Jerzy Romanowski

Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw · Faculty of Biology and Environmental Sciences

This paper provides new data on the ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) from two islands in the Canary archipelago: Tenerife, the largest island, and La Gomera, the second smallest. As they clearly differ in size but are similar in location and geological age, they are a suitable model for testing the species–area relationship. Our study shows that, i...

Urban life is associated with dietary shifts in opportunistic predators, such as raptors. This is presumably true in food‐poor environments, such as drylands. We investigated this issue in little owls ( Athene noctua ) inhabiting an arid southern Tunisian area. Using pellet data, we found that coleopterans accounted for 69% of ingested food items....

Between 2016 and 2022, the ladybird (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) fauna was surveyed on seven main islands of the Canary Islands archipelago. Adult specimens were collected and screened for thalli of Laboulbeniales (Ascomycota: Laboulbeniomycetes). Altogether, 9,807 ladybird specimens belonging to 39 species were screened, of which 103, representing...

The Vistula River is one of the largest European semi-natural rivers of high ecological value that functions as an ecological corridor. To assess the structure of small mammal communities along the Vistula River, an analysis of the diet of an opportunistic predator, the tawny owl Strix aluco, was used. A total of 6355 individuals of 19 species were...

This paper provides new data on the ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) of La Palma, one of the western islands of the Canarian archipelago. The field survey of 54 study sites resulted in recording 2494 ladybird individuals belonging to 26 species. Seven of the species recorded were new to La Palma, including two, Harmonia quadripunctata (Pontoppidan)...

We compared different net sampling methods for microplastic quantitative collection by sampling different water volumes with nets of different mesh sizes. Sampling covered freshwater lake and reservoir with a significant degree of eutrophication located in Central Poland. The fibres were the main type of plastic collected from sampling sites and co...

Simple Summary The level of microplastic pollution in marine and fresh waters in the least populated and northernmost region of the Kola Peninsula was determined. Fibers were found to be the main components of the microplastics detected and constituted 76–83%. There was a direct anthropogenic effect on the concentration of microplastics in water in...

Dinocampus coccinellae (Schrank) is a braconid parasitoid of ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) and has exceptionally wide geographical and host ranges. Based on published and unpublished sources Dinocampus coccinellae probably occurs throughout the temperate, subtropical and tropical climatic zones, but some regions, such as sub-Saharan...

Laboulbeniales (Ascomycota, Laboulbeniomycetes) are biotrophic microfungi always attached to the exoskeleton of their arthropod hosts. They do not form hyphae or a mycelium; instead, they undergo determinate growth, developing from a two-celled ascospore to form a multicellular thallus. Hesperomyces virescens has been reported on over 30 species of...

Ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) were collected at 11 sites on the island of Madeira from 4 th to 10 th of February 2020. Eight species non-indigenous to Madeira were recorded, and two of them, Olla v-nigrum and Cryptolaemus montrouzieri, have not previously been reported from the Madeira archipelago. This study also confirmed that Harmonia axyridi...

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Antartica, Cladosporium austrolitorale from coastal sea sand. Australia, Austroboletus yourkae on soil, Crepidotus innuopurpureus on dead wood, Curvularia stenotaphri from roots and leaves of Stenotaphrum secundatum and Thecaphora stajsicii from capsules...

Because of the scale and speed of species extinctions conservationists require methods that facilitate decision making. Therefore, a wide range of habitat and population viability analysis (PVA) software has been developed. Given the diversity of available programs it is currently challenging to decide which program is the most appropriate for a pa...

In the past centuries, many of the Eurasian lynx populations declined and finally disappeared. In Poland, only two populations survived until the 20th century. In the 90s a new population was reintroduced in central Poland but presently, its fate is considered uncertain. While the recurring observations of lynx in the area confirm its presence, the...

Muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus (L. 1766), is an introduced species to European fauna. It is widespread in Poland, however, signs of its decline were observed in the last decades. While most of the information on muskrat is based on questionnaires and bag record, in this paper results of field census for muskrat signs (tracks and faeces) at a total of...

Phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial 16S rDNA, nuclear 28S rDNA, and morphological and ecological traits of Aulactinia, Urticina and Cribrinopsis sea anemones inhabiting the Arctic-boreal region indicate discordances between trees derived from molecular sequences and those based on morphological traits. Nuclear genes were more informative t...

We investigated the composition of small mammals at nine locations in the southwestern suburban zone of Warsaw (central Poland) through the analysis of the pellets of the Tawny owl Strix aluco. In total, we recorded 611 individuals of 15 species of small mammal communities in the diet. Rodents constituted the most numerous mammalian order. Among th...

In this study, Coccinellidae were collected and observed at 42 sites located on El Hierro (Spain), the westernmost island of the Canary archipelago, during 2017 and 2019 excursions. A total of 1553 specimens belonging to 18 species were recorded, of which four species are newly reported from El Hierro. The total number of ladybird species so far do...

Research on the fauna of beetles (Coleoptera) of the Canary Islands has a long tradition, which enables tracking changes in their species composition and arrival of new species. In this paper, we provide new faunistic data on the ladybird beetles (Coccinellidae) recorded on Gran Canaria, one of the central islands of the archipelago, and then analy...

The contamination of freshwater ecosystems with microfibres has not yet been studied in Poland. We analysed samples from a river and three lakes located in central and northeastern Poland. A significantly higher number of fibres were reported in the river, which runs through large cities, compared with the lake situated within the Landscape Park. F...

Lady beetles (Coccinellidae) were collected and observed at 13 sites on Lanzarote, Canary Islands during 6–13 February 2018. Altogether, 887 individuals belonging to 20 species were recorded. Eleven of the recorded species are new to Lanzarote, and two of them, Olla v-nigrum (Mulsant, 1866) and Pharoscymnus flexibilis (Mulsant, 1853), probably arri...

A larger sibling group variance in liver cadniun and lead than iron and zinc concentration was found in the Passer domesticus and Passer montanus nestlings in urban parks of Warsaw and suburban villages.High concentration of cadmium and lead was found in bouth areas.

According to basic ecological principle, species that share the same niche do not occupy the same environment for a long time, and sympatry of two or more such species provides an interesting field for the analysis of their trophic niche differentiation. To examine the potential differences in the dimensions of the trophic niche we studied the diet...

Hierodula transcaucasica Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878 is a mantid native to the Caucasus and southern and western Asia. Here we present the first records of the species for the Balkans represented by findings of the species in Northern Greece in two localities (Thasos in 2015 and Charopo in 2017) and in Bulgaria in 2017. These recent findings implic...

During this study, Coccinellidae were collected and observed at 25 sites located along the coast and inland of the island of Fuerteventura during 2016 and 2017. A total of 2825 Coccinellidae specimens belonging to 22 species was recorded, of which 11 species are newly recorded from Fuerteventura. In the case of three species taxonomical decisions a...

Larvae of a rare, myrmecophilous ladybird Platynaspis luteorubra (Goeze, 1777) were collected in three regions in central and northern Poland (Mazovian Lowland, Masurian Lakeland and Gdańsk Shoreland) to check their parasitism by the hymenopteran parasitoid Homalotylus platynaspidis Hoffer, 1963. The larvae were parasitized in all the three regions...

Beavers, Castor fiber L., were first observed on Vistula River banks near the city of Warsaw in 1997. From 15.12.2015 to 27.02.2016, field surveys for fresh signs of beaver activity were performed along 20 km long urban section of the Vistula River. Other aquatic habitats in Warsaw were surveyed in March and April 2016, and re-surveyed in February...

Otters (Lutra lutra) mark territories by depositing feces on prominent spots, like rocks or large tussocks of grass. However, sometimes they defecate on intentionally mounded heaps made of mud and/or plant material. We show that in sites occupied by otters the frequency of heap-making significantly increases with the frequency of otters occurrence...

The standard method was used for the first field survey of the Eurasian otter Lutra lutra distribution in all aquatic habitats in Wigry National Park (WNP) in northern Poland. Total of 59 study sites (48 on lakes, 8 on rivers and 3 on drainage ditches) were visited twice between 12th and18th of March and between 8th and 13th of May 2018. Signs of o...

New data on the occurrence of ladybird beetles in the eastern part of the Baltic Coast of Poland are presented. Studies were carried out between 2012 and 2017 along the Baltic coast from Krynica Morska to Białogóra. We found 44 species of Coccinellidae. Ten of the recorded species (Clitostethus arcuatus, Scymnus haemorrhoidalis, S. limbatus, S. abi...

The degree of penetration of urban habitats by small ground-dwelling mammals was studied in Warsaw agglomeration and in adjacent areas up to 50 km from the city centre. Study material consisted of pellets of the tawny owl Strix aluco collected in 85 sites, which contained 15,152 remains of individuals of small mammals. The species that penetrated c...

The effects of heavy metals on the development and mortality of House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) and Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) nestlings ABSTRACT Liver concentrations of iron, zinc, lead and cadmium were studied in the relation to the development and mortality of House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) and Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus)nestlings...

Samples of the invasive harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) were collected in June 2017 in four localities in western Bulgaria and three localities in northern Greece. Established (reproducing) populations of H. axyridis were found in each of the surveyed localities and were commonly infected with a fungal ectoparasite, Hesperomyces virescens (A...

On 23 March 2017, the shell of the Chinese pond mussel Sinanodonta woodiana was found on the left bank of the Vistula River at the mouth of the warm-water discharge canal of the Kozienice power plant (Central Poland). Earlier in 2016, the occurrence of this species was also reported in the Vistula River near the Żerań and Siekierki CHPs. These reco...

On 19 September 2016, the shells of the Asian freshwater clam Corbicula fluminea were recorded at three sites on the left bank of the Vistula River upstream, near Warsaw. The studied sites were located near Kępa Zawadowska (52o08’53.4”N 21o09’15,2”E), the mouth of the Jeziorka (52o07’21.9”N 21o10’30.0”E) and Dębina (52o06’02.9”N 21o12’16,4”E) river...

The paper presents distribution of the European water vole Arvicola amphibius (Linnaeus, 1758) in Mazowsze and southern Podlasie in areas situated within a 120-kilometer radius from Warsaw. Data published so far and unpublished results from analyses of the diet of three common species of owls were set up. The rodent is rare in the study area, espec...

Small mammals of Warsaw suburban areas (central Poland) in the diet of the Tawny owl Strix aluco We investigated composition of small mammals at nine locations in the southwestern suburban zone of Warsaw (central Poland) by means of the analysis of the pellets of the Tawny owl Strix aluco. In total we recorded individuals of species of small mammal...

Endangered breeding sites of the Fire-bellied toad, Bombina bombina in the Kampinos section of the Vistula River valley, central Poland. Field surveys for the Fire-bellied toad, Bombina bombina were conducted in spring and summer of 2013 and 2014. The study area is located in the Vistula River valley, north of Warsaw in Mazovia, central Poland. The...

Odłowy i obserwacje chrząszczy z rodziny biedronkowatych (Coccinellidae) prowadzono w Parku Skaryszewskim od kwietnia do października 2014 roku Ogółem zarejestrowano 1036 osobników należących do 26 gatunków Gatunkiem najczę-ściej odławianym (24,7% stwierdzonych osobników) była inwazyjna biedronka azjatycka Harmonia axyridis, która zastąpiła na pozy...

Winter diet of the long-eared owl Asio otus in various habitats of central and northeast -ern Poland. Variability of the diet of the long-eared owl was studied in selected areas of central and northeastern Poland. The sites represented three river valleys, two agricultural landscapes and a forest complex. Analysis of pellets collected in the years...

The species richness and relative abundances of ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were surveyed in 2014-2015 in Cedynia Landscape Park

The species richness and densities of overwintering ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were studied in the municipality of Łomianki in the suburban zone of Warsaw (Central Poland). In total, 274 specimens of 25 species were found, of which the most common was Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata (41.9% of all specimens). Other frequently recorde...

Mateusz Romanowski, Jerzy Romanowski. Overwintering of the Thirteen-spotted lady beetle Hippodamia tredecimpunctata (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) in Kampinos Forest. Abstract. We investigated ladybirds overwintering in agricultural landscape near Brzozówka in Kampinos Forest (Central Poland). Altogether, 180 samples of litter were collected in six ha...

RECORDS OF THE ASIAN CLAM CORBICULA FLUMINEA (O. F. MÜLLER, 1774) (VENEROIDA: CORBICULIDAE) IN THE VISTULA RIVER IN WARSAW Summary Two empty shells of the Asian clam Corbicula fluminea were recorded on left bank of Vistula river in Warsaw (52°17’07”N, 20°59’42”E) on 29 June, 2016 (photo 4). Altogether, 19 paired and 76 single empty valves were coll...

NEW DATA ON LADYBIRD BEETLES (COLEOPTERA: COCCINELLIDAE) OF WIGRY NATIONAL PARK Summary Ladybird beetles were surveyed in 2014-2016 in Wigry National Park (NE Poland). Thirty three species were recorded. The most abundant were Subcoccinella vigintiquatuorpunctata (20% of all ladybird individuals) and Coccinella quinquepunctata (17% of all individua...

W trakcie badań prowadzonych w latach 2012-2015 zebrano informacje o 18 ga-tunkach ssaków na terenie Parku Skaryszewskiego: jeżu wschodnim Erinaceus concolor, krecie Talpa europaea, pięciu gatunkach nietoperzy Chiroptera, siedmiu gryzoni Rodentia i czterech drapieżnych Carnivora Większość z tych ssaków jest objęta ochroną ścisłą lub częściową, pięć...

The genetic interests of males and females usually differ. Whenever female fitness depends on an access to limited resources such as male parental care, competitive interactions among females are expected to evolve. There are numerous studies reporting female-female aggression during the breeding season, but this subject has not been examined for t...

Analiza danych przestrzennych przy wykorzystaniu specjalistycznych aplikacji takich jak ArcGIS znajduje coraz większe zastosowanie w wszelkiego rodzaju badaniach mogących służyć ochronie przyrody. Zastosowane w opracowaniu techniki pozwoliły na wyznaczenie kluczowych czynników wpływających na śmiertelność wydry Lutra lutra na drogach. Przy wykorzys...

Owl pellets have high potential as a source of DNA. However, this non-invasive method of collecting DNA is rarely used and its methodological aspects are poorly understood. We investigated the methodology for DNA extraction and amplification from owl pellets containing the smallest European rodent – the Harvest mouse Micromys minutus – as an exampl...

Animals can estimate breeding habitat quality by monitoring social information provided by the behaviours of others. While it is accepted that the value of public information erodes with distance from the source of information, the spatial and temporal ecology of public information acquisition and use is not well understood. Published accounts of t...

Słowa kluczowe: gryzonie, ryjówkokształtne, nietoperze, wypluwki, dieta, drapieżnictwo. Zbadano skład zgrupowania drobnych ssaków Chojnowskiego Parku Krajobrazowego na podstawie analizy pokarmu puszczyka Strix aluco. W latach 2010–2012 zbierano wypluwki na 16 stanowiskach rozproszonych w północno-wschodniej części Parku. Stwierdzono łącznie 1038 os...

Surveys for mantids were undertaken at 9 sites, located along the northern and southern coasts and in the interior of Pelješac Peninsula, southern Croatia. Sweep nettings and visual observations were carried out from 27 July 2013 till 8 August 2013. Five mantid species from four genera were observed, including Ameles cf. decolor (Charpentier, 1825)...

Samples of the invasive alien ladybird, Harmonia axyridis, were collected between 27 July and 8 August 2013 at four localities on the Pelješac Peninsula in southern Croatia. Altogether, 209 individuals were collected, of which 114 (54.5%) were males and 95 (45.5%) females. &ree colour forms were present in the samples: the non-melanic form succinea...

We studied the diet of the little owl, Athene noctua, in an agricultural lands of Central Poland. In total, 642 pellets were collected in the years 1995-1997 and 3090 prey items were identified. In the diet, Coleoptera dominated by number (62.4 %), but vertebrates dominated in terms of biomass (98%). The most frequently found vertebrate prey was th...

The Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) populations declined in large areas of Europe during the 20th century. However, the increase in otter populations in their natural range and recol-onization processes are recently observed in several European countries. As revealed by the first national survey, otters were already widespread in most of the Poland ex...

The otter, which causes damage to fish farming industry, is considered to be a conflict species. This is why it has been included in the project: "Preparation of national strategies for the management of selected endangered and conflict species". The outcome of this project is the "National Action Plan for the Otter Lutra lutra in Poland. The Natio...

Field surveys for aquatic plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates along the banks of Kiełpińskie Lake and surrounding oxbows were conducted in June – August 2010. The study area is located in the Vistula River valley near Warsaw in central Poland. The results document the richness of flora and fauna species in the J. Kielpińskie reserve and adjacent...

When data are limited it is difficult for conservation managers to assess alternative management scenarios and make decisions. The natterjack toad (Bufo calamita) is declining at the edges of its distribution range in Europe and little is known about its current distribution and abundance in Poland. Although different landscape management plans for...

Results from sensitivity analysis of expected minimum abundance. (DOC)

Results from sensitivity analysis of road mortality. Final adults’ abundances and standard deviations are shown for road mortality. Values increased in the infrastructure development scenario and decreased in the renaturalisation scenario by (A) 1%, (B) 2%, (C) 3%, (D) 6% - base level in this study and (E) 9%. (TIFF)

Results from sensitivity analysis of predicted carrying capacity. (DOC)

Results from sensitivity analysis of predicted metapopulation structure. (DOC)

(A) Parameterisation summary based on the ODD protocol and new protocol for PVA. (B) Parameters of the metapopulation model. (DOC)

Owl pellets have high potential as a source of DNA. However, this non-invasive method of collecting DNA is rarely used and its methodological aspects are poorly understood. We investigated the methodology for DNA extraction and amplification from owl pellets containing the smallest European rodent – the Harvest mouse Micromys minutus – as an exampl...

The increase in Eurasian otter Lutra lutra populations in their natural range and recolonization processes are recently observed in several European countries. We address the process of otter recolonization and habitat utilization in Central Poland over 14 years. Field surveys in 1998 and 2007 documented increase in occurrence of the species. The f...

Muskrat, Ondatra zibethicus (L. 1766), is an introduced species to European fauna. It is widespread in Poland, however signs of it decline were observed in last decades. While most of information on muskrat is based on questionnaires and bag record, in this paper results of field census for muskrat signs (tracks and feaces) at total of 1554 sites a...

The diet of otters was studied by the means of spraint analysis in the Bieszczady Mountains, in southeastern Poland. The study area extended over 25 km long stretch of the River San, about 1 km above Solina dam reservoir. Spraints were collected on seven 2 km long sections in 1993, and on three sections in 2010. In both study periods, otter spraint...