ORNIS HUNGARICA 14: 1 (2004) 1 Insects inhabiting Saker (Falco cherrug) nests in Hungary O. Merkl, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Department of Zoology, Budapest, Baross u 13, H-1083 Hungary. J. Bagyura, BirdLife Hungary MME, Budapest, Költõ u. 21, H-1121 Hungary. L. Rózsa, Animal Ecology Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at the Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Ludovika t. 2., H-1083 Hungary, e-mail:
[email protected] Merkl, O., Bagyura, J. and Rózsa, L. raptors' nests in Hungary (Papp 1998) fur- 2004. Insects inhabiting Saker (Falco ther highlights the need of exploring this cherrug) nests in Hungary. – Ornis. segment of the Central European fauna. Hung. 14: XX-XX. Falconiform raptors are characterized This study describes the species compo- by semialtricial nestlings living in rela- sition of insects reared from larval tively large nests throughout long periods assemblages collected from Saker nests. of development. Typically, large quanti- Eight coleopteran and one dipteran ties of food remain, such as body parts of species had been reared, none of which prey animals, bone, skin, hair, feather and appear to be specific to raptors's nests pellets accumulate under the chicks and as a habitat. They are either character- the emergent smell tends to attract a vari- istic to carcasses, or known to occur in ety of insects. Most insects deposit eggs manure, or commensals living in a vari- onto the food remains and disappear from ety of mammalian and avian nests. the nests, thus only larvae represent the Some of these species may participate in majority of species.