Although the calendar spring has already started on 21st of March, but in our lab at Institute of Nature Conservation of the Polish Academy of Sciences for the last 60 odonates larvae from Sweden – only this week. However, this is already their... second spring under laboratory conditions in last 9 months. Thus has begun the last phase of the experiment on Ischnura elegans, which is carried out within WP5 of the ECOPOND project.
During the wintering, all larvae were kept at 6°C, in the dark, and fed on average every other day. Now they have been divided into two groups, for which the temperature is slowly and gradually increased. For the first group, the target temperature will be 20°C, and for the second group: 24°C. For all larvae, the time of exposure to daylight is 20 hours per day.
As soon as the larvae reach the F0 stage, part of them will be exposed to an additional factor – scent of a predator, an invasive species: spiny cheek crayfish (Orconectes limosus). As we verified, testing the effect of predator smell on odonates larvae gives the best results when they are exposed to it precisely in the F0 phase.
At the end of the experiment the larvae will be weighed, measured and then frozen.
We look forward to the results of our analyses.