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98 | IV. Categories of animal associations
a peregrinant, given that there is not a single oilseed rape plant in the wheat
field, except that we observe it feeding on the flowers of Lithospermum arvense,
and, therefore, it is a sustinent of the presocium.
We see a Nicrophorus (Necrophorus) vespillo walking on the soil surface
among the wheat stems: an intercalary element of the supersocium, probably
attracted here by the few vole nests whose entrance holes are visible among
the cracks of the soil surface. We find a single Trichogramma evanescens in
the bottom of the sweep net; we do not know where it came from and where
it will go to. As it has several potential hosts, we classify it as an obstant of
the presocium; here, it is at least a hospitant and not a peregrinant, because
there may have been a few Agrotis eggs on the weeds, and it could have been
en route to these when captured. We observe a robber fly that captures a stem
fly - a sole representative of the obstant coetus of the presocium; a single
semaphoront, that is a temporary element of the Chloropiditena pumilionis
catena. It quickly flies away, and its next victim will be from a totally different
catena.
The above is an example of how one can distinguish the various kinds of
associations, and how the semaphoronts that belong to various associative
categories may mix. The above list - and this must be considered an advantage
“lives”, and is dissimilar from species lists and their respective columns of
numbers that tell nothing about the simple coenological questions: how does
the animal in question associate with others, and what is its role in the
coexistence. This is, however, not the endpoint but the start of the analysis
of animal associations, and only the initial step was demonstrated above. The
methods of coenological analysis will be dealt with in a separate chapter; first
we have to discuss the dynamics of the zoocoenosis. These dynamics are so
important in the coenological censuses that they need a separate chapter.
One question, though needs to be asked at the end of this chapter. The
links in the above example also exist if we do not complicate the terminology
with new terms; therefore, what sense is there in setting up these new frames?
The reply is that these links are manifested within these associative frames
and their clear-sighted recognition and observance leads us towards
understanding relationships that profoundly influence pest densities, but
these may remain hidden without clarifying the internal relationships of the
associative categories. To do this, we need to know in which associative
category the individual semaphoronts live, where we can find them, and what
factors are they subject to? This is why need agrozoocoenology!