Preliminary assessment of cavity‐nesting Hymenopterans in a low‐intensity agricultural landscape in Transylvania

Autor: Róbert Mák, Miklós Sárospataki, Károly Lajos, Adalbert Balog, Imre Demeter
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Ecology and Evolution, Vol 11, Iss 17, Pp 11903-11914 (2021)
Ecology and Evolution
ISSN: 2045-7758
Popis: In this study, our aim was to assess several traits of cavity‐nesting Hymenopteran taxa in a low‐intensity agricultural landscape in Transylvania. The study took place between May and August 2018 at eight study sites in the hilly mountainous central part of Romania, where the majority of the landscape is used for extensive farming or forestry. During the processing of the trap nest material, we recorded several traits regarding the nests of different cavity‐nesting Hymenopteran taxa and the spider prey found inside the nests of the spider‐hunting representatives of these taxa. We also evaluated the relationship between the edge density and proportion of low‐intensity agricultural areas surrounding the study sites and some of these traits. The majority of nests were built by the solitary wasp genus Trypoxylon, followed by the solitary wasp taxa Dipogon and Eumeninae. Solitary bees were much less common, with Hylaeus being the most abundant genus. In the nests of Trypoxylon, we mostly found spider prey from the family of Araneidae, followed by specimens from the families of Linyphiidae and Theridiidae. In the nests of Dipogon, we predominantly encountered spider prey from the family of Thomisidae. We found significant effects of low‐intensity agricultural areas for the genera of Auplopus, Megachile, Osmia, and the Thomisid prey of Dipogon. We also found that the spider prey of Trypoxylon was significantly more diverse at study sites with higher proportions of low‐intensity agricultural areas. Our results indicate that solitary bees seem to be more abundant in areas, where the influence of human activities is stronger, while solitary wasps seem to rather avoid these areas. Therefore, we suggest that future studies not only should put more effort into sampling in low‐intensity agricultural landscapes but also focus more on solitary wasp taxa, when sampling such an area.
Nowadays, most regions of the European Union face an increasing agricultural intensification and urbanization, which partially caused a dramatic decline of insect diversity in the last few decades. However, even in the European Union, there are still a few regions and areas remaining, which are not under such a strong human influence and still harbor a considerably high insect diversity, like our study area, located in the central part of Romania. In our study, we found several new aspects concerning the diversity and distribution of solitary bees, wasps, and the spider‐hunting wasps' prey and also the effects of landscape context on these groups.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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