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Distribution and habitat suitability of two rare saproxylic beetles in Croatia-a piece of puzzle missing for South-Eastern Europe

Authors:
Rukavina Iva
Rukavina Iva
Fran Kostanjšek at University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
Fran Kostanjšek
Sven D Jelaska at University of Zagreb
Sven D Jelaska
Alja Pirnat at Slovenian Environment Agency
Alja Pirnat
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Abstract and Figures

Due to habitat loss and fragmentation, the hermit beetle, Osmoderma eremita species complex (Coleoptera; Scarabidae) and the European red click beetle, Elater ferrugineus Linnaeus, 1758 (Coleoptera: Elateridae) are considered threatened in many European countries. Their presence in a large part of SouthEastern Europe has been sporadically recorded and these findings are mainly historical. Here we present the most recent findings of both species, assembled mainly throughout this first systematic study aiming to collect data on the hermit beetle within mapping and monitoring activities of saproxylic species protected by the European Habitat Directive (Annexes II and IV of Council Directive 92/43/EEC) within the Mediterranean, Continental and Alpine biogeographical regions of Croatia, and current literature data. To facilitate mapping activities and species range monitoring to improve the proper management of suitable habitats, we created habitat suitability maps using recent findings for both species, and predicted distribution were overlapped and analysed with historical data and protected areas. Most of the individuals were captured using flight intercept cross-vein funnel traps baited with pheromone for the hermit beetle placed within natural forest dominated by oak, beech and montane beech-fir forests, on sites with and without any forest management. Among set of 11 environmental variables, autumn precipitation, spring mean temperature and slope contributed most to the beetle distribution models. Data analyses indicated that the European red click beetle has much wider environmental envelope in which it can occur and that the hermit beetle can be used as surrogate species for the European red click beetle.
Map of the recent findings of Elater ferrugineus and Osmoderma barnabita in Croatia. Symbols of locations (see Tab. 1 and Tab. 2) at the Papuk Nature Park: (CV): Češljakovačka visoravan; (J): Jankovac virgin forest; (K): Kozjak; (Ka): Kaptol; at the Plitvice Lakes National Park: (C): Čorkova uvala virgin forest; (Kv): Kameni Vrh; (L): Liman-draga; (M): Medvedak; (S): Stubica; (Sa): Sartuk; (SD): Sužanjska Draga; (V): Vreline; at Mt. Učka: (G): Grbac. Sampling sites within each location are represented as symbols: squares-empty trap/s; triangle-traps with O. barnabita and E. ferrugineus recorded (Elater & Osmoderma); grey circle-traps with records of O. barnabita only (Osmoderma); black diamond-traps with records of E. ferrugineus only (Elater) (see the legend above).
Map of the recent findings of Elater ferrugineus and Osmoderma barnabita in Croatia. Symbols of locations (see Tab. 1 and Tab. 2) at the Papuk Nature Park: (CV): Češljakovačka visoravan; (J): Jankovac virgin forest; (K): Kozjak; (Ka): Kaptol; at the Plitvice Lakes National Park: (C): Čorkova uvala virgin forest; (Kv): Kameni Vrh; (L): Liman-draga; (M): Medvedak; (S): Stubica; (Sa): Sartuk; (SD): Sužanjska Draga; (V): Vreline; at Mt. Učka: (G): Grbac. Sampling sites within each location are represented as symbols: squares-empty trap/s; triangle-traps with O. barnabita and E. ferrugineus recorded (Elater & Osmoderma); grey circle-traps with records of O. barnabita only (Osmoderma); black diamond-traps with records of E. ferrugineus only (Elater) (see the legend above).
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Tree pitfall trap with wine and vanilla sugar and extract.
Tree pitfall trap with wine and vanilla sugar and extract.
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Flight intercept trap with pheromone applied on the cotton pad placed in the middle of the crossed plastic panels.
Flight intercept trap with pheromone applied on the cotton pad placed in the middle of the crossed plastic panels.
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Response curves of three environmental variables that contributed most to MaxEnt models for Elater ferrugineus and Osmoderma barnabita. (aprec-autumn precipitation; sptemp-spring mean temperature; slope-slope of the terrain; northn-inclination from the north).
Response curves of three environmental variables that contributed most to MaxEnt models for Elater ferrugineus and Osmoderma barnabita. (aprec-autumn precipitation; sptemp-spring mean temperature; slope-slope of the terrain; northn-inclination from the north).
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MaxEnt habitat suitability derived maps based on variables representing climatic and relief condition. 10 km 2 grid cells containing historical data on hermit and the European red click beetles and protected areas are superimposed (for more details, see Methods section).
MaxEnt habitat suitability derived maps based on variables representing climatic and relief condition. 10 km 2 grid cells containing historical data on hermit and the European red click beetles and protected areas are superimposed (for more details, see Methods section).
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Rukavina I, Kostanjšek F, Jelaska SD, Pirnat A, Šerić Jelaska L (2018).
Distribution and habitat suitability of two rare saproxylic beetles in Croatia – a piece of
puzzle missing for South-Eastern Europe
iForest – Biogeosciences and Forestry – doi: 10.3832/ifor2753-011
Supplementary Material
Tab S1 - Historical records of hermit and the European red click beetles in Croatia dating before
2002, based on Croatian museums (Natural History Museums in Zagreb and Rijeka and Town
Museum in Varaždin) and literature data (Schlosser Klekovski 1887, Koča 1900, Depoli 1928,
Štrbac 1983, Krčmar 2014, Ranius et al. 2005, Schimmel & Tarnawski 2010), added on the map in
10×10 km grid (when possible, given the precision of spatial description) and overlapped with
models using recent findings listed in Tab. 1.
Records before 2002
Osmoderma eremita species complex
Location (in Croatia) Reference m a.s.l. year
1 Cres, Cres Island Ranius et al. 2005 2000
2 Crikvenica, Primorje Ranius et al. 2005 20 before 1957
3 Dilj, Slavonia Ranius et al. 2005 370 before 1905
4 Draga, near Rijeka Ranius et al. 2005 1905
5 Jankovac, Papuk Ranius et al. 2005 1916
6 Japetić Ranius et al. 2005 1996
7 Kamenica-Lepoglava, Zagorje Košćec coll, Town Museum in Varaždin 1932
8 Klanjec, Zagorje Ranius et al. 2005 240 1904
9 Krk, Primorje Ranius et al. 2005 2002
10 Lokve, Gorski Kotar Ranius et al. 2005 740 1957
11 Medvednica Ranius et al. 2005 850 1998
12 Mraclin, Prigorje Ranius et al. 2005 100 1916
13 Opatija, Istria Ranius et al. 2005 10 before 1914
14 Padež, Slavonia Ranius et al. 2005 90 before 2000
15 Paklenica, Velebit Ranius et al. 2005 100 1892
16 Paukovec, Prigorje Ranius et al. 2005 1900
17 Peščenica, Zagreb Ranius et al. 2005 1961
18 Pleternica, Slavonia Ranius et al. 2005 125 1892
19 Plitvice Lakes Ranius et al. 2005 560 before 2000
20 Porozina, Island Cres Ranius et al. 2005 235 1976
21 Radović, Konavle Ranius et al. 2005 20 1918
22 Rijeka Ranius et al. 2005 40 before 1900
23 Sinj Dalmatia Ranius et al. 2005 300 1902
24 Siverić, Dalmatia Ranius et al. 2005 300 1920
25 Moravice, Gorski Kotar Ranius et al. 2005 580 1920
26 Stalje/Štalije, Istria Ranius et al. 2005 200 1982
27 Trnovec, near Varaždin Ranius et al. 2005 1981
28 Učka, Istria Ranius et al. 2005 620-1000 1928
29 Varaždin Košćec coll, Town Museum Varaždin 1928, 1932
30 Velebit Ranius et al. 2005 1899
31 Vinkovci, Slavonia Ranius et al. 2005 80 before 1905
32 Zagreb Ranius et al. 2005 100 1953
33 Zapeć, Gorski Kotar area Ranius et al. 2005 1910
s1
Rukavina I, Kostanjšek F, Jelaska SD, Pirnat A, Šerić Jelaska L (2018).
Distribution and habitat suitability of two rare saproxylic beetles in Croatia – a piece of
puzzle missing for South-Eastern Europe
iForest – Biogeosciences and Forestry – doi: 10.3832/ifor2753-011
Elater ferrugineus Linnaeus, 1758
Location Reference year
1 Beli manastir, Baranja Štrbac (1983) 1981
2 Dugo selo, near Zagreb Iggalfy coll, NHM Zagreb 1962
3 Krk, Krk Island Schimmel & Tarnawski (2010), leg Bassetti
(coll G Platia) 1987
4 Liburnia, Kvarner Depoli (1928) 1928
5 Njivice, Krk Island Schimmel & Tarnawski (2010), leg Del Fabbro
(coll G Platia) 1974
6 Velebit Iggalfy collection 1951
7 Vinkovci, Slavonia Koča 1900 before 1900
8 Zagreb Korlević coll, NHM Zagreb 1990
Croatia, Slavonia Schlosser Klekovski 1887 before 1900
Kopački Rit Krčmar 2014 unknown
s2
... The use of pheromone lures are a promising technique to allow accurate and reliable monitoring of many insect species (Kadej et al. 2015;Larsson 2016), giving better understanding on their distribution (e.g. Kadej et al. 2015;Harvey et al. 2017;Rukavina et al. 2018) and threats (Andersson et al. 2014;Ray et al. 2014). Pheromone lures have a long history in pest management but the use in conservation biology is still rather limited (Larsson 2016). ...
... Previous pheromone studies on E. ferrugineus have mainly been using funnel traps (Svensson et al. 2004(Svensson et al. , 2012Svensson and Larsson 2008;Larsson andSvensson 2009, 2011;Musa et al. 2013) while others have used window traps (Svensson and Larsson 2008;Andersson et al. 2014;Zauli et al. 2014;Kadej et al. 2015;Rukavina et al. 2018) which are both expensive to purchase or built and costly to send to numerous volunteers. Some studies have used small self-build cross vane window traps (Tolasch et al. 2007;Oleksa et al. 2015;Harvey et al. 2017) which are still labour intensive to make and need to be send around. ...
... Previous studies were mainly done in wood pastures with many old hollow oaks (Larsson and Svensson 2011;Svensson et al. 2012;Musa et al. 2013;Andersson et al. 2014), a high-quality habitat that has disappeared in Flanders centuries ago (Tack et al. 1993;Verhulst 1995). Other studies include old growth forests and avenues with locally large numbers of veteran trees (Zauli et al. 2014;Oleksa et al. 2015;Rukavina et al. 2018). The main habitat in the study sites in Flanders are pollarded willows and old orchard trees that may be present in low densities throughout the landscape but are also rare in the rest of Flanders. ...
A cost-efficient and accurate pheromone-baited monitoring protocol for Elater ferrugineus, a biodiversity indicator of hollow trees
Article
Full-text available
  • Feb 2022
  • J INSECT CONSERV
Introduction To evaluate the loss of biodiversity, monitoring of priority species has been proposed. As these species need to include different taxonomical and functional groups, there is a need for cost-efficient and accurate monitoring protocols for saproxylic indicator species. Elater ferrugineus is known as an indicator of hollow trees and the associated biodiversity and can be monitored easily with the use of pheromones. Aims/methods We evaluated the effect of the trap type (funnel and bottle trap) and the required sampling effort to detect E. ferrugineus or to monitor its trend with a power of 80%. Results The effort needed for species detection is 7 and 13 days for funnel and bottle trap respectively. While for trend monitoring 27 and 63 days are needed respectively. Trap type was not significant for species detection while for trend monitoring, funnel traps performed significantly better. Discussion The sampling effort is high compared to earlier studies performed on this species, which is likely related to the low habitat quality of the study areas. The local variation found within sites was low reflecting the mobility of the beetle. We conclude that distribution surveys and trend monitoring of this species is feasible with a citizen science approach even in areas with low habitat quality using commercially produced pheromones in respectively bottle and funnel traps. Implications for insect conservation For distribution surveys, we propose to use 4 bottle traps during 3 days in each site. For trend monitoring, we propose to use 1 funnel trap during 27 days or multiple traps in a shorter period.
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... However, a majority of these detailed studies focus on popular "umbrella" dead-wood-dwelling species. These studies have also examined habitat parameters outside of flight activity, which can be important for understanding beetle species, e.g., Cerambyx cerdo (Linnaeus, 1758) [22] and Rhysodes sulcatus (Fabricius, 1787) [23], and cavity-dwelling species Osmoderma eremita (Scopoli, 1763) [24], Limoniscus violaceus (P.W.J. Müller, 1821) [25], and Elater ferrugineus (Linnaeus, 1758) [26]. Smaller beetles could also have equal or higher importance to biodiversity and insect conservation, such as the family Eucnemidae (the false click beetles), where the whole family is typically saproxylic and often associated only with hollow trees [27]. ...
... The goals of this study were to observe the diurnal flight activity of E. capucina (1), test differences in flight activity between both sexes (2), compare the sex ratio of captured individuals (3), and determine the dependence of female size on the number and size (length, width, content, volume) of the eggs in the abdomen (4). [23], and cavity-dwelling species Osmoderma eremita (Scopoli, 1763) [24], Limoniscus violaceus (P.W.J. Müller, 1821) [25], and Elater ferrugineus (Linnaeus, 1758) [26]. Smaller beetles could also have equal or higher importance to biodiversity and insect conservation, such as the family Eucnemidae (the false click beetles), where the whole family is typically saproxylic and often associated only with hollow trees [27]. ...
Diurnal and Sex Ratio Flight Activity of Rare Cavity-Dweller Eucnemis capucina Ahrens, 1812 (Coleoptera: Eucnemidae) in Lowland Deciduous Forest: Case Study from Czech Republic
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2023
The cavity-dwelling saproxylic beetles are very poorly studied because of their hidden way of life, and they are threatened by forest management. Eucnemis capucina is a rare and sporadic species in all of its distribution area. This species is associated with old hollow trees, which may be why it is on the red lists of many European countries; however, this association could be an indicator of diverse forest structure. We monitored diurnal and seasonal flight activity with intercept flight traps installed on massive ash trees during three seasons. The observed peak of seasonal activity was in May and June. Contrasting most eucnemids, E. capucina is clearly a daytime species, with flight activity between 8:00 and 20:00 and peaking at 14:20. The peak of flight activity is the same for both sexes, but males are more active at the beginning and end of the flight period compared to females. An unequal sex ratio 1.91:1 (F:M) of captured individuals was recorded. The increasing body size of females affected the number of eggs in the body of adult females. The average potential fecundity of a female was 54 eggs, 10 eggs per 1 mm of female body length. The eggs themselves were oval in shape and only the length of the eggs correlated to the body size of the females; the width did not change with body size and did not correlate with egg length, either. We also confirmed that even a single hollow tree can host high numbers or whole populations of rare species and, thus, have a high conservation value. Our study may help better understand the biology of cavity-dwelling beetles and their active life.
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... In a can, access to the external world is via a small opening, which is remotely similar to hollows in trees inhabited by various invertebrates. Tree hollows are a habitat for both life and reproduction of numerous and diverse invertebrates (Thomaes et al., 2015;Gossner, 2018;Rukavina et al., 2018). Both tree hollows and beer cans support miniature ecosystems, partly disconnected from the external world. ...
To litter or not to litter that is the question, or the impact of tourist litter pollution on the macrofauna
Article
  • Jun 2023
  • APPL SOIL ECOL
Discarded bottles abandoned by tourists in forests pose a considerable threat to invertebrates that has not been adequately researched to date. In order to investigate this matter, empty PET bottles and aluminium cans containing small amounts of 5 qualitatively different beverages they were originally filled with were placed simultaneously in forests. They were subsequently collected, 3 bottles/cans of each type, during three site inspections to analyze mortality of the macrofauna inside them. The composition of macrofauna may be affected by the presence of Anoplotrupes stercorosus, which occasionally feeds on dead animal matter. Therefore, the study consisted of 2 stages, the aim being to identify patterns of invertebrate mortality in bottles when A. Stercorosus presence was limited (stage 1) and not limited (stage 2). The effect of certain beverages on macrofauna mortality was also studied. Stage 2 additionally involved 4 variants of habitat fertility. The most marked differences compared with invertebrate mortality in mineral water bottles (control) were noted for beer cans, which was attributed to the dark insides of the latter. The sequence of appearance of isopods, predators and different developmental stages of dipterans inside the cans indicated the presence of an operational detritus mini ecosystem. Invertebrate mortality in empty bottles originally containing caffeine and a high amount of sugar was also different from the patterns identified in the control bottles (mineral water). This was thought to be related to the luring „power” of sugar. The highest mortality of the macrofauna was recorded in a moderately fertile forest habitat, followed by the most fertile habitat. This was believed to be related to the well-developed vertical structure of the moderately fertile habitat. Altogether, this study shows that litter collecting campaigns in forest and other valuable natural habitats is an aesthetic procedure that also protects the macrofauna of the litter and soil representing a range of diversified trophic preferences.
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... The use of decaying fruit or vegetable baits to study insect communities has been practiced in many countries [10,[12][13][14]. Baits in the form of fermenting liquids, such as wine and beer, with the addition of bananas, apples, sugar, and other substrates, have shown to be effective for the detection of many insects [15][16][17][18][19][20]. ...
Usage of Fermental Traps for the Study of the Species Diversity of Coleoptera in Open Biotopes
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2023
Usage of a variety of non-trivial ways to study Coleoptera gives unexpected and original results. The studies were conducted using simple traps with fermenting baits in the central part of European Russia. There were 286 trap exposures, and 7906 Coleoptera specimens (208 species from 35 families) were collected. The largest number of species belonged to the families Cerambycidae (35 species), Curculionidae (26 species), and Elateridae (25 species). One species each was noted in 12 families. Traps were applied in five open habitats (dry meadow, shore, floodplain meadow, cuttings under power lines, and glade in woods). Only 13 species were common to all habitats: Cetonia aurata, Protaetia marmorata, Dasytes niger, Cryptarcha strigata, Glischrochilus grandis, Glischrochilus hortensis, Glischrochilus quadrisignatus, Soronia grisea, Notoxus monoceros, Aromia moschata, Leptura quadrifasciata, Rhagium mordax, Anisandrus dispar. Dry meadows were dominated by C. aurata, A. murinus, and P. cuprea volhyniensis. A shore was dominated by C. strigata, G. grandis, G. hortensis, S. grisea, and A. dispar. The dominant species in floodplain meadows were G. hortensis, S. grisea, and A. dispar. On cuttings under power lines, the most numerous were C. aurata, P. cuprea volhyniensis, and C. viridissima. In forest glades, the maximum abundance data were obtained for G. grandis, C. strigata, and A. dispar. The Shannon index was greatest in meadow habitats of varying degrees of moisture, while it was minimal on the shore. The increase in the Simpson index was also characteristic of the shore. These data indicate reduced species diversity combined with the dominance of several species in this biotope. The maximum species diversity with the highest level of species alignment was characteristic of meadow plots, while lower values were obtained under power lines and in forest glades. We recommend the usage of fermental traps with beer for ecological studies of the Coleoptera fauna in open biotopes.
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... Coleoptera of this region is studied intensively and in recent years a number of interesting studies have been published (Levkovich and Levkovich 2006;Pronina 2010; Bashinsky and Osipov 2019; Danilevsky et al. 2019;Ruchin et al. 2019c). However, all of them are based on standard methods of studying Coleoptera fauna, while special methods provide additional and sometimes unexpected data (Dodds 2014;Rukavina et al. 2018;Barros et al. 2020;Philips et al. 2020;Touroult and Witté 2020). This publication examines the Coleoptera biodiversity of the Penza region, which was studied in 2019-2020 using fermental crown traps. ...
Coleoptera of the Penza region, Russia based on fermental crown trap
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2021
Ruchin AB, Egorov LV, Polumordvinov OA. 2021. Coleoptera of the Penza region, Russia based on fermental crown trap). Biodiversitas 22: 1946-1960. There are the results of processing the material of the 2019-2020 studies on Coleoptera from the Penza region, Russia. The surveys were carried out using fermental crown traps in various habitats on the territory of 18 districts of the region. In total, 18 traps were installed in 2019 and 96 traps – in 2020. During the research, 5,577 specimens were collected and recorded. Ninety-seven species from 19 families were found, of which 43 species are new to the Penza region. The most diverse families are Cerambycidae (24 species) and Elateridae (11 species). Species from the families Nitidulidae (3281 specimens), Scarabaeidae (1497 specimens), and Cerambycidae (453 specimens) predominated in the traps. A list of species is given, indicating references and information on biology. New data is given for 4 species included in the Red Data Book of the region (Protaetia fieberi, Protaetia speciosissima, Gnorimus variabilis, Purpuricenus globulicollis).
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... Several studies using HSMs have shown the importance of climatic factors in constraining species ranges of cerambycids (e.g. Aguilar et al., 2016;Bosso et al., 2018;Kadej et al., 2017;Lachat et al., 2013;Peterson & Scachetti-Pereira, 2004;Rukavina et al., 2018;Silva et al., 2016). We found that the distribution of high-altitude cerambycids on Italian mountains is strongly constrained by climatic variables. ...
Conservation biogeography of high‐altitude longhorn beetles under climate change
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  • Feb 2022
High‐altitude insects are expected to be strongly affected by climate change because of their limited range. Phytophagous species will be subject to further threats because of their dependence on host plants. We investigated the impact of climate change on the distribution of Italian high‐altitude longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae) using a maximum entropy approach based on bioclimatic variables. We used 510 presence records for 15 species distributed throughout the Italian Alps and Apennines. Then, we combined climate‐based predictions with vegetation data to predict the future changes in the extent of suitable areas. All species but two will move uphill to track suitable climates and will face a range contraction (with an average loss of 44%) under both climatic change scenarios considered. Suitable vegetation covers, on average, only 56% of the estimated current species ranges, which means that the future distribution will be even more limited. Given the importance of Italian mountains as hubs of diversity in the Mediterranean hotspot, these results are particularly alarming. Conservation actions that can mitigate the effects of climate change on high‐altitude cerambycids should be focused on contrasting habitat loss and degradation through land preservation and the adoption of appropriate forest management practices.
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Relationship between tree-related microhabitats and the captures obtained using different trap methods for large threatened saproxylic beetles
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2023
Osmoderma eremita and Cerambyx cerdo are saproxylic beetle species, included in the IUCN Red List and in the EU/92 Habitats Directive. Their occurrence has been recorded, through appropriate traps, in several localities in Italy, including urban and peri-urban parks, mostly associated with veteran trees. In this study, traps were tested over 17 veteran oak trees in the Castelporziano Presidential Estate (Latium, Rome province, central Italy) and the abundance of sampled saproxylic beetles was related to the growing stock volume (GSV) and the abundance of microhabitats. Moreover, we compared three different trapping methods: a trap designed to monitor C. cerdo (CC), and two traps designed for monitoring O. eremita, i.e., the Black Cross Window Trap (BCWT) and the Black Bottle Traps (BBT). We found that larger trees hosted a great variety of microhabitats, in particular cavities, which abundance was correlated with the number of specimens sampled, especially O. eremita species. Both classic traps (i.e., CC traps and BCWT) and the herein-introduced BBT variants were effective for capturing large saproxylic beetles. In this work, we underline the importance of the preservation of veteran trees to the occurrence of threatened saproxylic beetles, and we contributed to (i) extending general knowledge of the habitat preferences of saproxylic beetles and (ii) improving new cost-effective trapping system variants.
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Usage of Fermental Traps for the Study of the Species Diversity of Coleoptera
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2021
The possibilities of applying various methods to study Coleoptera give unexpected and original results. The studies were carried out with the help of fermental crown traps in 2018-2020 on the territory of eight regions in the central part of European Russia. The biodiversity of the Coleoptera that fall into crown traps includes 294 species from 45 families. The number of species attracted to the fermenting bait is about a third of the total number of species in the traps (this is 97.4% of the number of all of the caught specimens). The largest number of species that have been found in the traps belong to the families Cerambycidae, Elateridae and Curculionidae. The most actively attracted species mainly belong to the families Cerambycidae, Nitidulidae and Scarabaeidae. The species of these families are equally attracted by baits made of beer, white and red wines. In order to identify the Coleoptera biodiversity of a particular biotope, two-year studies are sufficient, and they should be carried out throughout the vegetation season. Especially good results can be obtained from studies of rare species that are actively attracted by such baits. It is possible to study the vertical-horizontal distribution of Coleoptera fauna in individual biotopes.
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Usage of Fermental Traps for Studying the Species Diversity of Coleoptera
Preprint
Full-text available
  • Mar 2021
The possibilities of applying various methods to study Coleoptera give unexpected and original results. The studies were carried out with the help of fermental crown traps in 2018-2020 on the territory of eight regions in the central part of European Russia. The biodiversity of Coleoptera that fall into crown traps includes 294 species from 45 families. The number of species attracted to the fermenting bait is about a third of the total number of species in the traps (this is 97.4% of the number of all caught specimens). The largest number of species that have been found in traps belong to the families Cerambycidae, Elateridae and Curculionidae. The most actively attracted species mainly belong to the families Cerambycidae, Nitidulidae and Scarabaeidae. Species of these families are equally attracted by baits made of beer, white and red wines. To identify the Coleoptera biodiversity of a particular biotope, two-year studies are sufficient, which should be carried out throughout the vegetation season. Especially good results can be obtained from studies of rare species that are actively attracted by such baits. It is possible to study the verti-cal-horizontal distribution of Coleoptera fauna in individual biotopes.
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Guidelines for the monitoring of Osmoderma eremita and closely related species
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2017
Osmoderma eremita (Scopoli, 1763) is a saproxylic scarab beetle protected by the Habitats Directive in the European Union. The present paper is part of a special issue on monitoring of saproxylic beetles protected in Europe and starts with a revision of the current knowledge on systematics, ecology, ethology and conservation of O. eremita and its allied species, followed by experimental tests of different methods for monitoring its populations. Two methods were compared in several localities of central Italy: (1) the widely used pitfall traps into tree cavities and (2) black cross windows traps baited with a specific pheromone produced by male beetles. The first method, often used in northern and central Europe, did not give acceptable results in Italy probably because of the scarcity of veteran trees with large hollows. It could only be used successfully in areas where: 1) tree hollows were abundant, large enough and with sufficient amounts of wood mould for planting pitfall traps and 2) the team is composed of several operators in order to ensure the checking of at least 150 traps every two days during the whole period of mating activities (15 July-25 August). The second method, consisting of hanging 30 black cross window traps during the mating period and checking them every two days, turned out to be better for capturing a significant number of individuals but cannot be used every year because of the possible disturbance on mating activities of the species. Copyright Emanuela Maurizi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Identification of the South Korean Hermit Beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Cetoniinae)
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Full-text available
  • Sep 2017
The South Korean hermit beetle has previously been identified as Osmoderma opicum, which is distributed in Japan. Because of its rarity, this species is classified as an endangered species. To date, however, the identity of this species in South Korea has not been conclusively confirmed. To assess the taxonomic status of the hermit beetle occurring in South Korea, we performed a comparative study with the beetle’s Eurasian congeners, based on morphological examination and molecular analysis using COI gene sequences. The results clearly showed that the South Korean hermit beetle is identical to Osmoderma caeleste, which has been described from the Russian Far East. Therefore, we suggest that the taxonomic identity of the South Korean hermit beetle is O. caeleste.
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Spatial analysis of the habitat and distribution of Osmoderma eremita (Scop.) in trees outside of woodlands
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Full-text available
  • Jul 2017
The endangered and specialised saproxylic beetle Osmoderma eremita occurs in veteran trees, a habitat particularly threatened by changes in agricultural landscapes. Its conservation requires information about populations and key features of host trees. Surveys of 8,014 trees (pollarded or in hedgerows) were carried out and analysed, based on habitat description (tree level) and spatial information (hedgerow length and distance to the nearest inhabited tree). A suitable cavity was present in 61% of the trees and O. eremita was detected in 42 trees, mainly in Salix (30 observations), the most common tree amongst those surveyed. A small or absent crown was a significant factor in explaining the beetle’s presence, as was the distance to the nearest inhabited tree. The largest population of O. eremita, 19 inhabited trees, was found in a wide and continuous area formed by trees with suitable cavities, with distances of less than 250m from each another. Seven smaller areas, with 7, 5 or 1 inhabited trees, were also found. When analysing inhabited trees on a 1km² grid, 17km2 hosted O. eremita, corresponding to a dense network of 63km of hedges. The presence of O. eremita significantly increased per km² with increasing length of hedges and this variable was thus used to guide forthcoming investigations directed toward Osmoderma. As the hedgerows existing in 1999 had decreased by 6.1% in 2009, it is concluded that the long term survival of O. eremita is under threat. The preservation of trees outside woodlands is urgent and has already started, in connection with Natura 2000 policies. Regeneration and creation of new hedgerows is also ongoing and can be reinforced both by using Salix and by promoting pruning to increase formation of cavities.
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Monitoring of saproxylic beetles in Croatia: following the path of the stag beetle
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2017
As a member of the European Union, Croatia is obliged to report on the conservation status of 220 animal non-bird species listed in the annexes of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), for which purpose a monitoring system is being established. Concerning saproxylic beetles, seven species present in its territory have to be monitored: Lucanus cervus, Cerambyx cerdo, Morimus funereus, Rhysodes sulcatus, Cucujus cinnaberinus, Rosalia alpina and Osmoderma eremita complex. Out of these species, a monitoring programme has only been established for Lucanus cervus, which partially includes participation of non-experts. In 2015 and 2016, a public campaign was organised in order to collect observations of Lucanus cervus and two other saproxylic beetles that are easily recognisable by the public: Morimus funereus and Rosalia alpina. Data gathered through this campaign serve as an addition to the mapping activities and monitoring of the species’ range. So far, more than 650 citizen observations have been collected, providing data on species presence in 216 10×10 km2 grid cells intended for reporting on the species’ range. Besides the public campaign, since 2014, public institutions for managing nature protected values have been involved in population monitoring for which they received education through several workshops. Altogether, 21 sites have been included in the monitoring of the stag beetle so far. Data collected for Lucanus cervus on standard transects, by tree and ground pitfall traps and tree trunk surveys at night will be discussed. To the present time, eight public institutions have been involved in stag beetle population monitoring and the number has been continuously increasing.
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Applying surrogate species presences to correct sample bias in species distribution models: A case study using the Pilbara population of the Northern Quoll
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2017
Abstract The management of populations of threatened species requires the capacity to identify areas of high habitat value. We developed a high resolution species distribution model (SDM) for the endangered Pilbara northern quoll Dasyurus hallucatus, population using MaxEnt software and a combined suite of bioclimatic and landscape variables. Once common throughout much of northern Australia, this marsupial carnivore has recently declined throughout much of its former range and is listed as endangered by the IUCN. Other than the potential threats presented by climate change, and the invasive cane toad Rhinella marina (which has not yet arrived in the Pilbara). The Pilbara population is also impacted by introduced predators, pastoral and mining activities. To account for sample bias resulting from targeted surveys unevenly spread through the region, a pseudo-absence bias layer was developed from presence records of other critical weight-range non-volant mammals. The resulting model was then tested using the biomod2 package which produces ensemble models from individual models created with different algorithms. This ensemble model supported the distribution determined by the bias compensated MaxEnt model with a covariance of of 86% between models with both models largely identifying the same areas as high priority habitat. The primary product of this exercise is a high resolution SDM which corroborates and elaborates on our understanding of the ecology and habitat preferences of the Pilbara Northern Quoll population thereby improving our capacity to manage this population in the face of future threats. Nature Conservation 18: 27–46 (2017) doi: 10.3897/natureconservation.18.12235 http://natureconservation.pensoft.net Copyright
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The Persian squirrel of Kurdistan Province, western Iran: What determines its geographic distribution?
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2016
Here, we used the maximum entropy (MAXENT) method to predict habitat distribution of the Persian squirrel in oak forests of Kurdistan Province, western Iran. We used 70 points with known occurrence of the species and 17 environmental variables (climatic variables represented annual trends in temperature and precipitation, seasonality and extreme or limiting environmental factors) to map the species distribution. The MAXENT model showed high performance. Using a 0.5 logistic probability threshold, the models suggested about 16,783.5 ha of the study area to have high suitability for the Persian squirrel. These areas were thus estimated as “good” habitats. Amongst the environmental variables, land cover had the greatest role in the Persian squirrel’s distribution. Precipitation and temperature were the two major climatic factors that affected the Persian squirrel’s distribution. Gap analysis showed that many parts of the species habitat have remained unprotected what can threaten the survival of the studied species in the region. These findings can be used to develop conservation management plans and boost the network of protected areas in the region.
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A Red List of Italian Saproxylic Beetles: taxonomic overview, ecological features and conservation issues (Coleoptera)
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2015
The main objectives of this review are: 1) the compilation and updating of a reference database for Italian saproxylic beetles, useful to assess the trend of their populations and communities in the next decades; 2) the identification of the major threats involving the known Italian species of saproxylic beetles; 3) the evaluation of the extinction risk for all known Italian species of saproxylic beetles; 4) the or- ganization of an expert network for studying and continuous updating of all known species of saproxylic beetle species in Italy; 5) the creation of a baseline for future evaluations of the trends in biodiversity conservation in Italy; 6) the assignment of ecological categories to all the Italian saproxylic beetles, useful for the aims of future researches on their communities and on forest environments. The assess- ments of extinction risk are based on the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria and the most updated guidelines. The assessments have been carried out by experts covering different regions of Italy, and have been evaluated according to the IUCN standards. All the beetles whose larval biology is sufficiently well known as to be considered saproxylic have been included in the Red List, either the autochtho- nous species (native or possibly native to Italy) or a few allochthonous species recently introduced or probably introduced to Italy in his- toric times. The entire national range of each saproxylic beetle species was evaluated, including large and small islands; for most species, the main parameters considered for evaluation were the extent of their geographical occurrence in Italy, and the number of known sites of presence. 2049 saproxylic beetle species (belonging to 66 families) have been listed, assigned to a trophic category (Table 3) and 97% of them have been assessed. On the whole, threatened species (VU + EN + CR) are 421 (Fig. 6), corresponding to 21 % of the 1988 as- sessed species; only two species are formally recognized to be probably Regionally Extinct in Italy in recent times. Little less than 65% of the Italian saproxylic beetles are not currently threatened with extinction, although their populations are probably declining. In forest environments, the main threats are habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution due to the use of pesticide against forest pests, and habitat simplification due to economic forest management. In coastal environments, the main threats are due to massive touristic exploitation such as the excess of urbanization and infrastructures along the seashore, and the complete removal of woody materials as tree trunks stranded on the beaches, because this kind of intervention is considered an aesthetic amelioration of seaside resorts. The number of spe- cies whose populations may become impoverished by direct harvest (only a few of large forest beetles frequently collected by insect traders) is very small and almost negligible. The Red List is a fundamental tool for the identification of conservation priorities, but it is not a list of priorities on its own. Other elements instrumental to priority setting include the cost of actions, the probability of success,and the proportion of the global population of each species living in Italy, which determines the national responsibility in the long-term conservation of that species. In this scenario, information on all species endemic to Italy, to Corso-Sardinia, to the Tuscan-Corsican ar- eas, and to the Siculo-Maltese insular system are given. A short analysis on relationships among beetle species traits, taxonomy, special- ist approaches, and IUCN Categories of Risk is also presented.
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Rural avenues as dispersal corridors for the vulnerable saproxylic beetle Elater ferrugineus in a fragmented agricultural landscape
Article
Full-text available
  • May 2015
Understanding factors that limit gene flow through the landscape is crucial for conservation of organisms living in fragmented habitats. We analysed patterns of gene flow in Elater ferrugineus, an endangered click beetle living in old-growth, hollow trees in a network of rural avenues surrounded by inhospitable arable land. Using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) data, we aimed to evaluate if the landscape features important for the beetle's development are also important for its dispersal. By dividing the sampling area into 30 9 30 m cells, with each cell categorised into one of four classes according to its putative permeability for dispersing beetles , and by correlating matrices of genetic and landscape resistance distances, we evaluated which of the landscape models had the best fit with the observed kinship structure. Significant correlations between genetic and Euclidean distances were detected, which indicated that restricted dispersal is the main constraint driving differentiation between populations of E. ferrugineus. Out of 81 landscape models in total, 54 models yielded significantly weaker correlation between matrices of pairwise kinship and effective distances than the null model. Regression analysis pointed to avenues as having the highest and positive impact on the concordance between matrices of kinship and landscape distances, while open arable land had the opposite effect. Our study thus shows that tree avenues can function as efficient dispersal corridors for E. ferrugineus, highlighting the importance of saving such avenues to increase the connectivity among suitable habitat patches, thereby reducing the risk of local extinctions of E. fer-rugineus as well as other saproxylic organisms.
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List of insect fauna (Insecta) of Kopački Rit Nature Park (NE Croatia)
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2014
In the Kopački Rit Nature Park, 895 species of insects have been identified, and classified into 8 orders, 13 suborders and 90 families. Only two species from the order Coleoptera belong to the higher threat category as Vulnerable (VU) according to IUCN Red List criteria, whereas 8 species are listed on Annex II of the Bern Convention or Annexes II and/or IV of the EU Habitats Directive. 118 species of insects classified into 35 families and 6 orders are added to the Fauna Europaea database. Synonyms for 90 species of insects classified into 7 orders are updated according to recent data from the Fauna Europaea database.
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