The glossy black bark moth, or Ceruchus chrysomelinus, as the strictly protected species of beetle is scientifically named, cannot be without old, rotting fir or spruce. As a larva, it lives in them for two to three years, directly in the area between rotten and fresh wood. There he also pupates. The adult beetles hatch at the end of summer. They still hibernate in the conifers, so you can only find them in the forests the following summer. The beetles themselves are comparatively small at a maximum of one and a half centimeters, but are quite conspicuous because of their black, very shiny body. The bark moth is extremely rare and is listed as critically endangered on the Red List.
In the mountain forests of the Allgäu Alps, foresters working with biologist Henning Werth have now rediscovered the bark schröter. The beetle was at home there for a long time, but has disappeared in recent decades. The finds came from a silver fir project at the Alpinium of the Swabian government. The mountain forests of the Sonthofen state forestry company are systematically searched for the insect world in them using special traps. The results were surprising. “We have already documented 115 deadwood beetle species,” says Werth, who is the Alpinium’s vice-president. “These include twelve red-listed species that, like the bark moth, are endangered or even threatened with extinction.” Deadwood beetles are species that live around dying, decaying trees, they are considered an indication of particularly natural and intact forests. They are therefore also called jungle relicts or relict species.
The Alpinium serves to protect the Bavarian Alps
The boss of the Sonthofener Staatsforstbetrieb, Jan Oetting, is very happy about the results. It confirms his credo that nature conservation and forestry are not opposites, “but go hand in hand,” as he says. The bark schröter, for example, was discovered in the Oberdorf forest near Martinszell south of Kempten. However, Oetting and his foresters also look after five natural forest reserves in the region. Some of them have not been forested for many years, the forests are left to their own devices. In them, the biodiversity is particularly large. The Achrain natural forest reserve, for example, lies in a deeply cut gorge that the Weißach has carved out here. Rare plants such as the Davall’s sedge or the variegated horsetail can be found here, as well as sand bees, black woodpeckers and even white-backed woodpeckers. The yew also has favorable conditions here.
The biologist Werth is particularly pleased that a pseudoscorpion was also discovered during the project. Pseudoscorpions or afterscorpions bear a close resemblance to real scorpions, but have nothing to do with them. The animals, which are no more than seven millimeters in size, are actually arachnids. About 3000 species are known worldwide, in Central Europe there are about a hundred. The find in the silver fir project is only the fourth in Bavaria. The Alpinium at the government of Swabia is a competence center for the protection of the Bavarian Alps. It develops model projects in the areas of nature conservation, tourism and land use. The silver fir project is to be expanded this year.