The new occurrence of the biggest in Baltic beetle specie found in Ādaži

This year on August 4 the LDF experts, while inspecting the surroundings of Ādaži protected landscape area, found next to the roots of a fallen fir-tree big wood-fretter Ergates faber – a rare and especially protected specie, whose occurrence is one of the few in Latvia.

Ergates faber in Ādaži

Photo by Mārtiņš Kalniņš

The new occurrence of the biggest in Baltic beetle specie found in Ādaži

This year on August 4 the entomologists Dmitry Telnov, Mārtiņš Kalniņš and ornithologist Ruslans Matrozis, while inspecting the surroundings of Ādaži protected landscape, found next to the roots of a fallen fir-tree big wood-fretter Ergates faber – a rare and especially protected specie, whose occurrence is one of the few in Latvia.

The big wood-fretter is one of the biggest beetles in Latvia and Baltic. It can reach the length of 6 cm, but the length of the beetle found in Ādaži is 5,2 cm. The specie is closely related to dying wood, but it doesn’t blast living trees. The grubs of the beetle, up to 10 cm long, germinate for three to four years in dry pine of the big-sized deadwood and stumps, where they also cocoon. That is why exactly old pine-tree forests are important for the survival of the specie. Such forests in Latvia grow mainly in the Seaside lowland. The grown-up beetles are active from July until the end of August; they fly in dry pine-wood forests in twilight and at night.

In the surroundings of Ādaži protected landscape it is the new occurrence of this rare beetle specie in Latvia. During the last ten years the big wood-fretter was found in Slītere National Park, but before that the recent discoveries were dated from 1960 to 1980 in Rīga surroundings.

The specie is included in the 1st category of the Red Data Book of Latvia.

About the territory “Ādaži” of Natura 2000 read on the project webpage.