Ecological Entomology

Volume 42 Issue 4

Habitat variation, mutualism and predation shape the spatio-temporal dynamics of tansy aphids
Matthias Senft, Wolfgang W. Weisser and Sharon E. Zytynska

The underlying paradigms of ecology and conservation have changed fundamentally over the last 25 years, as we have recognized the previously under-appreciated factor of movement in a patchy landscape as a vital element in determining population dynamics. Previous strong arguments about density dependence and regulation have come to seem rather naive because the scale of studies was nearly always too small. As our focus has shifted up in scale to landscape and region, so there has been complete change in the ways of explaining what is going on. This is well illustrated by the paper by Senft et al. on tansy aphid metapopulations and metacommunities, in which the authors explore the roles of colonisation, extinction and persistence in the face of variation in the associated community of mutualistic ants and predators, and abiotic factors such as season and weather. Plant-aphid systems appear to be ideal for the study of the spatial scale of regulatory forces, and hence of the way in which we try to conserve biodiversity.

Editors' choices from previous issues

RES Award Winner 2016

Pollination by nocturnal Lepidoptera, and the effects of light pollution: a review
Callum J. Macgregor, Michael J. O. Pocock, Richard Fox and Darren M. Evans

If you are publishing papers on entomology, you may well be interested in becoming a Fellow or Member of the Royal Entomological Society. For further details go to royensoc.co.uk/membership/overview.htm

IUSSI Social Insects Virtual Issue
This Virtual Issue has been compiled to accompany the IUSSI Social Insects meeting. Enjoy free access to these papers. Read Virtual Issue.

New Opinion Papers
Like some bees and all ants, termites are eusocial, characterized by reproductive division of labour where sterile workers and soldiers forgo their own reproduction to help and protect the reproductive pair (queen and king). Read more

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Photo by: J Korb

Don't be a zero-sum reviewer

Read this thought-provoking editorial on the benefits vs obligations of peer review. Free access from Insect Conservation and Diversity.
Don't be a zero-sum reviewer
Raphael K. Didham, Simon R. Leather, Yves Basset

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