Vital Strategy for [i]Cicada orni[/i] L. Survival in the Regional Park Maremma (Italy)
Journal Title: Ecologia Balkanica - Year 2014, Vol 5, Issue 0
Abstract
The study took place in the period 1991-2000, in the Regional Park Maremma, Central Italy (42˚39’N, 11˚ 05’E). It is with an area of 9800 ha, covered by Mediterranean vegetation: Pinus halepensis Mill., Pinus pinea domesticus L., Quercus ilex L., Q .pubescens Willd., Arbutus unedo L., Phillirea latifolia L., Erica multiflora L., Pistacia lentiscus L., Rosmarinus officinalis L. The larvae of Cicada orni L. live in the soil and it with three-year life cycle. When it starts going out of the skin it becomes a pray for some animals, among them ants and wild boar, as it does not move. During one only observation it was established the presence of 222 cicada skins on the sand only some of which reached to fly. On the sand there were also signs from lizards, snakes, birds, hedge hocks, foxes, wild boars, etc. After a deep analysis it was established that their number decreased 30 times from the ground to the trees crowns where the adults live. During 10 years were collected data about the flying dynamics of cicada in order to answer the following hypothesis: what is the life strategy which the insect uses to survive among the numerous enemies. During this analysis there were reached four answers: first – it is a mass; second – it flies in late spring and early summer when the number of other insects is abundant and the enemies feed on them, third – most of the birds are over with the looking after their smalls which need great amount of food, and forth – the mornings in May are colder and more with moisture and this makes the insect slow and it could be a pray for the birds and mammals as well.
Authors and Affiliations
Peter Genov, Atidzhe Ahmed, Stefka Kitanova
Keywords
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