OCR
128 IVII. Zoocoenological characteristics Fidelity expresses how strictly a population is linked to a certain biocoenosis. Fidelity also has three levels: stenofidel populations can be detected only in one community; the heterofidel populations are present only at certain times in a community, and, euryfidel populations are active, concurrently, in several communities. An example ofstenofidelity is the larval population of Norbanus scabriusculus in a Cephitena pygmeai catenarium. Heterofidelity is represented by Theronia atalantae in the Cephitaetena cuneae catenarium, whilst euryfidelity Trichogramma semblidis in the Pandemiditena heparanae catenarium, because it is also present at the same time in Cydiaetena pomonellae. The corrumpents, and all the populations relying on plants as their primary energy resource (around which initial zoocoenoses or catenae are formed), occupy a specific position in relation to fidelity. Given that the formation of such catenae is not possible without populations of the first level, and that opens the energy source to further exploitation, these populations could be considered stenofidel eo ipso, if it was not for the frequent situation that the same corrumpent is associated with other species in different biotopes. From this, we can only conclude that fidelity can be related only to the element that first exploits the plant-bound energy, and not vice versa. It is not the corrumpents that are faithful to the connected obstant and intercalary populations, but their degree of fidelity is demonstrated by the corrumpent population. Within a catena, we cannot speak of the fidelity of the population that is the base of the catenarium, but of those elements at higher levels. A case of fidelity is obvious in the symbiosis between two corrumpent elements. The Papaver somniferous oecus hosts the Ceutorrhynchinarium maculae-albae catenarium and, to this, the Dasyneura papaveris population will be stenofidel, because it is able to lay its eggs only in poppy heads that have been pierced by the poppy seed head weevil; furthermore, its adult semaphoront cannot even emerge if a corrumpent or obstant semaphoront of the C. maculae-albae catenarium does not chew a hole in the poppy head. It is obvious that antagonistic relationships act in the opposite direction to fidelity, while a mutually enhancing effect between two populations relying on the same energy source - in the absence of symbiosis — can only be a case of fidelity. The fidelity of a population to a certain zoocoenosis can be a feature of the landscape as well. Among catenae composed largely of the same populations, there can be one, or more, that does not occur elsewhere. These populations can be called character species. This concept, however, needs to undergo close zoocoenological scrutiny. If we insist on our original standpoint, that co-occurrence does not necessarily mean association, we see that the concept of character species seems ambiguous. When we study populations according to their relationship to a biotope or a zoocoenological unit, then it becomes obvious that both the biotope and the zoocoenological unit (e.g. a catena) can have populations