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Temperature and humidity conditions affect the growth and success of ectotherm insects. Red wood ants of the Formica rufa group are able to regulate the temperature of their nests to be close to the optimum, typically higher than ambient in northern latitudes and higher elevation. The mound-shaped nests are constructed from organic particles (needles, sticks, etc., plant material) and from soil particles. Nest mounds typically have a relatively dry inner structure but moister surface layer which may help the ants to insulate nests against cooling winds. Forest clear felling exposes nest mounds to direct sunlight, drier microclimate and increased wind. We studied whether clear felling affects the nest surface moisture and temperature conditions. We found that i) nest surfaces were significantly drier in clear fells than in forests, ii) a high height/diameter ratio and an increase in the nest volume increases surface dryness in clear fells but not in forests, iii) the nest temperatures relative to ambient temperature was higher in forests than in clear fells, and iv) the relative temperature increased with increasing moisture content of nest surface layer. The drying nest material and more unstable inside temperature may have adverse effects not only on the red wood ants themselves, but also for nest-dwelling soil organisms and myrmecophiles that live in red wood ant nests. In addition, changes in moisture and temperature could have effects on the rate of decomposition and nutrient turnover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The worldwide decline and local extinctions of bumblebees have raised a need for fast and accurate tools for species identification. Morphological characters are often not sufficient, and molecular methods have been increasingly used for reliable identification of bumblebee species. Molecular methods often require high-quality DNA which makes them less suitable for analysis of low-quality or older samples. We modified the PCR- RFLP protocol for an efficient and cost-effective identification of four bumblebee species in the subgenus Bombus s. str. ( B. lucorum, B. terrestris, B. magnus and B. cryptarum). We used a short partial mitochondrial COI fragment (446 bp) and three diagnostic restriction enzymes (Hinf I, Hinc II and Hae III) to identify species from degraded DNA material. This approach allowed us to efficiently determine the correct species from all degraded DNA samples, while only a subset of samples 64.6% (31 of 48) resulted in successful amplification of a longer COI fragment (1064 bp) using the previously described method. This protocol can be applied for conservation and management of bumblebees within this subgenus and is especially useful for fast species identification from degraded samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More efficient recycling of municipal solid waste (MSW) is an essential precondition for turning Europe into a circular economy. Thus, the recycling of MSW must increase significantly in several member states, including Finland. This has increased the interest in the composition of mixed MSW. Due to increased information needs, a method for mixed MSW composition studies was introduced in Finland in order to improve the national comparability of composition study results. The aim of this study was to further develop the method so that it corresponds to the information needed about the composition of mixed MSW and still works in practice. A survey and two mixed MSW composition studies were carried out in the study. According to the responses of the survey, the intensification of recycling, the landfill ban on organic waste and the producer responsibility for packaging waste have particularly influenced the need for information about the composition of mixed MSW. The share of biowaste in mixed MSW interested the respondents most. Additionally, biowaste proved to be the largest waste fraction in mixed MSW in the composition studies. It constituted over 40% of mixed MSW in both composition studies. For these reasons, the classification system of the method was updated by further defining the classifications of biowaste. The classifications of paper as well as paperboard and cardboard were also updated. The updated classification system provides more information on the share of avoidable food waste and waste materials suitable for recycling in mixed MSW. The updated method and the information gained from the composition studies are important in ensuring that the method will be adopted by municipal waste management companies and thus used widely in Finland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to nutritional conditions experienced by individuals themselves, those experienced by their parents can affect their immune function. Here, we studied the intra- and trans-generational effects of larval diet on susceptibility to an entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana, in the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella. In the first part of the study, a split-brood design was used to compare the susceptibility of full sibs raised either on low- or on high-nutrition larval diet. In the second part of the study, a similar experimental design was employed to investigate the effects of maternal and paternal diet as well as their interaction on offspring's susceptibility. In the first part of the study, we found that individuals fed with high-nutrition diet had higher mortality from infection than individuals fed with low-nutrition diet. However, diet did not affect post-infection survival time. Conversely, in the second part of the study, maternal diet was found to have no significant effect on final mortality rate of offspring, but it affected survival time: larvae with high-nutrition maternal diet survived fewer days after infection than larvae with low-nutrition maternal diet. Paternal diet had no significant effect on offspring's susceptibility to the fungus, indicating that paternal effects are not as important as maternal effects in influencing immune function in this species. Our findings provide further indication that maternal nutrition affects immune function in insects, and suggest that the direct effects of nutrition on immunity may be different, yet parallel, to those caused by parental nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]