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Mount Mangana stag beetle. |
Image: Jeff Meggs |
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Project summary:
Lissotes menalcas (the Mount Mangana stag beetle) is an obligate log-dwelling beetle and is presently classified as vulnerable under the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995. It was found to have a wide distribution in south eastern Tasmania and is now recorded from 34 localities (but it was not found within the Warra boundary during this survey).
The species was found in a variety of wet forest habitats from old-growth mixed forest through to 23-year-old wet eucalypt silvicultural regrowth. About 12% of wet eucalypt forest within the predicted range of Lissotes menalcas is formally reserved, and another 14% on Crown land is unlikely to be subject to logging. Lissotes menalcas appears to tolerate both wildfire and clearfelling with regeneration burning. Plantation development, however, will probably lead to the elimination of the species from such areas because it depends on an ongoing supply of rotting logs for its long-term survival. Analysis of the likely impact of plantation establishment within its range over the next ten years indicates that it will not reach levels that would lead it to be considered as vulnerable.
Thus, it is recommended that the status of the species be changed from vulnerable to rare. However, there is a need to determine the ecological sustainability of present forest management practices in relation to the decaying-log habitat and to continue to monitor the extent of clearing and modification of the species’ habitat.
Methodology: The distribution, habitat and conservation status of this species were investigated through a combination of collation of known locations and searches for the species in decaying logs across likely areas of occurrence (including parts of the Warra LTER site).
Datasets: None available.
Publications: Grove, S.J., Meggs, J. & Goodwin, A. (2002). A review of biodiversity conservation issues relating to coarse woody debris management in the wet eucalypt production forests of Tasmania. Forestry Tasmania, Hobart.
Meggs, J.M. & Taylor, R.J. (1999). Distribution and conservation status of the Mt Mangana stag beetle, Lissotes menalcas (Coleoptera: Lucanidae). Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 133: 23-28.
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