Recently a large number of studies have reported an increase in the variability in the climate, which affects behavioural and physiological adaptations in a broad range of organisms. Specifically, insects may be especially sensitive to climatic fluctuations, as their physiology and life history traits, like those of other ectotherms, are predominantly affected by environmental factors. Here we aimed to investigate climate-induced changes in several morphometric measures of the Heath Fritillary in North-Eastern Hungary, which is a highly diverse transitional area. During this study we tested the following hypotheses: (i) climate affects genitalia and body size to various degrees (ii) increasing variability in climate induces higher levels of fluctuating asymmetry and variance in all morphological characters. To our knowledge, this study is the first to analyse simultaneously wing size and structure of genitalia of a butterfly in response to variability in climate. Our findings suggest that wing and genital traits may exhibit similar degrees of stability in response to a more variable climate, although the response in terms of forewing size differs from that of other body measurements and the structure of the genitalia. These findings suggest that global climate change may affect lepidopteran body metrics over longer periods of time. Our findings parallel the results of investigations showing that insect morphology might be modified by environmental changes, which is especially the case for those body parts that are phenotypically very variable. However, we found no evidence that increasing variability in climate would induce higher levels of fluctuating asymmetry and greater variability in morphological characters., Edit Juhász, Zsolt Végvári, János P. Tóth, Katalin Pecsenye, Zoltán Varga., and Obsahuje bibliografii
The oviposition sites of the xerophilous ecotype of M. alcon (= "Maculinea rebeli") were surveyed in the managed (transitional) zone of the Aggtelek National Park and Biosphere Reserve in Northern Hungary. The M. alcon population is distributed over a territory of about 3 ha. In 2001, habitat reconstruction with selective cutting of shrubs and mowing, was started in this area. The number of stems of Gentiana cruciata (the food plant for the young larvae) and M. alcon eggs layed on them were counted in a selected area within this 3 ha: before (in 1992, 1993 and 1998) and after habitat reconstruction (in 2003, 2004 and 2005). In 2004 and 2005, a detailed study was carried out in order to detect potentially significant factors influencing the egg laying behaviour of females. The average number of intact flowering stems per quadrate was 2.68 and was clearly decreasing before management started. In contrast, there were five times higher (15.06) and increasing numbers of stems per quadrate right after habitat reconstruction. The two periods also differed in the percentage of flowering stems, which was very low before habitat reconstruction. The average number of eggs per square was low (6.8) and fluctuated considerably before management started. In contrast, the egg count was high (160.3) and increased consistently after the site was managed. The short grass sward created in the area proved to be advantageous both for the growth of the host plant and for the Maculinea population. The egg laying preference of the females was positively affected by the number of stems per clump, the height of the stems, the number of whorls with flowers and the difference between the height of the stems of the host plant and the surrounding vegetation. Significantly more eggs were found on large clumps of stems than expected on the basis of their availability for egg-laying. Egg counts were strongly correlated with all the measured characteristics of the food plant, which significantly correlated with each other. The interaction term indicated that the number of whorls with flowers is slightly more influential for egg laying than the other characteristics. There were significantly more eggs on the adaxial surface of the leaves and flower buds than on other parts of the food plant.
a1_The infraspecific taxonomy of the European populations of the Large Blue (Maculinea arion) is confusing. Several subspecies have been described mostly based on external morphological features. In the Carpathian Basin two subspecies have been distinguished. Maculinea arion arion flies from mid-May to mid-June and Maculinea arion ligurica is on the wing from the end of June to mid-August. The two forms show some differentiation in habitat use, but occasionally can also share habitats with two peaks in the appearance of butterflies. Our aim was to study the level and structure of genetic variation in a set of populations of the two phenologically different M. arion. Imagos were collected from 8 localities between 2000 and 2006. Enzyme polymorphism was analysed at 13 enzyme loci using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In the analysis of the data, we estimated the parameters of polymorphism. To study the pattern of genetic differentiation F-statistics, hierarchical F-statistics and AMOVA were computed. GeneClass and Structure were both applied to analyse the differentiation between the two phenologically different sets of populations. Cavalli-Sforza and Edwards' arc distances were calculated and a UPGMA dendrogram was constructed on the basis of the distance matrix. PCA analysis was also carried out using the allele frequencies of the individuals. The level of polymorphism was relatively high in M. arion. The results of all analyses indicated that the differences between the two sets of phenologically different populations accounted for a low percentage of the total differentiation. In addition, a sizeable amount of variation could be attributed to the differences among the samples collected from the same population in consecutive years. Thus, we concluded that the "spring" and "summer arion" could not be considered as separate ESUs, although we could attribute conservation value to both forms on the basis of, a2_their phenological differentiation and habitat use., and Judit Bereczki, János P. Tóth, Andrea Tóth, Edit Bátori, Katalin Pecsenye, Zoltán Varga.