Contrasting needs of grassland dwellers: habitat preferences of endangered steppe beetles (Coleoptera)

Abstract

Temperate grasslands are local biodiversity hotspots. In Europe, their extent was mostly reduced to isolated habitat patches, whose biota is subject to extinction debt. Knowledge on requirements of dry-grassland inhabitants is thus vital to slow down decline of grassland biodiversity. We studied habitat requirements of eight flightless steppe beetles, including some of the most endangered dry-grassland specialists of the continent. The beetles were sampled using 167 pitfall traps at a pannonian dry-grassland fragment, the Pouzdrany steppe, SE Czech Republic, from March to November 2006. The number of each species captures in each trap was related to vegetation and abiotic habitat characteristics; captures of all beetles were related to each other. Two of the studied species required relatively humid microhabitats, including tallgrass steppe with litter (Carabus hungaricus, Carabidae) and grassland of high herb cover (Meloe proscarabaeus, Meloidae). Others were associated with xeric habitats (e.g. Meloe scabriusculus) and their early-successional stages, including short-turf vegetation (Dorcadion fulvum, D. pedestre, Cerambycidae) and/or bare-ground patches (Blaps lethifera, Tenebrionidae; Meloe decorus, M. uralensis). Our findings point to key importance of early-successional vegetation for grassland biodiversity, and to the fact that locally co-occurring and closely related grassland specialists may exhibit contrasting habitat needs. Spatially and temporarily highly diversified patch management creating a fine scale mosaic of various seral stages from bare soil to tall-grass steppe is therefore the most appropriate approach for managing isolated grasslands. Prescribed burning and support of burrowing herbivores are recommended and discussed together with other measures for restoration of habitat diversity in dry-grassland fragments.

The edge of two worlds: A new review and synthesis on Eurasian forest‐steppes

“…on rocky surfaces) and/or small fragments with varying levels of degradation (Smelansky & Tishkov, ). As an extreme case of fragmentation, small areas of anthropogenic habitats, such as field margins (Cizek, Hauck, & Pokluda, ), railway embankments (Dudáš, Eliáš, & Mártonfi, ), river dykes (Bátori et al., ), kurgans (Deák et al., ) and road verges (Heneberg, Bogusch, & Řezáč, ), may serve as the last refuges for steppe and forest‐steppe species.…”

First record of meloid beetle (Meloe uralensis) (Coleoptera: Meloidae) in Central Moravia (Czech Republic)

“…Majka uralská (Meloe uralensis Pallas, 1773) má ponticko-panonský areál, který dle současných znalostí zahrnuje v Asii východní Sibiř v Rusku, Turkmenistán, Kazachstán a dále pokračuje do Evropy přes jižní části Ruska, Armenii (z ostatních Kavkazských zemí není známa), Ukrajinu a Moldávii na Balkánský poloostrov (Rumunsko a Chorvatsko) do střední Evropy (Maďarsko, Slovensko, Rakousko, Itálie -jižní Tyroly), kde nejsevernějším výběžkem výskytu je Česká republika (Bologna 2020) respektive Morava (Vrabec et al 2017). Na území České republiky je uváděna pouze z několika lokalit na jižní Moravě: Pavlovské vrchy (Švihla 1996), Pouzdřany (Vrabec 2005;Čížek et al 2012;Anonymous 2021a), Milotice, Milovická stráň, Úvaly u Valtic, Jaroslavice a Ječmeniště (vše Anonymous 2021a). Přičemž nejsevernější známý výskyt majky je v současnosti Újezd u Brna (Anonymous 2021a).…”

“…Přičemž nejsevernější známý výskyt majky je v současnosti Újezd u Brna (Anonymous 2021a). Majka uralská je xerotermní druh nalézaný na fragmentech sprašových a vápencových stepí, okrajích vinic, sadů a polí (Roubal 1936;Čížek et al 2012). Druh preferuje raně sukcesní biotopy se sporou vegetací (Čížek et al 2012).…”

Threats and Challenges for Conservation of Meloidae (Coleoptera) in a Global Change Context, Emphasizing the Iberian Peninsula

“…After a specific search with "conservation Meloidae" as the search term, only 22 results from the WOS and 11 from Scopus were obtained. After the filtering process, only five works were identified that dealt with a conservationist perspective [17][18][19][20][21]. Third, a specific search with the term "threatened Meloidae" only generated 5 results from the WOS and 1 from Scopus, from which 108 duplicate results were eliminated.…”