In our work we used noninvasive point reflectance spectroscopy in the range from 400 to 2100 nm coupled with machine learning to study scales on the brown and golden iridescent areas on the dorsal side of the forewing of Diachrysia chrysitis and D. stenochrysis. We used our approach to distinguish between these species of moths. The basis for the study was a statistically significant collection of 95 specimens identified based on morphological feature and gathered during 23 years in Poland. The numerical part of an experiment included two independent discriminant analyses: stochastic and deterministic. The more sensitive stochastic approach achieved average compliance with the species identification made by entomologists at the level of 99–100%. It demonstrated high stability against the different configurations of training and validation sets, hence strong predictors of Diachrysia siblings distinctiveness. Both methods resulted in the same small set of relevant features, where minimal fully discriminating subsets of wavelengths were three for glass scales on the golden area and four for the brown. The differences between species in scales primarily concern their major components and ultrastructure. In melanin-absent glass scales, this is mainly chitin configuration, while in melanin-present brown scales, melanin reveals as an additional factor.

Field trials were conducted at the Field Experimental Station in Winna Góra. Weed control after maize sowing increased the grain yield by 15.7% compared to that after herbicide application at the BBCH 14/15 stage. Higher effectiveness of silicon application in maize cultivation can be achieved on plantations free from primary or secondary weed infestation. The application of a 50% NPK dose increased the grain yield by 8.6%, while a 100% dose improved it by 13.9% compared to that of the control object (without mineral fertilization). Furthermore, it was observed that the effectiveness of the silicon increased with higher total precipitation during the maize growing season, as evidenced by the results from 2022. In that year, the difference between the control (without silicon application) and the treatment with silicon applied at the BBCH 15/16 stage was more than 33%. The average mass losses from the green tea bags ranged from 54.9% to 71.9% in the variant of the sowing experiment carried out after spraying with the herbicide and from 69.4% to 72.4% in the variant with herbicide spraying at the BBCH14 stage. The rooibos tea’s mass losses were lower, as expected, and ranged from 18.6% to 36.4% in the first variant and from 30.8% to 38.6% in the second variant. The mass losses of the green tea and rooibos tea were the highest in the variant with herbicide spraying at the BBCH14 stage and the lowest in the variant of the sowing experiment carried out after herbicide spraying. The stabilization factor (S) ranged from 193 × 10⁻³ to 254 × 10⁻³ in sowing after herbicide spraying and from 188 × 10⁻³ to 226 × 10⁻³ in the variant with herbicide spraying at the BBCH14 stage. The k (decomposition constant) ranged from 7.8 × 10−3 to 11.5 × 10⁻³ in the first variant and from 7.2 × 10⁻³ to 13.4 × 10⁻³ in the variant with herbicide spraying at BBCH14.

El trabajo presenta los resultados de una exploración de la fauna de Noctuoidea de los ecosistemas de xerotérmicos sobre las pistas de la montaña Chorna Hora en la Transcarpática ucraniana, realizados entre 2009- 2017. Entre el total de 299 especies de noctuideos registrados, 96 son nuevos para el Chorna Hora. La exploración ha demostrado rotundamente que esta región tiene un papel muy importante en la preservación de la biodiversidad de noctuideos, tanto en Ucrania como en Europa como un todo. Soporta una serie de especies estenotópicas, distribuidas por el Ponto, mediterráneas y Panonia, consideradas como infrecuentes y en peligro de extinción en Ucrania y Europa central. Se incluyen: C. communimacula, N. siculana, C. xeranthemi, V. oleagina, C. platyptera, C. opalina, A. caliginosa, C. latreillei, C. kadenii, A. gluteosa, M. maura, P. sericata, E. glaucina, T. sulphurago, A. humilis, A. lutulenta, L. literosa, P. extrema, C. multangula, E. cos, D. nigrescens y D. forcipula.

Morphological and genetic comparisons were carried out of specimens of two sister species Aporophyla lueneburgensis (Freyer, 1848) and Aporophyla lutulenta ([Denis & Schiffermüller], 1775), which are distributed allopatrically in Poland. The specimens from different populations of these two species hardly differ morphologically but do differ genetically. The mean genetic distance between the groups of A. lueneburgensis and A. lutulenta examined here indicates that their geographic populations can be treated as belonging to separate species. Hence, A. lueneburgensis and A. lutulenta occurring in Poland can be regarded as two separate but sister species.

This study focuses on morphological and genetic differences between two central European subspecies of the noctuid moth Noctua interjecta Hübner: N. interjecta interjecta Hübner, 1803 from Transcarpathia in Ukraine and N. interjecta caliginosa (Schawerda, 1919) from Poland. While the morphological differences between these taxa are fairly obvious, individuals from these two populations were found to differ also genetically, as indicated by the cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene sequences. The Transcarpathian population exhibits solely the NImizH3 haplotype, but the Polish one the relatively distant NImizH1 and NImizH2 haplotypes. A Neighbour-Joining tree and a network of haplotypes separated the two haplotypes found in Poland (N. i. caliginosa) from those derived from NImizH3 (N. i. interjecta). The divergence time for these two groups was estimated as 400–600 thousand years before present, coinciding with the maximum extent of the Pleistocene ice-sheet covering Europe.