Some of the more fascinating elements of nephilid spider biology are the unusual behavioural patterns of their sexual biology. The study points to the intersexual co-evolution manifested in complex genital morphologies and sexual behaviours. The evolutionary pattern was explained through the process of intersexual antagonistic co-evolution. Not only was this process not previously proven for spiders, our research even indicates that such evolutionary arms race and with it also sexual selection could be largely responsible for the emergence of diversity of spiders and other sexual organisms.
COBISS.SI-ID: 29566765
Phylogenetic hypotheses on the affinity between organisms can be applied for biological or biogeographical predictions because closely related organisms are similar. We tested a phylogenetically generated prediction of web architecture and spider ecology. Our targeted field work in the Madagascar and Mayotte islands confirmed the hypotheses made on the basis of our knowledge of a single species out of six from the genus Clitaetra. Statistically significant patterns of ecology, web architecture and their ontogenetic allometric transition were confirmed for both previously unstudied species.
COBISS.SI-ID: 30162733
Rare species are obstacle for an extrapolation of species diversity based on nonparametric statistics. We tested whether the occurrence of a large number of rare species could be explained with any biological hypothesis. Our study determined it couldn’t : sample of six thousand spiders from 1 ha of tropical rainforest does not provide the basis for the exclusion of the null hypothesis of undersampling. The results indicate that drastically greater sampling intensity is required to yield realistic estimates of local species diversity.
COBISS.SI-ID: 29399341
We collected relevés of weed vegetation in the northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula and studied their species structure and diversity. It was determined that the most important environmental variables that affect the species composition are phytogeographical position and crop, and less so the year and season of the relevé and altitude. We also investigated the changes in ß diversity along all the listed gradients and the changes in species composition and ecological conditions relative to time. ß diversity is high in cereals and during the summer, but declines with altitude.
COBISS.SI-ID: 30170157
We collected and processed relevés of thermophilous deciduous forests of Southeastern Europe classified into the order Quercetalia pubescentis. Following numerical analyses we established they can be classified into eight groups. Thus we evaluated the current findings that sprang from empirical studies and proposed several new (syn)taxonomic solutions. The paper presents all alliances occurring in the region that reflect the phytogeographical position and site conditions, their distribution and diagnostic species calculated with the fidelity index.
COBISS.SI-ID: 29119277