#pyrochroa

A cardinal beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis) in Brussells, Belgium

A cardinal beetle (Pyrochroa Serraticornis) in Yorkshire, UK

Black-headed Cardinal beetle - Pyrochroa coccinea

Pyrochroa coccinea (Coleoptera - Pyrochroidae) is one of just three European species of saproxylic beetles, more commonly known as Cardinal Beetles, due to their bright red coloration. 

Saproxylic beetles (those that depend on dead wood for the successful completion of their life cycles) such as Pyrochroa coccinea, are important species of microhabitats formed by the dead logs in the woods.

Until recently, small-diameter wood was not commercially interesting. Large amounts of such wood have always been retained after felling, in the form of logging residues, so the species using it have not been regarded as suffering from any shortage of breeding substrate.

This situation is now changing. Increasing concerns about global warming, resulting from combustion of fossil fuels, have opened up the market for renewable fuels; in Scandinavia, at least, these may largely consist of logging residues.

In this situation it is considered that saproxylic insects will have less substrate in which to breed. So that quantitative studies of saproxylic species and their habitat associations are, therefore, very valuable to estimate the impact that may have the removal of dead wood from the forest.

References: [1] - [2]

Photo credit: ©André De Kesel