Presentations

Although there are a quite large number of aquatic bug species in Hungary, we do not know much about their biology. They are important members of the water ecosystems both as predators or as preys. The vegetation, the quality of the underlay and several other factors has significant influence on their presence and abundance in a particular habitat.I performed a laboratory study in order to find information about the backgroud of the habitat choice of some species.

I have studied four species which are widespread and abundant in Hungary. This species were as follows: the water scorpion (Nepa cinerea), the saucer bug (Ilyocoris cimicoides), the water boatman (Notonecta glauca), and the green backswimmer (Notonecta viridis). I did my experiment during the August of 2010. I repeated the test three times with every specimen. During the test the specimens were alone in the test-pot and they were able to choose from three types of microhabitats.

This experiment based on my previous study, which was made by me in a dead channel of River Sajó in 2008. In this study I separated the whole habitat into three types of microhabitats. I called „Type-A” which marked by anglers. That is why it had poor vegetation and there wasn’t shadow. „Type-B” had rich vegetation and it was shiny like „Type-A”. „Type-C” was shadowy because on the coast there were huge trees. In these areas twigs and wattels were under the water. I observed in the natural habitat that different species preferred different microhabitat types.

I imitated these natural microhabitats under laboratory conditions. In the laboratory study I tryed to discover the microhabitat preference in the artificial environment where the specimens could choose directly from the three type of microhabitats. The distribution of species was different among the three types of microhabitats I made a previous dessection of the data. All of the species disliked the „A-type” and preferred the „C