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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.
