Coleman rarefaction curves were used in order to estimate the expected cumulative number of selleck kinase inhibitor species for a given number of sampled individuals. In addition, the total species richness, corrected for unseen species in the samples was also assessed. For this purpose an abundance-based coverage estimator (ACE) and Chao1 estimator (Colwell 2005, Chao et al. 2006) was applied. This method uses the abundance of rare

species (P ≤ 10 individuals) in samples to estimate the number of unseen species and is commonly used in faunistic research (Chao et al. 2006). Following this an attempt was made to define the relationship between disturbances (anthropogenic or natural) and the abundances of scuttle fly species with different food habits. For this analysis I used data on all recorded scuttle fly species with known biology. I assessed if the number of individuals of each species www.selleckchem.com/products/XAV-939.html with saprophagous (including necrophagous and polysaprophagous), mycophagous, zoophagous and polyphagous larvae, differs on clear-cut and old-growth plots, and

left- and logged-windthrow plots. For this purpose the species-specific preference for the four different habitats (clear-cuts, old-growths, left-windthrow and logged-windthrow plots) was quantified with the χ 2 statistic. Finally, I examined whether size of scuttle flies is associated with their preferences for the distinguished habitats Repotrectinib (clear-cuts, old-growths, left-windthrow and logged-windthrow plots). I used analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Tukey’s test to tuclazepam compare mean body length of species occurring in particular habitats. Information on the average size of males of particular species is taken from various sources (Lundbeck 1922; Schmitz 1938–1958; Schmitz et al. 1974–1981; Disney 1991 and references therein, Disney personal comm.). Results General

characteristics of scuttle-fly communities Altogether, 17, 547 male individuals of scuttle flies belonging to 183 species (including two morphospecies: Megaselia giraudii-complex and M. pulicaria-complex) were analyzed (Table 1). In the disturbed habitats (pine plantations vs. post-windstorm plots) the number of species (S) and specimens (N) were almost the same (clear-cuts plots: S = 71 and N = 2,481; left- and logged-windthrow plots: S = 67 and N = 2,450). However, in the old-growth habitats of three forest complexes (BF, TF, BPF), total number of the scuttle fly species was more than twice as high and their abundance was more than five times as high (S = 154 and N = 12,616) comparing to the scuttle fly communities inhabiting pine plantations and post-windstorm habitats (Table 1). In the material under study, the species from the genus Megaselia constituted almost 70 % (S = 123) of all recorded species and the individuals of this giant genus accounted for 80–90 % of the scuttle fly community associated with each plot after disturbance (Table 1).