| Abstrakt: |
Effects of isolation, habitat size and several microhabitat variables on presence/absence of the monophagous Bolitophagus reticulatus (L.) (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae) were investigated in 58 forest fragments in an agricultural landscape (15 km2) in south-eastern Norway. All potential habitats of the beetle, dead Fomes fomentarius (L.) Kickx basidiocarps (n=587), were collected from trees (n=185) within the study area. The basidiocarps were dissected and the number of B. reticulatus specimens (larvae, pupae and adults) counted. The material was analysed at four distinguishable spatial scales: basidiocarp-, tree-, tree-group- and forest island level. Different patterns of beetle presence emerged at the different scales. Increasing habitat size and decreasing degree of isolation increased the probability of B. reticulatus presence at three (basidiocarp-, tree- and forest island level) and one (tree level) scales, respectively, whilst no such trends were found at the fourth level (tree-group level). Increasing insolation and thereby higher ambient temperatures, indicated by several microhabitat variables, improved the probability of beetle presence amongst the trees. The number of beetle specimens correlated positively with an increase in the habitat size at the tree level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
