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§ The application of the characteristics | 151
synphysiological viewpoint: from a corrumpent, we gained an obstant and,
during the flow of energy and material, both the life form and species
representation have changed. The material, and the enclosed energy, now
serves the aims of a corrumpent, and would have served a totally different
purpose if it remained within a corrumpent element, because it would have
contributed to the opening of a plant-based food source. The same energy
now helps to complete the development of a completely different life form,
which is no longer linked to the plant cover but, sooner or later, will link
with a corrumpent. In the first case, it would have ended up in the soil, as a
poppy seed weevil, where it would have rested inactive for many months;
now, instead, it is incorporated into an obstant, which, during its adult
semaphoront may have played a sustinent role, only to later establish a
relationship with a totally different corrumpent. As a poppy seed weevil, it
may have served as an energy source for an obstant population, but now it
enters a completely different oecus, and plays a different role there; thus, the
accumulated energy flows through different channels.
The A. fabae aspectus is the declining phase of the catenarium: the plant
is maturing, then gradually dries; a part of the population enters a latent
phase, other parts, as adult semaphoronts, change into presocium, occasionally
reaching other catenae or catenaria. The dominance of N. maculaalba and
Episyrphus decreases, as part of them became obstant elements. Data on the
latter are again in square brackets because, as adult semaphoront groups,
they cross into a presocium. The abundance and dominance values of N.
maculaalba are also in parentheses, because they became latent. The Aphis
also leave the drying poppy stand, where the obstants emerge and disperse,
leaving the coenosis collapsed. The catenarium that will form during the next
season continues by a thin thread: the population of the N. maculaalba and
the larval semaphoront group of the D. papaveris. Their fate is unknown until
spring, so we cannot say anything about the potential spring aspect that may
form around them. It is likely that their diapause will not pass undisturbed,
and they may possibly get into contact with obstants of some presocium and
these, in turn, will temporarily link to the remaining, small core of the former
catenarium.
Let us consider, briefly, the degrees of dominance and obstancy of the
identified obstant elements. The difference between these two will express,
reliably, the synphysiological roles of these populations. In general, the degree
of obstancy will show higher values than those of dominance, except when
there are several parasitoids in one host. We cannot say anything about the
degree of obstancy of either Aphidius, or Episyrphus, because we did not
census the host aphids.
It sounds odd that we talk about the formation and expiration of a
zoocoenosis. We believe, though, that the above example throws light on the
reality of this phenomenon. The associative needs that change with
semaphoront groups causethe zoocoenoses to change, at least at the level of