Nutrient richness of wood mould in tree hollows with the Scarabaeid beetle Osmoderma eremita

Abstract

Trunk hollows with wood mould habour a rich invertebrate fauna with many threatened species, and it has been suggested that the beetle Osmoderma eremita (Coleoptera, Scarabaeoidea) is a keystone species in this community. We estimated the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus in wood mould and compared the coarse fraction which constitutes frass of O. eremita with the finer fraction of wood mould, and found that the nutrient richness was higher in frass. O. eremita larvae have a fermentation chamber that harbours nitrogen fixing bacteria. As the levels of absorbable nitrogen are a limiting factor in insect growth, an increase in nutrient richness is one of several possible explanations why the species richness of saproxylic beetles is higher in hollow oaks where O. eremita is present in relation to similar trees where the beetle is absent