Last week, Filip Tichanek has successfully defended his thesis entitled Ecology of endangered damselfly Coenagrion ornatum in post-mining streams in relation to their restoration and has thus received a Mgr. diploma (the Czech alternative of M.Sc.). Except that the manuscript is submitted to…
Moth dedicated to Gerald Durrell
From the material collected during our reasearch of lepidopteran communities of Mt. Cameroon, Roman Yakovlev and our close collaborator Szabolcs Sáfián have described a new species of carpenter moth (Cossidae). They decided to name it Geraldocossus durrelli after the amazing conservationist…
Water insects of lignite spoil heaps
This week we continue with sampling of water insects in North Bohemian spoil heaps where many highly threatened species (such as Cybister lateralimarginalis and Coenagrion ornatum) found their secondary refuges. Robert and Filip helped our close collaborator Vojtěch Kolář with setting minnow traps into…
Field season in Zelezne hory has started
Since this year we are collaborating on a project studying changes of pollination networks under habitat fragmentation led by Dr. Michael Bartoš from the Institute of Botany in Třeboň. For the next three seasons we will spend a quite some time…
Vincent’s stay in Munich
Vincent is currently visiting the huge Lepidoptera section of the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Munich. He is working on identification of moths collected by an intensive bait trapping during our fieldwork in Mt. Cameroon. Because of our long-term collaboration with Dr.…
Conference grant for Filip
Filip Tichánek, a finishing master student in our group, was awarded by the “Twelve fo SER” stipend. He is among twelve selected students whose active participation at the 10th European Conference on Ecological Restoration will be covered by the Society for Ecological…
Our research eaten by a porcupine!
As a part of our last fieldwork in Cameroon we surveyed a pollination system of Uvariopsis dioica (Annonaceae). One morning we realised all the filmed flowers had disappeared. The Brush-tailed porcupine (Atherurus africanus) visited it and skilfully selected all open flowers and…
Two student grants for our group!
When being in the field, we have received good news. Both University of South Bohemia and Charles University in Prague have decided to finance research of our PhD students. Vincent Maicher thanks the University of South Bohemia for an opportunity…
Back from Cameroon
Together with our colleagues and Cameroonian students we have spent five weeks in the forests of Mt. Cameroon. Besides finishing the sample of butterflies and moths in lower elevations, we have started with surveying of pollination networks in different altitudes. Pretty…
Robert, Jan and Pavel are also leaving to Cameroon
Today, the second half of the group are joining Vincent and Stepan in Cameroon. For five weeks, we will sample moths and butterflies along the altitudinal gradient on Mount Cameroon, collect data on pollination networks and study flowering plants up…