The degree of ecological specialization plays a crucial role in shaping the structure and functioning of communities. However, comparing specialization within and among groups of organisms is complicated by both methodological issues and conceptual and terminological inconsistencies. Environmental predictability has been considered a key determinant of specialization though empirical evidence is still limited. Fungi and their insect consumers provide a poorly studied but promising system to measure host specialization and test the predictability hypothesis. In this study, we systematically sampled mushrooms in North European boreal forest, and reared total samples of fungivores colonizing the fruitbodies. Due to the unpredictable nature of mushrooms as a resource, low levels of host specialization can be predicted for these insects, which have indeed widely been considered polyphagous. Contrary to expectations, the majority of the studied fungus gnats were found not to exploit their host taxa indiscriminately. Not only were some mushroom taxa never colonized, the infestation rate of acceptable hosts also differed in most of these fungivores. Gnat species themselves formed continua with respect to the estimates of the degree of specialization, derived from parametric individual-based analyses of presence-absence data. In most cases, host use was best explained by models in which the hosts were classified at genus level, with limited support to specialization to particular host species, families, or orders. Indeed, most of the common fungivores appeared to preferentially use various species from one or a few mushroom genera while occasionally feeding on members of other host taxa. This pattern has likely evolved as a compromise between selective forces stemming from host unpredictability and taxon-specific chemical profiles of the mushrooms. Our study highlights the multidimensional nature of ecological specialization: a high number of acceptable hosts does not preclude considerable discrimination among members of the available resource pool. Such situations can only be revealed by individual-based analyses capable of capturing differences in partner-to-partner interaction intensities.

No abstract

European species of the Mycetophila ruficollis group are compared on the basis of morphology and sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI) and the ITS2 region of nuclear ribosomal DNA. The study represents the first evaluation of morphology-based species delimitation of closely related fungus gnat species by applying molecular information. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of the male terminalia are presented along with a key for the identification of all nine European species of the group. Phylogenetic analyses of molecular data generally supported the morphological species discrimination. The barcoding region of COI superseded ITS2 rDNA in resolving species. In the COI barcoding region interspecific differences ranged from 2.9 to 10.6% and the intraspecific distance from 0.08 to 0.8%. Only COI data distinguished between the similar and closely related Mycetophila ichneumonea and Mycetophila uninotata of which the latter was observed to include cryptic species. The host range of some species is suggested to be narrower than previously considered and to depend on the forest type. Presented evidence indicates the importance of analysing sequence data of morphologically very similar mycetophages reared from identified host fungi for elucidating species delimitation as well as their geographic and host ranges. New country records, viz. Estonia for Mycetophila evanida, Georgia for Mycetophila ichneumonea, Mycetophila idonea and Mycetophila ruficollis, and Norway for Mycetophila strobli, widen the known distribution ranges of these species.

Two new Keroplatidae species, Orfelia georgica sp. n. and Orfelia trifida sp. n., are described on the basis of male material collected from Georgia (Caucasus). The two species, representing the first records of the genus in the country, are photographed, their terminalia illustrated and systematics discussed.