1. Alien species often flourish and become invasive in urban ecosystems. How and why invaders succeed in urban systems is an important, yet poorly understood, question. We investigate whether the success of urban invaders is related to changes in species traits that enhance invasive potential. We also explore whether This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Deploying mosquito predators such as the guppy (Poecilia reticulata) into bodies of water where mosquitoes breed is a common strategy for limiting the spread of disease-carrying mosquitoes. Here, we draw on studies from epidemiology, conservation, ecology and evolution to show that the evidence for the effectiveness of guppies in controlling mosquitoes is weak, that the chances of accidental guppy introduction into local ecosystems are large, and that guppies can easily establish populations and damage these aquatic ecosystems. We highlight several knowledge and implementation gaps, and urge that this approach is either abandoned in favour of more effective strategies or that it is used much more rigorously. Controlling mosquitoes does not need to come at the expense of freshwater biodiversity.

Functional diversity of fish communities has been measured according to (a) interspecific variability, assuming that intraspecific variability is negligible, or (b) morphological differences, as good descriptors of complex functions, such as diet. These two assumptions have been scarcely tested on the individual level, especially in species‐rich tropical ecosystems. Here, we adapted intraspecific specialisation (ISpe) and intraspecific originality indices (IOri) to assess complementary components of intraspecific variability. Next, we applied these indices to evaluate the intra‐ and interspecific variability of morphological and diet traits in two contrasting Brazilian stream‐dwelling fish assemblages (rainforest and savannah). We also compared correlations between morphology and diet at the individual and species level to test whether accounting for intraspecific variability increases the predictability of diet due to morphological differences. Significant contributions of intraspecific variability to differences between fish were revealed for morphology and diet. Intraspecific variability in the diet was higher than that in morphology in both assemblages. The ISpe was positively correlated to IOri in the diet of both ecosystems. The morphological–dietary relationships were significant but weak at both individual and species levels. Our findings highlight the importance of measuring individual variability and accounting for complementary components of the intraspecific variability (ISpe and IOri). Importantly, we showed that the variability in morphology does not predict diet variability at both intra‐ and interspecific levels. Thus, high intraspecific variability in morphology and diet challenges the use of functional traits measured at the species level to describe the functional diversity of different fish assemblages.

We aimed to evaluate the relationship between form and function of two Loricariidae species (Hypostomus punctatus and Parotocinclus maculicauda) from a Neotropical coastal stream. We performed morphological-dietary analysis and discussed their coexistence strategies, as well. We hypothesized that both species use similar food resources according to their morphology but differences in habitat use facilitate their coexistence. In order to test this hypothesis, morphology, diet and habitat use were analyzed for both species. Trophic variance and the Pianka Niche Overlap index were calculated to explore the differences in trophic niche. Correlations between species abundance and water flow were applied to test habitat use. Principal Component Analysis and one Permutational Multivariate Analysis of Variance were applied to test differences between morphology and diet of both species. Morphological-dietary relationships were tested with Mantel test correlations. Total abundance of H. punctatus was higher in the stream channel with higher water flow. The dominant food items were sediment and organic matter for both species, and high trophic niche overlap was revealed. Additionally, morphology did not explain feeding habits for both species. Morphological characteristics were significantly different, especially for intestine length, relative area of the dorsal fin, ventral flattening and mouth attributes. The study site was rich in sand sediment, mud, and clay that are not considered good substrates to the establishment and growing of periphyton, which is an important trophic resource to Loricariidae species. Here, low consumption of periphyton can provide a possible explanation for the feeding similarity and the weak morphological-dietary relationships for both species. Thus, the environmental conditions can be more important for diet composition when compared to the similar and specialized morphology of loricariids.