Slovakia: Three-dimensional discoveries

Chilopoda), millipedes (Diplopoda), springtails (Collembola), two-pronged bristletails (Diplura) and mites (Acarina).

Photo-eclectors, special traps for insects, make those animals visible, which live on and under the tree bark. Only minuscule specimen find cover and nourishment in the corrugated bark, some species of thrips (Thysanoptera) for instance feed on microscopically tiny mushrooms. On previous excursions Dr. Fedor and his team have already discovered 10 species of thrips, which had not been known in Slovakia before.

Organisms living within a confined section of a habitat form highly dynamic communities. Traps have proved helpful in gaining insight into these seasonal and migrational changes. The exploration of tree tops, for instance, is extremely difficult. But by spreading a cloth on the floor and than shaking the tree, experts are able to catch species falling down from different levels of it. Dr. Michael Dubovsky thus catches not only caterpillars, but caterpillar hunters (Calosoma) as well earwigs (Dermaptera) and Orthoptera.

Rana dalmatina) is his first catch. Larvae of the common spadefoot (Pelobates fuscus) and numerous water striders (GerrisAnguis fragilis) and the grass snake (Natrix natrix).

Ornithologists are successful as well. A blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), some song thrushes (Turdus philomelos) and a pair of chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs