The interrelation between collective identities and place concepts in local wind energy conflicts

In Germany, plans at the local level to construct wind turbines often find support as well as rejection – often in both cases for ecological reasons. In this paper, we argue that the key to understanding local wind energy debates is to analyse the interrelations between collective identities and concepts of place. Based on the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe, we analyse how two completely contradictory place notions have evolved in a local dispute in a small town in Germany, and how existing political identities have been modified, realigned and superseded in the course of the conflict. Furthermore, we show how the involved discourses are characterised by strong continuities with respect to an earlier struggle over an asphalt mixing plant.     

Pre-mating sperm removal in the bushcricket Metaplastes ornatus Ramme 1931 (Orthoptera, Tettigonoidea, Phaneropteridae)

Summary Mating in the bushcricket Metaplastes ornatus Ramme 1931 entails a number of peculiar genital couplings that precede the transfer of the large spermatophore. During these phase-I couplings, the male introduces his specially structured subgenital plate into the female's genital chamber, performs back-and-forth movements, and turns her genital chamber inside out when he withdraws, whereupon the female carefully cleans her everted genital chamber with her mouthparts. During the last coupling (phase II) the male's subgenital plate is not introduced but the large spermatophore, which averages 22% of a male's body weight, is transferred. Counts of sperm in the spermathecae of females suggested that the phase-I couplings, which occur prior to spermatophore transfer, function to remove, or at least to reduce, the sperm of a female's previous mates. The form of the keel of the male's subgenital plate, its position within the female's genital tract during phase-I couplings, and the back-and-forth movements suggest that the male may stimulate release of sperm from the female's spermatheca by a mechanism similar to fertilization as eggs pass through the genital chamber during oviposition.