▪ Abstract The estimated 6000 species of Lycaenidae account for about one third of all
Papilionoidea. The majority of lycaenids have associations with ants that can be facultative …

Although most conservationists claim to protect “species”, the conservation unit actually and
practically managed is the individual population. As resources are not unlimited, we need to …

Large blue (Maculinea) butterflies are highly endangered throughout the Palaearctic region,
and have been the focus of intense conservation research,,. In addition, their extraordinary …

Mechanisms of recognition are essential to the evolution of mutualistic and parasitic
interactions between species. One such example is the larval mimicry that Maculinea …

The range of hosts exploited by a parasite is determined by several factors, including host
availability, infectivity and exploitability. Each of these can be the target of natural selection …

Host-symbiont interactions are embedded in ecological communities and range from
unspecific to highly specific relationships. Army ants and their arthropod guests represent a …

Ant nests and their surrounding territories represent a hoard of trophic resources, as well as
of stable and protected environments for many arthropods involved in commensal …

This paper discusses the different social parasites of ants, evolutionary routes to inquilism
and other specialized forms of social parasitism, and host specificity in social parasites …

A peculiar feature of all living beings is their capability to communicate. With the discovery of
the quorum sensing phenomenon in bioluminescent bacteria in the late 1960s, it became …

Maculinea alcon uses three different species of Myrmica host ants along a north–south
gradient in Europe. Based on this geographical variation in host ant use, Elmes et al.(1994) …