Development of non-invasive monitoring methods for larvae and adults of the stag beetle, Lucanus cervus

Abstract

1. The stag beetle, Lucanus cervus is Nationally Scarce in the UK, yet no methods exist for monitoring the abundance of adults or presence of the subterranean larvae.2. Here, we describe the design of an aerial flight interception trap that can be used to catch adults. Various lures were tested and ginger root was found to attract both sexes in equal numbers.3. Road transect surveys of adults killed by vehicles were found to produce reliable estimates of the total abundance of both sexes in areas up to about 12 km from the survey. 4. A novel use of radial diffusive samplers is described to infer the presence of larvae. Both larvae and adult females produce longifolene, which is highly attractive to males.5. Larvae produce a characteristic stridulation pattern, which can be recorded and distinguished from sounds produced by other saproxylic beetles that may co-occur with L. cervus.6. We conclude that aerial traps baited with ginger, combined with road transect surveys can be used to monitor population abundance of adults, while detection of longifolene and the characteristic stridulation pattern can be used to reveal larval presence, without destroying their fragile habitat.

Sex pheromones as a tool to overcome the Wallacean shortfall in conservation biology: a case of Elater ferrugineus Linnaeus, 1758 (Coleoptera: Elateridae)

“…Despite this, the interest in a wider application of this method in insect conservation and biodiversity studies is still marginal. Pheromones of only few insect species have been identified for future use in the biodiversity conservation Tolasch et al 2007;Millar et al 2010;Harvey et al 2011). Three of them are European red-listed saproxylic beetles (Nieto and Alexander 2010).…”

High-accuracy sampling of saproxylic diversity indicators at regional scales with pheromones: The case of Elater ferrugineus (Coleoptera, Elateridae)

“…In the last decade, trapping systems based on pheromones and other attractive semiochemicals (information chemicals) have offered a potential solution for efficient sampling and monitoring of insect biodiversity. Pheromone systems of a limited number of red-listed species have been studied specifically for conservation purposes (Larsson et al 2003, Tolasch et al 2007, Harvey et al 2010, Millar et al 2010 and semiochemicals have been employed to study insect distribution, population and dispersal dynamics, and effects of landscape processes (Gandhi et al 2009, 2011, 2012, Musa et al 2013. Pheromone-based trapping systems for insects have been used for decades in efficient monitoring of a wide range of pest species in both agriculture and forestry (Johnson et al 2006, Witzgall et al 2010.…”

Guidelines for the monitoring of Cerambyx cerdo

“…This method was based on the search and collection of remains of C. cerdo, in a similar manner to several monitoring and sampling studies on L. cervus (Campanaro et al 2011b, Harvey et al 2011, Bardiani et al 2017a). The collection of remains was undertaken along transects of standard length (500 m long) and described in detail by Bardiani et al (2017a).…”