Insect Communities

Insect Community Ecology Group

New paper on sunbird hovering

Robert TropekThursday July 28th, 2016Sunday July 31st, 2016 Uncategorized

Hovering Cameroon sunbird (Cyanomitra oritis) when feeding on Impatiens sakeriana. © Š. Janeček

Besides insects, some members of our group are collaborating on the project focused on relationships between flowers and their bird pollinators supervised by our close collaborator Dr. Štěpán Janeček. Already in 2011, we have been collaborating on a study revealing that sunbirds are able to hover during nectaring similarly to hummingbirds. In the recently published study, Eliška and Štěpán focus on circumstances under which Cameroon sunbirds (Cyanomitra oritis) hover during visits of endemic plant Impatiens sakeriana.

Padyšáková E., Janeček Š. (in press) Sunbird hovering behavior is determined by both the forager and resource plant. Biotropica.

Čuda J., Pyšková K., Hejda M., Foxcroft L.C., MacFadyen S., Storch D., Tropek R., Zambatis G., Pyšek P. (in press) Habitat modifies the relationship between grass and herbivore species richness in a South African savanna. Ecology and Evolution.

Ustjuzhanin P., Kovtunovich V., Delabye S., Maicher V., Sáfián Sz., Streltzov A., Tropek R. (2024) Magnifying the hotspot: Description of nine new species of many-plumed moths (Lepidoptera, Alucitidae), with an identification key to all species known from Cameroon. Zookeys 1193: 25-48.

Uceda-Gómez G., Chmel K., Janečková P., Mlíkovský J., Klomberg Y., Ewome F.L., Molua L.L., Njie M.M., Tropek R., Janeček Š. (2024) Drivers of sunbird-plant interactions on Mount Cameroon: between neutrality and niche-based processes. Biotropica 56: 138-146.

Sakhalkar S.P., Janeček Š., Klomberg Y., Mertens J.E.J., Hodeček J., Tropek R. (2023) Cheaters among pollinators: Nectar robbing and thieving vary spatiotemporally with floral traits in Afrotropical forests. Ecosphere 14: e4696.

Kolar V., Chmelová E., Bílková M., Borovec J., Carreira B.M., Černý M., Ditrich T., Horká P., Hrivniak L., Hrubý F., Jan J., Landeira-Dabarca A., Lepšová-Skácelová O., Musilová Z., Otáhalová Š., Poláková M., Polášková V., Sacherová V., Špaček J., Sroka P., Vebrová L., Boukal D.S., Tropek R. (2023) Muddying the unexplored post-industrial waters: Biodiversity and conservation potential of freshwater habitats in fly ash sedimentation lagoons. Science of the Total Environment 900: 165803.

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