Biodiversity at Linnaeus birthplace in the parish of Stenbrohult, southern Sweden. 3. Red-listed wood-beetles

• Wooded pasture and older forest with dead trees, about 10% of an area of 3000 ha in the central part of the parish of Stenbrohult, was inventoried for wood-living beetles in 1985-2002. In the study areas Carl Linnaeus was born in 1707, and he spent his summers there until 1728. All standard methods for finding wood-beetles were used, including many window traps and 170 wood mould samples. As a new method, from 1992 and later, fragments in wood mould in hollow trees were collected and determined to species in the laboratory. We found 74 red-listed wood-beetles, including 13 threatened species (categories EN and VU). The highest numbers of threatened wood-beetles were found on properties owned by the church or by the largest landowners. This was because old (>150 years), southern deciduous trees were largely absent on small farm properties. Recorded habitats in the study area for the red-listed species are given. Old hollow oaks Quercus robur, beeches Fagus sylvatica, small-leaved limes Tilia cordata, elms Ulmus glabra and big dead birches Betula spp. were the most important substrates for threatened species in the study area. These substrates, mainly old living trees but also standing dead trees, are also crucial habitats for species listed as possibly globally threatened and found in the study area: Corticeus fasciatus, Ptenidium gressneri, Plectophloeus nitidus, Oxypoda arborea, Gnorimus nobilis, Ampedus hjorti, Athous mutilatus, Procraerus tibialis, Xylophilus corticalis, Grynocharis oblonga, Cryptophagus fuscicornis, C. labilis, Latridius brevicollis, Mycetophagus populi, Hypulus quercinus. Mycetochara axillaris. Phloeophagus lignarius and P. thomsoni. Threats to the long-term survival of the red-listed species are discussed. The need for rapid habitat restoration to lower the "extinction debt" is stressed. This is especially urgent for features that have declined most since Linnaeus time, e.g. old sun-exposed oaks and other southern deciduous trees. The number of big dead spruces has probably increased in recent decades, and therefore species dependent on spruce are unlikely to be part of the extinction debt.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Ekologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Ecology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)