metabolism, to support sepal longevity and development. Gene expression changes in these pathways are observed after 48 hours of fertilization, with significant changes occurring at 96 hours when considerable sepal development takes place.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Jesus Martinez-Gomez, Seongjun Park, Samantha R. Hartogs, Valerie L. Soza, Seon Joo Park, Veronica S. Di Stilio
Summary: This study investigated the correlation between floral morphology and pollination mode in the Thalictrum genus. It was found that there is a positive correlation between the lengths of floral reproductive structures and pollination mode, with shorter structures associated with insect pollination and longer structures associated with wind pollination. The study highlights the existence of convergent evolution in the Thalictrum genus, with different paths leading to different pollination modes.
Article
Ecology
Jeroen Scheper, Tibor Bukovinszky, Martinus E. Huigens, David Kleijn
Summary: Establishing wildflower strips can benefit multiple species groups, but maximizing different objectives may involve trade-offs between functional groups preferring short- or long-corolla flowers. Furthermore, sowing a wildflower mixture may not result in a vegetation with the same composition as the seed mixture.
BASIC AND APPLIED ECOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Camilla R. Sharkey, Gareth S. Powell, Seth M. Bybee
Summary: Research has found that flowers use color signals to attract insect pollinators, with beetles being one of the early plant pollinators whose evolution in detecting and distinguishing flower color signals is not well understood. Traditional models of pollinator visual systems often assume a trichromatic or tetrachromatic flower-visitor, but beetles, as an ancestral pollinator, differ in lacking the blue-sensitive photoreceptor class leading to an independent evolution of visual systems.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Joe Chun Chia Huang, Yun Chen Hsieh, Sheng Shan Lu, Wen Chi Yeh, Jia Yuan Liang, Chien Jung Lin, Gene Sheng Tung
Summary: The study investigated the diversity and behavior of insects visiting flowers of Melastoma species in Taiwan, identifying pollination as the most dominant insect-flower interaction. Sweat bees were considered key pollinators due to their high number of visits and sonication behavior. The research provided valuable baseline data on insect-plant interactions with Melastoma species in the country.
BIODIVERSITY DATA JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Jesus Hernando Gomez, Pablo Benavides, Juan Diego Maldonado, Juliana Jaramillo, Flor Edith Acevedo, Zulma Nancy Gil
Summary: This study investigated the role of flower-visiting insects in the pollination of self-pollinating plants, specifically coffee. The results showed that insects contributed significantly to coffee berry set, yield, and weight of beans. However, there was no difference in the sensory quality of coffee produced with or without insect pollination.
Article
Plant Sciences
Natalia Wisniewska, Andrzej Gdaniec, Agnieszka K. Kowalkowska
Summary: This study focuses on the microscopical, chemical, and ultrastructural features of the floral secretory tissues in two species of fly-pollinated plants, Echidnopsis cereiformis and Stapelia scitula. It compares these features with previously studied orchid species and notes significant differences in secretion between the two plant families. The presence of a prominent periplasmic space in the epidermal cells of Stapelia scitula is particularly noteworthy and may have taxonomic significance.
SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Ralf Braun-Reichert, Sven Rubanschi, Peter Poschlod
Summary: The abandonment of historical land-use forms and atmospheric nitrogen deposition in Central Europe has led to an increasing overgrowth of forest gaps and canopy closure. This study found that the overgrowth process negatively affected flower supply, flower-visiting insects, and seed sets of Campanula species. Forest gaps should be managed to maintain the reproduction of open forest plants and their pollinators.
ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Stefan Abrahamczyk, Michael Kessler, Tobias Roth, Nico Heer
Summary: The increase in local plant species richness in Switzerland is mainly driven by wind-pollinated and generalist insect-pollinated, self-compatible species, while species with complex flowers and self-incompatible reproductive systems benefit less.
BMC ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Ecology
Cristopher Albor, Tia-Lynn Ashman, Amber Stanley, Carlos Martel, Gerardo Arceo-Gomez
Summary: This study uncovers the role of competition and facilitation in community assembly and shows that plant-plant interactions can be structured along multiple traits. Different trait assembly patterns exist within the same co-flowering community, suggesting that a single trait cannot fully explain assembly patterns.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Tobias Hayashi, Noushka Reiter, Ryan D. Phillips, Rod Peakall
Summary: This study investigates the pollination process of the Australian orchid Pterostylis cycnocephala and identifies an undescribed Bradysia sp. male fungus gnat as its main pollinator, which displays sexual behavior on the flowers. The study shows that floral odor is primarily responsible for long-range attraction, while floral morphology is necessary to induce the copulatory behavior required for pollination.
BOTANICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
(2022)
Review
Zoology
L. Galli, D. Bartel, M. Capurro, G. Pass, A. Sara, J. Shrubovych, N. Szucsich
ITALIAN JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
(2016)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
O. Hawlitschek, J. Moriniere, G. U. C. Lehmann, A. W. Lehmann, M. Kropf, A. Dunz, F. Glaw, M. Detcharoen, S. Schmidt, A. Hausmann, N. U. Szucsich, S. A. Caetano-Wyler, G. Haszprunar
MOLECULAR ECOLOGY RESOURCES
(2017)
Article
Anatomy & Morphology
Harald W. Krenn, Julia A. -S. Bauder
JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY
(2018)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Julia Shrubovych, Daniela Bartel, Nikolaus Urban Szucsich, Monika Carol Resch, Guenther Pass
Review
Environmental Sciences
Hannah Weigand, Arne J. Beermann, Fedor Ciampor, Filipe O. Costa, Zoltan Csabai, Sofia Duarte, Matthias F. Geiger, Micha Grabowski, Frederic Rimet, Bjoern Rulik, Malin Strand, Nikolaus Szucsich, Alexander M. Weigand, Endre Willassen, Sofia A. Wyler, Agnes Bouchez, Angel Borja, Zuzana Ciamporova-Zat'ovicova, Sonia Ferreira, Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra, Ursula Eisendle, Joerg Freyhof, Piotr Gadawski, Wolfram Graf, Arne Haegerbaeumer, Berry B. van der Hoorn, Bella Japoshvili, Lujza Keresztes, Emre Keskin, Florian Leese, Jan Macher, Tomasz Mamos, Guy Paz, Vladimir Pesic, Daniela Maric Pfannkuchen, Martin Andreas Pfannkuchen, Benjamin W. Price, Buki Rinkevich, Marcos A. L. Teixeira, Gabor Varbiro, Torbjrn Ekrem
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2019)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Mose Manni, Felipe A. Simao, Hugh M. Robertson, Marco A. Gabaglio, Robert M. Waterhouse, Bernhard Misof, Oliver Niehuis, Nikolaus U. Szucsich, Evgeny M. Zdobnov
GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2020)
Article
Anatomy & Morphology
Andreas Loescher, Harald W. Krenn, Thomas Schwaha, Michael Seiter
Summary: This study compared the morphology of male reproductive organs in four different neoamblypygid taxa using computer tomography and 3D reconstruction. The results showed that while there was general similarity in the structure of male reproductive systems among the investigated taxa, there were notable differences in some structures. These findings provide the basis for understanding the reproductive biology and evolution of whip spiders.
JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Nikolaus Helmer, Hubert Blatterer, Christoph Hoerweg, usanne Reier, Helmut Sattmann, Julia Schindelar, Nikolaus U. Szucsich, Elisabeth Haring
Summary: Several species of avian schistosomes can cause dermatitis in humans globally, with Trichobilharzia species being predominant in Europe. In Austria, although there is abundant data on cercarial dermatitis and the occurrence of Trichobilharzia, species identification is often uncertain due to morphological challenges. The discovery of a previously unknown species, Trichobilharzia physellae, in freshwater snails in Austria suggests a possible recent introduction of this parasite into Europe, with a close genetic relationship to North American specimens.
Article
Anatomy & Morphology
Caroline Reinwald, Julia A. -S Bauder, Florian Karolyi, Michael Neulinger, Sarah Jaros, Brian Metscher, Harald W. Krenn
Summary: This study examined the morphology of proboscis and feeding organs in different species of nectar-feeding hawk moths. Despite variations in proboscis length and feeding strategies, the external and internal composition of galeae, stipes pump, and suction pump were similar across all species. The morphology of the proboscis, especially the arrangement of sensilla at the tip, was highly conserved. The honey-feeding species Acherontia atropos exhibited a unique piercing proboscis, while the supposedly nonfeeding species still possessed all organs of the feeding apparatus. Morphometric analysis revealed correlations between different organ volumes, suggesting fine-tuning in the evolution of proboscis length and function.
JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Entomology
Pascal Querner, Nikolaus Szucsich, Bill Landsberger, Sven Erlacher, Lukasz Trebicki, Michal Grabowski, Peter Brimblecombe
Summary: Ctenolepisma calvum, a newly discovered species of Lepismatidae, originated from Sri Lanka and has spread to countries like Germany. It is primarily found in buildings and may spread through materials. This study provides a description and analysis of its preferred habitat, climate requirements, and potential impact on museums in Central Europe.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Nikolaus Helmer, Christoph Hoerweg, Helmut Sattmann, Susanne Reier, Nikolaus U. Szucsich, Jana Bulantova, Elisabeth Haring
Summary: We developed and evaluated species-specific PCR primers for detecting Trichobilharzia species using eDNA barcoding in Austrian water bodies. The primers successfully identified T. szidati and T. physellae from both field eDNA samples and lab-generated samples. However, there was considerable variation in replicate results. PCR tests on aquarium water, where cercariae had been released, still detected eDNA even after 44 days. Sensitivity tests showed successful amplification down to concentrations of 0.83 pg/mu L and 0.008 pg/mu L for genomic DNA and PCR products of T. szidati, respectively. The study highlights the potential misidentification risks associated with presumed species-specific PCR primers.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Marcia Sittenthaler, Iris Fischer, Andreas Chovanec, Stephan Koblmueller, Oliver Macek, Helmut Sattmann, Nikolaus Szucsich, Lukas Zangl, Elisabeth Haring
Summary: Monitoring of odonates has become an important tool for assessing the ecological status of (semi-)aquatic habitats. The finding of exuviae can provide evidence of successful reproduction, but morphological identification is time-consuming. The development of a DNA barcoding approach for identifying exuviae can enhance species identification, particularly for rare and endangered species.
JOURNAL OF INSECT CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Parasitology
Susanne Reier, Elisabeth Haring, Florian Billinger, Hubert Blatterer, Michael Duda, Christopher Gorofsky, Hans-Peter Grasser, Wolfgang Heinisch, Christoph Hoerweg, Luise Kruckenhauser, Nikolaus U. Szucsich, Alexandra Wanka, Helmut Sattmann
PARASITOLOGY RESEARCH
(2020)
Article
Evolutionary Biology
Nikolaus U. Szucsich, Daniela Bartel, Alexander Blanke, Alexander Boehm, Alexander Donath, Makiko Fukui, Simon Grove, Shanlin Liu, Oliver Macek, Ryuichiro Machida, Bernhard Misof, Yasutaka Nakagaki, Lars Podsiadlowski, Kaoru Sekiya, Shigekazu Tomizuka, Bjoern M. Von Reumont, Robert M. Waterhouse, Manfred Walzl, Guanliang Meng, Xin Zhou, Guenther Pass, Karen Meusemann
BMC EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY
(2020)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Gregg W. C. Thomas, Elias Dohmen, Daniel S. T. Hughes, Shwetha C. Murali, Monica Poelchau, Karl Glastad, Clare A. Anstead, Nadia A. Ayoub, Phillip Batterham, Michelle Bellair, Greta J. Binford, Hsu Chao, Yolanda H. Chen, Christopher Childers, Huyen Dinh, Harsha Vardhan Doddapaneni, Jian J. Duan, Shannon Dugan, Lauren A. Esposito, Markus Friedrich, Jessica Garb, Robin B. Gasser, Michael A. D. Goodisman, Dawn E. Gundersen-Rindal, Yi Han, Alfred M. Handler, Masatsugu Hatakeyama, Lars Hering, Wayne B. Hunter, Panagiotis Ioannidis, Joy C. Jayaseelan, Divya Kalra, Abderrahman Khila, Pasi K. Korhonen, Carol Eunmi Lee, Sandra L. Lee, Yiyuan Li, Amelia R. I. Lindsey, Georg Mayer, Alistair P. McGregor, Duane D. McKenna, Bernhard Misof, Mala Munidasa, Monica Munoz-Torres, Donna M. Muzny, Oliver Niehuis, Nkechinyere Osuji-Lacy, Subba R. Palli, Kristen A. Panfilio, Matthias Pechmann, Trent Perry, Ralph S. Peters, Helen C. Poynton, Nikola-Michael Prpic, Jiaxin Qu, Dorith Rotenberg, Coby Schal, Sean D. Schoville, Erin D. Scully, Evette Skinner, Daniel B. Sloan, Richard Stouthamer, Michael R. Strand, Nikolaus U. Szucsich, Asela Wijeratne, Neil D. Young, Eduardo E. Zattara, Joshua B. Benoit, Evgeny M. Zdobnov, Michael E. Pfrender, Kevin J. Hackett, John H. Werren, Kim C. Worley, Richard A. Gibbs, Ariel D. Chipman, Robert M. Waterhouse, Erich Bornberg-Bauer, Matthew W. Hahn, Stephen Richards