Oldal 127 [127]
§ Oualitative characteristics | 125
the basis of morphological, onto- and tokogenetic information that is essential
to delineate, unequivocally, the semaphoront groups. Species identification
is not ranked below the synphysiological characteristics, but represents the
next level in our increasing knowledge about the zoocoenosis, because the
life forms do not fit together because we know the constituent species; to
identify the semaphoront groups with confidence, we need to determine
species identity.
This identification serves only to connect our conclusions to a taxonomic
entity and, this way, they can become a manageable aspect of the data, as
well as part of the general zoological knowledge. From this perspective, the
use of species names is an essential condition ofa proper coenological analysis.
However, the species in zoocoenoses are represented by populations, and
the coenological analysis has to deal with these populations, not abstract
species. The population is the structural unit of a species (Gilyrov, 1954). The
species is abstract, while the population is a reality, that connects to other
populations, according to its coetus value. We must consider it an error if
authors, again and again, lapse into an idiobiological view, and coenological
characteristics get attributed to species, and not populations. Coenological
characteristics can only be ascribed to populations and not to species, whose
presence can fit into various associative frames within the area of distribution
(for example, the larval population of a generalist ichneumonid parasitoid
can be present, simultaneously, in several catenaria). Such relationships of a
species are important for the overall knowledge about the species, but this
is idiobiology; there are synbiological aspects, but these manifest themselves,
in different ways, through the associated populations. Zoocoenology can
only evaluate these populations, and not the species, because at a given place
and time, we only encounter a population.
A zoocoenosis can only be considered to really exist if such semaphoront
groups permanently coexist, if this coexistence can be classified a community
and, if this form of community can be repeatedly found. Consequently, there
must be some sort of regularity in the zoocoenoses, that - above the structural
identity - makes them distinguishable. These regularly-occurring characteristics
can only be qualitative, and of two origins. One is the relationship of the
semaphoront groups to the biotope and, the other, the links to the other
semaphoront groups, i.e. to the coenological framework. Thus, are born the
characteristics of constancy and fidelity.
5. Constancy
Constancy in phytocoenology serves to assess how a plant species is distributed
among the various stands of the same association and, considering its
perceptual presence, establishes five degrees (Felféldy, 1943; S06 1945, 1953).
Constancy in phytocoenology is a fully justified structural category, given