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§ Oualitative characteristics | 127
during a study of zoocoenology of apple trees, we find that out of 1000 leaves,
364 support gynopedia of Aphis pomi, but the larvae of Coccinella
septempunctata occur on only 187 of them, would this mean that the former
has higher constancy than the ladybird? Not at all, both populations should
be considered constant, without any difference in rank, because constancy
is not decided based on abundance but on whether the given populations
regularly occur in the biotope or not.
Therefore, what can we correctly call zoocoenological constancy?
Constancy expresses the existential connectedness of a population to a biotope.
This can have three degrees: stenoconstant populations are continuously
present in one biotope; heteroconstant populations are present only during
a given time, and, euryconstant populations are present in more than one
biotope at any given time. Thus, equivalent semaphoront groups are present
in more than one biotope at the same time.
Stenoconstant populations live in only one lake, forest or orchard, within
one zoocoenosis. Stenoconstant populations are represented by highly
specialised trophic semaphoront groups and, if these are corrumpents, they
can anchor whole catenaria to a biotope (oecus), where they are monophagous.
Such a stenoconstant element is the larval or adult population of Neoglocianus
maculaalba or of Anthonomus pomorum. All populations of stenotopic species
are stenoconstant, although an onto-population of a species can be
stenoconstant, while the next one is euryconstant (e.g. frogs).
It is characteristic of euryconstant populations that identical semaphoront
groups exist in different biotopes at the same time, often in different catenaria,
such as the larval populations of Baryscapus diaphantus that may be present
ina cultivated field, a mesophilous meadow and a forest, in different catenaria.
For heteroconstant populations, it is vital that they can leave a biotope
after a certain time, and fit into another one (damselflies, host-changing
parasitic worms, etc.).
Being tied to a biotope is a qualitative characteristic because, from the
point of view of zoocoenoses, it is not indifferent as to whether a biotope has
oeci that allow the insertion of stenoconstant populations, or the biotope has
the conditions that a stenoconstant population needs in addition to its trophic
requirements.
Without doubt, constancy has a certain idiobiological nuance, but its
operation with semaphoront groups, not species, does not debase its value
as a coenological characteristic.
6. Fidelity
The source of the static nature of the qualitative characteristics is the
relationship to the zoocoenosis as a framework. This relationship, to
differentiate from the previous constancy, sensu stricto, is termed fidelity.