A stag beetle’s life: sex-related differences in daily activity and behaviour of Lucanus cervus (Coleoptera: Lucanidae)

Tini, Massimiliano; Bardiani, Marco; Campanaro, Alessandro; Chiari, Stefano; Mason, Franco; Maurizi, Emanuela; Toni, Ilaria; Audisio, Paolo; Carpaneto, Giuseppe M.

doi:10.1007/s10841-017-0029-5

Cited by 12 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…In our study, we found clear effects of habitat on dispersal behaviour despite only 12 beetles have been studied. This is in line with many other radio telemetry studies (range between 8 and 15: Beaudoin‐Ollivier et al ., ; Liégeois et al ., ; Sprecher‐Uebersax & Durrer, ; Tini et al ., ) and low compared to other studies with often more than 50 individuals followed (Hedin & Ranius, ; Rink & Sinsch, ; Hedin et al ., ; Svensson et al ., ; Tini et al ., ,b, ; Drag & Cizek, ). Consequently, compiling and reanalysing the existing datasets of the different radio telemetry studies might reveal further insight into the effects of habitat characteristics and individual beetles on their dispersal behaviour.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), the dispersal behaviour during the first nights (data not included) and cfr. previous dispersal behaviour studies on this species (Rink & Sinsch, ; Tini et al ., , ). The relationship between this dispersal behaviour (staying, walking or flying) and Cclos and SDW availability was tested with Kruskal–Wallis and chi‐squared tests respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Europe, the species is evaluated as near threatened (Nieto & Alexander, ) and listed on the Annex II of the European Habitat Directive. Furthermore, its large size allows for research methods such as mark‐recapture (Hawes, ; Chiari et al ., ) and radio telemetry (Rink & Sinsch, ; Tini et al ., ,b, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The main threats that have been stated to affect this species are habitat loss and fragmentation in combination with the low dispersal capabilities of females (Rink & Sinsch, ; Hawes, ; Thomaes et al ., ; Nieto & Alexander, ; Della Rocca et al ., ), increased predation (Campanaro et al ., ) and climate change (Rink & Sinsch, ). Adults are active only for a period of a few weeks up to 3 months (Fremlin, ; Harvey et al ., ) and rarely feed (Krenn et al ., ; Tini et al ., ) so their capacity to fly is weakened towards the end of their lifetime, since their energy resources are running out (Chiari et al ., ). Rink and Sinsch () found that only 1% of the females travels more than 800 m whiles the majority travel less than 200 m. Also, Tini et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We, furthermore, hypothesise that flight dispersal will be used to find suitable canopy conditions (cfr. Rink & Sinsch, ; Tini et al ., ,b, ) while walking will be preferred to find suitable dead wood for oviposition sites.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dispersal behaviour of female stag beetles (Lucanus cervus) in a mosaic landscape: when should I stay and where should I go

Thomaes

Dhont

Dekeukeleire

et al. 2018

Insect Conserv Diversity

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1. Global habitat destruction is bringing species to the edge. Consequently, understanding species dispersal behaviour is becoming essential in order to safeguard vital meta-populations. Nevertheless, dispersal is too often seen as unconditional rather than triggered by habitat cues.2. We applied radio telemetry on female European stag beetles [Lucanus cervus (L., 1758)] in a mosaic landscape to investigate the hypothesis that dispersal is habitat driven, in this case by canopy closure and presence of suitable dead wood, SDW.3. We found that the decision to disperse depended on canopy closure and that dispersal distance depended both on SDW availability and canopy closure. Long distance dispersal (by flying), in contrast to small distance dispersal (mainly walking), is shown to be a successful strategy to reach locations with lower canopy closure.4. We conclude that dispersal of female stag beetles is not unconditional but shaped by habitat resources. It is therefore likely that habitat also affects dispersal of other insects and should be considered in future dispersal studies.5. For the conservation of the European stag beetle, our results imply that it is essential to provide stepping stones of suitable dead wood, preferably every 100 m and not more than 1 km apart. These stepping stones should be provided in open to half-shaded conditions. Management systems such as coppicing which provide periodic sun-exposure and sufficient amounts of (underground) dead wood are good management procedures for conservation of the stag beetle but they need to be performed at small scales to ensure suitable habitat proximity.

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