Martin Šigut

University of Ostrava · Department of Biology and Ecology

Ambrosia gall midges (AGMs) are mostly host plant-specific. In their galls, they harbor fungal symbionts on which they feed. Therefore, they represent unique steps in the evolution of the gall-forming Cecidomyiidae (Diptera). Gall-associated fungi have been studied predominantly by cultivations, and potential larval endosymbionts have been complete...

Plant–herbivore interactions have been modulated by plant secondary metabolites (PSM), which exert a strong pressure on herbivore microbiome. This study examined the effects of different PSM types and concentrations on caterpillar fitness, composition of gut bacterial and fungal assemblages, and microbiome network stability and symbiotic bonds in r...

Microorganisms are key mediators of interactions between insect herbivores and their host plants. Despite a substantial interest in studying various aspects of these interactions, temporal variations in microbiomes of woody plants and their consumers remain understudied. In this study, we investigated shifts in the microbiomes of leaf-mining larvae...

Habitat selection, the choice of a habitat based on its perceived quality, is a key mechanism structuring freshwater communities. To date, individual variability in habitat selection has been neglected, and specialisation has never been considered in this type of studies. We examined the individual differences in the habitat selection of backswimme...

Despite an increasing number of studies on caterpillar (Insecta: Lepidoptera) gut microbiota, bacteria have been emphasized more than fungi. Therefore, we lack data on whether fungal microbiota is resident or transient and shaped by factors similar to those of bacteria. We sampled nine polyphagous caterpillar species from several tree species at mu...

Despite increasing studies on caterpillar (Insecta: Lepidoptera) gut microbiota, bacteria have been emphasized more than fungi. Therefore, we lack data on whether fungal microbiota is resident or transient and shaped by factors similar to those of bacteria. We sampled nine polyphagous caterpillar species from several tree species at multiple sites...

Habitat selectivity has become an increasingly acknowledged mechanism shaping the structure of freshwater communities; however, most studies have focused on the effect of predators and competitors, neglecting habitat complexity and specialization. In this study, we examined the habitat selection of semiaquatic (amphibians: Bufonidae; odonates: Libe...

The phenomenon of hydrophobicity of insect cuticles has received great attention from technical fields due to its wide applicability to industry or medicine. However, in an ecological/evolutionary context such studies remain scarce. We measured spatial differences in wing wettability in Lestes sponsa (Odonata: Lestidae), a damselfly species that ca...

1. Assemblages of insect herbivores are structured by plant traits such as nutrient content, secondary metabolites, physical traits, and phenology. Many of these traits are phylogenetically conserved, implying a decrease in trait similarity with increasing phylogenetic distance of the host plant taxa. Thus, a metric of phylogenetic distances and re...

1. Assemblages of insect herbivores are structured by plant traits such as nutrient content, secondary metabolites, physical traits, and phenology.

Compared with the highly diverse microbiota of leaves, herbivorous insects exhibit impoverished gut microbial communities. Research to date has focused on the bacterial component of these gut microbiomes, neglecting the fungal component. As caterpillar gut bacterial microbiomes are derived strongly from their diet, we hypothesized that their mycobi...

Insect microbiota may play a wide range of roles in host physiology. Among others, microbiota can be involved in diet processing or protection against pathogens, both of which are potentially important in bryophagous (moss-feeding) insects, which survive on extreme diets and live in the stable environment of moss clumps suitable for the growth of f...

The diversity and role of the gut microbiota of insects is a rapidly growing fi eld of entomology, primarily fueled by new metagenomic techniques. Whereas endosymbionts in the guts of xylophagous or herbivorous insects are well studied, the microbiomes in moss-eating (bryophagous) insects remain uncharacterized. Using the Illumina MiSeq platform, w...

Research on canopy arthropods has progressed from species inventories to the study of their interactions and networks, enhancing our understanding of how hyper-diverse communities are maintained. Previous studies often focused on sampling individual tree species, individual trees or their parts. We argue that such selective sampling is not ideal wh...

Phenotypic plasticity is a common defensive strategy in species experiencing variable predation risk, such as habitat generalists. Larvae of generalist dragonflies can elongate their abdominal spines in environments with fish, but long spines render larvae susceptible to invertebrate predators. Long-spined specialists adapted to fish-heavy habitats...

Dataset of 186 larvae measured in an experiment focused on phenotypic plasticity in the spine length of larval Sympetrum depressiusculum (Odonata: Libellulidae). (XLSX)

Knowledge about herbivores and their parasitoids in forest canopies remains limited, despite their diversity and ecological importance. Thus, it is important to understand the factors that shape the herbivore–parasitoid community structure, particularly the effect of vertical gradient. We investigated a quantitative community dataset of exposed and...

Understanding interactions between herbivores and parasitoids is essential for successful biodiversity protection and monitoring and for biological pest control. Morphological identifications employ insect rearing and are complicated by insects’ high diversity and crypsis. DNA barcoding has been successfully used in studies of host–parasitoid inter...

Taxonomic assignments of hosts and parasitoids present in mock samples by morphological identification, standard barcoding, and metabarcoding. (PDF)

Overview of clusters (MOTUs) recovered by MiSeq from individual mock samples. (PDF)

Phylogenetic reconstruction of representative sequences of all MOTUs generated from MiSeq together with standard barcode sequences from all hosts and parasitoids present in mock samples. (PDF)

List of taxonomic resources used for morphological identification of parasitoids present in mock samples. (PDF)

The Shannon–Wiener index is a popular nonparametric metric widely used in ecological research as a measure of species diversity. We used the Web of Science database to examine cases where papers published from 1990 to 2015 mislabelled this index. We provide detailed insights into causes potentially affecting use of the wrong name ‘Weaver’ instead o...

Insects tend to feed on related hosts. The phylogenetic composition of host plant communities thus plays a prominent role in determining insect specialization, food web structure, and diversity. Previous studies showed a high preference of insect herbivores for congeneric and confamilial hosts suggesting that some levels of host plant relationships...

Studies of symbioses have traditionally focused on explaining one-to-one interactions between organisms. In reality, symbioses are often much more dynamic. They can involve many interacting members, and change depending on context. In studies of the ambrosia symbiosis—the mutualism between wood borer beetles and fungi—two variables have introduced...

The concept of ecological traps, in which animals settle in low-quality habitats, is well-established. Dragonflies are a good model for investigating the effects of ecological traps because their habitat selection process can be directly observed. Unfortunately, most such studies focus on oviposition on artificial materials, such as car surfaces, g...

Bark and ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae & Platypodinae) are among the most damaging forest pests worldwide, and monitoring is essential to damage prevention. Unfortunately, traps and attractants that are currently used are costly, and agencies rely on limited field personnel for deployment. The situation can be greatly aide...

Underwater oviposition is a special subtype of endophytic oviposition and constitutes the predominant mode for certain species of Calopterygidae and Coenagrionidae. Very little is known about underwater oviposition in Lestidae and other dragonfly groups (e.g., Anisoptera). In July 2009, we recorded this specific behaviour in a population of Lestes...

Similar in effect to predators, egg parasitoids could have a significant effect on the distribution of host and its’ population dynamics. However, knowledge about the biology and ecology of aquatic parasitoids and their effects on the host are very limited. The aim of this study was to determine whether the density of parasitoids is affected by sev...