An Ecological Niche Model for Dociostaurus maroсcanus, Thunberg, 1815 (Orthoptera, Acrididae): The Nesting Environment and Survival of Egg-Pods

Since the earliest times, the problem of the locust has been a very serious one for agriculture and food production in particular. Devastating locust plagues are known from the Old and the New World where locust swarms terrified the earliest settlement and towns, leaving not a single green branch on the fields. Ways to combat locust plagues were often ineffective or extremely expensive due to a lack of information on the exact location of the newly hatched locusts; and the lack of an accurate assessment of the number of locusts in currently forming swarms. Rapidly developing GIS applications, especially as part of environmental modelling, appear to be a good means of forecasting a locust plague, being based on accurate ground observation and expert knowledge of the biology and ecology of the locust species. This paper represents an example of extended ecological modelling for the nesting conditions of Dociostaurus maroccanus, a well-known gregarious acridid species, with emphasis on the explanation of key environmental variables as revealed by the model.

An Ecological Niche Model for Dociostaurus maroсcanus, Thunberg, 1815 (Orthoptera, Acrididae): The Nesting Environment and Survival of Egg-Pods

Since the earliest times, the problem of the locust has been a very serious one for agriculture and food production in particular. Devastating locust plagues are known from the Old and the New World where locust swarms terrified the earliest settlement and towns, leaving not a single green branch on the fields. Ways to combat locust plagues were often ineffective or extremely expensive due to a lack of information on the exact location of the newly hatched locusts; and the lack of an accurate assessment of the number of locusts in currently forming swarms. Rapidly developing GIS applications, especially as part of environmental modelling, appear to be a good means of forecasting a locust plague, being based on accurate ground observation and expert knowledge of the biology and ecology of the locust species. This paper represents an example of extended ecological modelling for the nesting conditions of Dociostaurus maroccanus, a well-known gregarious acridid species, with emphasis on the explanation of key environmental variables as revealed by the model.

Biomechanical evidence suggests extensive eggshell thinning during incubation in the Sanagasta titanosaur dinosaurs

The reproduction of titanosaur dinosaurs is still a complex and debated topic. Their Late Cretaceous nesting sites are distributed worldwide and their eggs display substantial morphological variations according to the parent species. In contrast to the typical 1.3–2.0 mm thick shells common to eggs of most titanosaur species (e.g., those that nested in Auca Mahuevo, Tama, Toteşti or Boseong), the Cretaceous Sanagasta eggs of Argentina display an unusual shell thickness of up to 7.9 mm. Their oviposition was synchronous with a palaeogeothermal process, leading to the hypothesis that their extra thick eggshell was an adaptation to this particular nesting environment. Although this hypothesis has already been supported indirectly through several investigations, the mechanical implications of developing such thick shells and how this might have affected the success of hatching remains untested. Finite element analyses estimate that the breaking point of the thick-shelled Sanagasta eggs is 14–45 times higher than for other smaller and equally sized titanosaur eggs. The considerable energetic disadvantage for piping through these thick eggshells suggests that their dissolution during incubation would have been paramount for a successful hatching.