The genus Osmoderma is a flagship taxon of invertebrate conservation in Europe and encompasses a complex of four accepted species. While species limits amongst Osmoderma have been intensively studied, patterns of intraspecific variation are poorly known. In this paper, the authors focus on clarifying the phylogeographic structure of the East European Osmoderma barnabita using samples from Croatia to Finland. Samples of hind legs were collected from populations in Latvia and Finland (n=186) and combined with previously-published sequences from GenBank and museum specimens (n=10). In a partial sequence of the mitochondrial COI gene (759 bp), 26 closely related haplotypes were found. Beetle samples from different parts of Europe were distinct and showed no overlap in haplotype composition. The solitary population of Finland proved to be monomorphic and all 97 individuals sampled here belonged to a single haplotype unique to this region. The results suggest the Northern parts of Eastern Europe to be dominated * These authors contributed equally to this work.
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A peer-reviewed open-access journalMatti Landvik et al. / Nature Conservation 19: 171-189 (2017) 172 by a single COI haplotype to which most of the other haplotypes are linked by one or two mutations. The pattern seems to reflect a founder effect or a strong bottleneck event. While O. barnabita is widely distributed over Eastern Europe, current patterns of mitochondrial genetic diversity appear influenced by population history and little homogenisation by ongoing gene flow. From a conservation perspective, the patterns suggest that regional populations might need to be managed as subunits and that the population of Finland may be affected by low genetic diversity.
1. Organisms that depend on rare and endangered microhabitats, such as old, hollow trees, have a high conservation value.2. To conserve these species, it is necessary to apply methods that identify habitats suitable for their survival.3. Until now, a comprehensive method has not been developed for predicting the occurrence of species associated with old, hollow trees.4. Here, we developed criteria to identify habitats for organisms associated with old, hollow trees, using Osmoderma barnabita as a model species.5. We used hexagonal tessellation to identify suitable habitats for hermit beetle. 6. Criteria for predicting the occurrence of a hermit beetle were applied in practise, and as result 47.56% of the known hermit beetle localities coincided with the hexagons where the probability of occurrence of the species was the highest. Based on these results, an ecological network was created for species dependency on old, hollow trees, using the hermit beetle as a model species.7. The proposed approach makes it possible to plan and implement environmental protection measures for species living in territories spanning several countries. In this work, we propose a method to identify species occurrence in core areas and to determine ecological corridors and gaps. This method could tailor conservation planning efforts.
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