Том 96, № 5 (2016)

Two spatial tactics are usually distinguished in males of Calopteryx damselflies: territorial and nonterritorial. These tactics are believed to underlie two alternative condition-dependent reproductive tactics in these insects, and territorial males are believed to copulate more often. With age, males become weaker, turn nonterritorial, and only occasionally manage to copulate. However, the details of space use by damselflies are poorly known, which hinders the interpretation of the existing empirical data. We describe the space use by individually marked males of the banded demoiselle C. splendens studied during three field seasons in Vladimir Province, Russia. Each male on each day of observations was characterized as either territorial or non-territorial, and the sites of encounter were mapped. The probability of being territorial declined with the male’s age. The spatial tactics (territorial vs. non-territorial) on a given day strongly influenced the tactics used on the following day. We identified the territorial and non-territorial phases in the life of a male damselfly, which occurred consecutively and had a roughly similar duration. During the territorial phase, the male occupied a certain territory and tried to hold it as long as possible. The male abandoned its territory in two cases: (1) when it was driven onto a different territory as the result of competition with other males, or (2) when it was exhausted and became non-territorial. Thus, the space use by the male changed predictably during its life. Therefore, direct comparison of morphological or other characteristics in territorial vs. non-territorial males, frequently made in the literature, makes little sense. Further progress in studying the so-called “alternative reproductive tactics” in damselflies may be more successfully achieved by comparing individual life trajectories of different males (e.g. duration of territorial and non-territorial periods, the number of consecutively occupied territories, etc.). We performed correlation analysis and found that the above parameters did not depend on the wing and abdomen length of the males.

A review of 28 species of insects from 17 families of 4 orders that inhabit the galleries of the four-eyed fir bark beetle Polygraphus proximus in the area of its invasion in Siberia is given with data on their distribution, trophic associations, occurrence, abundance, and locations. A characteristic of the xylophilous insect community associated with Polygraphus proximus is given. The impact of this invasive species on the composition and structure of the bark beetle consortia in the native ecosystems is shown.

The data on the fauna of blackflies of the tribe Simuliini (Diptera: Simuliidae) of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) comprising the available literature, collections of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and new material collected in Yakutia were analyzed. Three new species were recorded in the fauna of Yakutia: Archesimulium polare Rubzov, 1940, A. splendidum Rubzov, 1940, and A. tumulosum Rubzov, 1956. Distribution of 11 species was clarified. Processing of the collected material confirmed the presence of 9 blackfly species previously known from Yakutia. On the whole, the blackfly fauna of the region comprises 27 species.

Changes in the abundance and distribution of selected species of beetles in European Russia and in the Caucasus are reported. Most of these species have been recorded from the Northwestern Caucasus in the last 10–15 years. The abundance and distribution during the last two years have changed most sharply in the introduced species, the Harlequin lady beetle Harmonia axyridis and two East Asian bruchids, Megabruchidius dorsalis and M. tonkineus. In 2016, the latter has been found in Georgia for the first time, and Harmonia axyridis was found in St. Petersburg. Abundance of the weevil Alcidodes karelinii with the range situated mostly east of the Caucasus and Volga River remains in Northwestern Caucasus at about the previous level. The flea-weevil species, a leaf miner on Ulmus pumila, misidentified previously as Orchestes mutabilis, is described in this paper as Orchestes steppensis sp. n. based on the material from Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Northern China; no its further distribution westward in 2015–2016 has been found. This species, rapidly widening its range in North America in the recent decade, is misidentified there as Orchestes alni. A key for differentiation of Orchestes alni, O. mutabilis and O. steppensis sp. n. is provided with photographs of adults of all three species. Magdalis armigera has increased abundance in Northwestern Caucasus in 2016 and was for the first time found in Northwestern Russia (Pskov Province) in 2015. Regular faunistic surveys during several decades provide a possibility of recording considerable changes in the abundance of some common species of Coleoptera, often associated with changes in their distribution.

The critical day length inducing morphogenetic diapause in engorged larvae and nymphs of the taiga tick Ixodes persulcatus Schulze, 1930 was shown to vary with both latitude and longitude. Intraspecific differences in ecological responses of larvae and nymphs to the day length were most pronounced in the latitudinal direction. The critical day length was 13.5–14.5 h in the southern part of the species range (40–43°N) and up to 18–19 h in its northern part (62°N). Longitudinal variation is closely linked to the severity of the climate increasing from west to east. It was demonstrated for the first time that mass diapause induction in nymphs may occur not only during the period of decreasing day length but also during the summer solstice, the latter variant being observed only in the sharply continental climate of Eastern Siberia. Adaptive advantages of this photoperiodic response under the conditions of a short summer are discussed. Diapause in ticks occurs in response to environmental factors, such as changes in the photoperiod, and represents the main adaptation by which ticks synchronize their activity with biotic resources.