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76 | IV. Categories of animal associations
The population is, therefore, the representation of a species in a zoocoenosis.
Of these species representations, we only ever meet semaphoronts, thus all
equivalent populations, in reality, are semaphoront groups. The two concepts
are not equivalent, though, because a studied zoocoenosis does not necessarily
contain only one semaphoront group, but may contain a full semaphoront
series; in which case, within a species population, there may be several
semaphoront groups present. The population remains essentially the same,
but the semaphoront groups will change. The population is restricted in space
and time. The population is also an animal association.
A population group is the totality of populations of different species that
live in the same space. Their grouping is possible from several angles, and
the term can be used in ecofaunistics as well as in zoocoenology. The
population group is also an animal association.
Under the term animal association, we understand the coexistence in space
and time of two or more animals (semaphoronts), without considering their
species identity or functional connections. The animal association is, therefore,
the widest term to denote the coexistence of animal organisms somewhere,
at a given time.
An animal assemblage is the realised form of the animal association that
we find in each segment of space, and which space they share for various
reasons, sometimes by chance, and only temporarily. The animal association
expresses a relationship that exists between two or more animals through
their coexistence; the animal association is the visible manifestation of the
animal association at a certain time in a fixed segment of space.
The animal contingent is the animal assemblage of a given plant stand, but
is not an identified stand, but the animal association that is always, necessarily
present in the studied plant community.
The relationship of the last three terms is as follows: an animal association
always exists whenever animals are together for a shorter or longer time. The
form of the association that is characteristic for a certain plant community
and, as a rule, is always present in it, is called its animal contingent. The
reality of the animal contingent (sensu stricto) and of the animal association
(sensu lato), the part coexisting in space and time and that we meet at the
start of our investigation, is the animal assemblage.
The fauna of a given area, in precise space and time, is represented by such
assemblages. The researchers of the fauna, on their collecting trips, do not
meet the fauna; they find the assemblages that change from week to week,
even in the same area. The sum of these assemblages constitutes, collectively,
the fauna of the area, especially if these are listed just considering the species
identities.
The animal associations can be divided into three kinds: colonies, groupings
and “real” associations. Only this last one is a zoocoenological term, the other
two have distinctly different meaning, and both can be members of associations.
In the neighbourhood of a lone Cydia pomonella, there can be large colonies