Freshly harvested Boletus edulis mushrooms are subjected to rapid loss of quality due to the high moisture content and enzymatic activity. Drying time, quality characteristics, microstructural and thermal properties were studied in mushrooms ground to puree subjected to hot air drying (HAD), freeze drying (FD) and centrifugal vacuum drying (CVD). The influence of hot water blanching and UV-C pretreatments was additionally investigated. The rehydration ability of mushroom powders was improved by FD, especially without pretreatment or combined to UV-C exposure. The HAD and CVD, with no pretreatment or combined to UV-C, ensured good preservation of phenolics and antioxidant activity of dried mushrooms. The total difference in color of mushroom pigments extracted in acetone was lower in samples dried by CVD and higher in ones by FD. Blanching before HAD produced whiter product probably due to the reduced polyphenoloxidase activity. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis showed fewer physical changes in FD-samples. Heat-induced structural changes were noticed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermogravimetry (TG) and Derivative Thermogravimetry (DTG) analysis, in particular of biopolymers, confirmed by ATR-FTIR analysis. Based on our complex approach, the UV pretreatment of mushrooms could be a better alternative to water blanching. Centrifugal vacuum emerged as a new efficient drying method in terms of bioactive compounds, color and thermal stability, while FD led to better rehydration ability and microstructure.

Previously considered as a thelytokous parthenogenetic species, the widespread ant cricket Myrmecophilus acervorum actually turns out to have a mixed reproductive system: our recent surveys in the central part of its distribution area has revealed the presence of both sexes. Detailed morphological and morphometric descriptions of the previously unknown males are here provided. New data on species distribution in south-eastern Europe are presented, including the first records of M. balcanicus in Bulgaria and of M. nonveilleri in Bulgaria and Hungary. Phylogenetic and phylogeographic analyses have revealed several haplotypes of M. acervorum in Europe, with six of them forming a parthenogenetic clade in populations distributed west of the Carpathians. We tested our samples for bacterial infection by Wolbachia and, surprisingly, Wolbachia was identified only in populations with both sexes and no amplification was obtained from parthenogenetic populations. Phylogenetic analyses performed with sequences pertaining to five nominal species related to M. acervorum, yielded topological congruent trees with four well-supported groups: one group with M. acervorum samples, the second group with M. nonveilleri samples, the third group with M. fuscus and M. gallicus samples, and the fourth group with samples of M. balcanicus. We performed species delineation tests on our sequences, which delimited between four to seven putative species.

Familia Formicidae reprezintă un grup de insecte sociale, împreună cu viespile și albinile face parte din ordinul Hymenoptera. Furnicile sunt implicate în diverse procese în natură: zoocoria, amestecarea solului și îmbogățirea lui cu substanțe organice, combaterea insectelor dăunătoare și îngrijirea altor insecte (Frouz, Jilkova, 2008). În Republioca Moldova până în prezent au fost publicate doar 4 lucrări cu referire la biodiversitatea furnicilor de pe teritoriul țării: Поддубный и др., 1980, Верещагин и др., 1983, Животный мир Молдавии, 1983 și Лиховидов, 1984. Conform acestor publicații studiu asupra furnicilor s-a efectuat preponderent în Rezervația științifică Codrii. În urma studiilor efectuate pe teritoriul Republicii Moldova între anii 1958-1981 au fost identificate 51 de specii de furnici. În urma colectărilor efectuate în rezervație în anii 2020-2021 au fost identificate, în premieră pentru fauna Rezervației „Plaiul Fagului”, 15 specii de furnici, care aparțin la 8 genuri și fac parte din 2 subfamilii. Dintre speciile identificate, Colobopsis truncata (Spinola, 1808), Lasius platythorax Seifert, 1991 și Temnothorax crassispinus (Karavaiev, 1926) sunt noi pentru fauna Republicii Moldova. Diversitatea speciilor de furnici din Republica Moldova poate să fie substanțial îmbunătățită prin studii faunistice complexe din cele mai diverse habitate, care să caracterizeze mai bine nivelul de cunoaștere a mirmecofaunei. Cercetările de pe teritoriul Rezervației „Plaiul Fagului” trebuie să fie continuate, dat fiind fapul că numărul speciilor cunoscute până în prezent în Republica Moldova este de 54, deci putem să ne așteptăm la un număr mult mai mare de specii de furnici în ecosistemele naturale diverse ale rezervației. Pe teritoriul rezervației au fost identificate două specii de furnici Formica polyctena și Formica pratensis, care sunt incuse în lista IUCN a speciilor amenințate cu dispariția la nivel internațional.

Urban parks derived from historical forest fragments represent important refugia for biodiversity in rapidly expanding cities. The wood cricket, Nemobius sylvestris, was surprisingly found in a park in the northern part of Bucharest, Romania, an area under exponential residential development. The species was confirmed by calling song analysis and molecularly confirmed through DNA-barcoding. The acoustic analysis revealed substantial geographic variation in the signals of N.sylvestris across its European range, with the Romanian population exhibiting the most distinctive acoustic characteristics. A median joining network was constructed using available COI sequences from public databases, showing moderate genetic variability within European samples. This flightless, woodland-specialist cricket is highly sensitive to habitat fragmentation and its persistence in this urban park demonstrates the conservation value of retaining semi-natural forest structure within city green spaces. Our findings highlight the importance of urban parks as biodiversity refugia, particularly for habitat specialists with limited dispersal abilities. This discovery underscores the need for the integrative conservation management of urban forest remnants, emphasizing the retention of natural structural elements such as leaf litter and heterogeneous canopy cover to support diverse invertebrate communities.

Cryptopone ochracea (Mayr, 1855) is a hypogeous ant species with a poorly known biology. Usually, alate or dealate queens are recorded by myrmecologists. Data on the species distribution is scarce. However, the species occurs mainly in the southern part of Europe. In Romania, the species was previously known from only two locations. Herein, we report new records of the species during a 6-year observation period. Insights on the species swarming activity are given.

Hedgerows are an essential component of the agricultural and grassland landscapes of many farms and semi-natural grasslands around the world, and their management plays an important role in enhancing habitat biodiversity. In this article, we show how shrub-removal management practices affect butterfly and plant communities in a small region of Transylvania, Romania. We compared across the 15 sites the abundance and diversity of butterfly species in four different shrub managed plots and found for each type of management indicator species, such as Cupido argiades in sites where shrubs were cut one year prior to our first year sampling, Anthocaris cardamines, Melitaea phoebe, Glaucopsyche alexis and Thymelicus sylvestris, Thymelicus lineola where shrubs were removed three years prior to our first year sampling and Colias alfacariensis where shrubs were removed more than 3 years prior to our first year sampling.