Levente Szőcs

Long‐term species loss and homogenization of moth communities in Central Europe

As global biodiversity continues to decline steeply, it is becoming increasingly important to understand diversity patterns at local and regional scales. Changes in land use and climate, nitrogen deposition and invasive species are the most important threats to global biodiversity. Because land use changes tend to benefit a few species but impede many, the expected outcome is generally decreasing population sizes, decreasing species richness at local and regional scales, and increasing similarity of species compositions across sites (biotic homogenization). Homogenization can be also driven by invasive species or effects of soil eutrophication propagating to higher trophic levels. In contrast, in the absence of increasing aridity, climate warming is predicted to generally increase abundances and species richness of poikilotherms at local and regional scales. We tested these predictions with data from one of the few existing monitoring programmes on biodiversity in the world dating to the 1960s, where the abundance of 878 species of macro-moths have been measured daily at seven sites across Hungary. Our analyses revealed a dramatic rate of regional species loss and homogenization of community compositions across sites. Species with restricted distribution range, specialized diet or dry grassland habitat were more likely than others to disappear from the community. In global context, the contrasting effects of climate change and land use changes could explain why the predicted enriching effects from climate warming are not always realized.

Parasitoid complex of leaf miner Pyllonorycter comparella (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae) in Hungary

Abstract Between 2011 and 2014, 1,154 mines of Phyllonorycter comparella (Duponchel) were collected at 12 locations in Hungary and were put into single-mine rearing containers. A total of 574 parasitoid specimens belonging to 29 parasitoid species (26 Chalcididae, 2 Encyrtidae and 1 Braconidae) emerged. Of these species, 13 have not yet been mentioned in either international or in Hungarian literature as a parasitoid of the P. comparella. The species assemblages of the parasitoid complexes varied greatly among the sample sites. The primary dominant species of the total samples was found to be Sympiesis sericeicornis (Nees), an abundant idiobiont solitary ectoparasitoid. Among the species reared, we have found specialist parasitoids such as Achrysocharoides scaposa (Erdős) and even species never recorded from Populus (Zagrammosoma variegatum (Masi)) according to the Universal Chalcidoidea Database. Kivonat A Populus alba-n élő Phyllonorycter comparella (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) levélaknázó magyarországi parazitoid együttesei. 1154 Phyllonorycter comparella (Duponchel) levélaknát gyűjtöttünk és tettünk egyedi nevelésbe 2011-2014 között, 12 Magyarországi helyszínről. A nevelésből kikelt 574 parazitoid egyed alapján 29 fajt (26 Chalcididae, 2 Encyrtidae és 1 Braconidae) sikerült azonosítani. Ezek közül 13 fajt sem a nemzetközi sem a hazai szakirodalom korábbról nem említ, mint a P. comparella parazitoidjait. Különböző mintagyűjtési helyszínek parazitoid komplexum fajegyüttesében eltérések mutatkoztak. A teljes minta elsődleges domináns faja a Sympiesis sericeicornis (Nees), egy gyakori idiobiont szoliter ektoparazitoid volt. A nevelésből kikelt fajok között olyan specialista fajokat is azonosítottunk, mint az Achrysocharoides scaposa (Erdős) valamint Populusról eddig, a Nemzetközi Chalcidoidea Adatbázis (Universal Chalcidoidea Database) által még nem regisztrált Zagrammosoma variegatum (Masi) parazitoid fajt is.