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§ Parts of the biotope | 69 units of the biotope? What is the lowest zoocoenological level within the biotope that we can accept, before we subside to an idiobiological view? There is no doubt that, if only a zoocoenosis can have a biotope, the smallest unit of the biotope cannot be anything other than the spatial aspect of a subcategory of the zoocoenosis, and which mirrors a spatial need. The smallest space is but the point of the biotope where the idiobiological and synbiological concepts necessarily meet, because we can view this unit from the zoocoenosis and, also, from the perspective of a species that belongs to the zoocoenosis. In considering the zoocoenosis, this space is identical with a spatial unit where there is a possibility that groups of populations meet and their interaction unfolds. For the species, the point in space is the location which provides the possibility for one of its populations to fit into an association with other populations. Without it, the zoocoenosis would be poorer by one species. To name this smallest space we can choose from several published terms; all might be needed during zoocoenological studies and preserve clarity among synbiological terms, we list all of them here. The habitat (Friederichs, 1930; habitat-niche, Allee et al., 1949) means the location where the semaphoront can be repeatedly found. It is identical with the (usual) place of residence of the species and the extent of its normal distribution area. The ecotope (Vite, 1951) is the individual area of interest, used by a semaphoront during its daily routine. The statio (Bej-Bienko, see Tschegolev, 1951) is the area of interest of the species, including all the habitats that are used by the various developmental stages, thus identical with the area that a species needs to fully flourish. The oecus (Dudich, 1932) is a separate part of the biotope that contains a special association, a microbiocoenosis, a part of the total biocoenosis. The merotope (Schwenke, 1953) is a structural part of the biotope (for example, leaf, fruit or gall) that cannot be formed independently, and includes the merocoenosis (Tischler, 1947), which is a part of the zoocoenosis. The first three are clearly autecological terms, thus unsuitable for use in naming parts of the biotope. The merotope is too small to accommodate a whole zoocoenosis; it can contain only a fragment of it. The character of the merotope can be decided based on whether it can or cannot be a place to provide enough energy to support a zoocoenosis, independent of other sources of energy. A leaf, gall, root or litter cannot exist without an appropriate plant and, thus, can only be considered a merotope. This statement may sound strange, given the existence of a litter layer in the forest, and its characteristic fauna. This fauna, though, interacts chiefly with the soil, and its composition is so dependent on it that the litter can only be considered a merotope, belonging to the soil, with which it constitutes an oecus. In the same way, the space under a rock is also a merotope, and it is not even an oecus, not to mention biotope, because it belongs to the soil.
