Nature Conservation 1/2009 — 20. 2. 2009 — Research, Surveys and Data Management — Print article in pdf
The Gold Chafer – A Specially Protected Wild Animal as well as a Possible Pest
chráněný živočich i potenciální škůdce
The Gold Chafer Oxythyrea funesta is a small floricolous thermophilous beetle species, currently protected under the national nature conservation legislation in the Czech Republic.
The specially protected species is in the fact very common and probably in sharp expansion. In the 1980s, the species was considered as a steppe relic, being close to extinction in the Czech Republic. Its conservation status dramatically changed in the 1990s. Since that time its findings and observations have been so frequent, that the species status in the country should be considered as the expansion.
At the beginning of the expansion, the species was also observed at colder sites. It is highly probable, that the species displayed a „bionomical shift“, connected also to the adaptation to anthropogenic substrates in the larval development. The authors summarise the current knowledge of the insect species, using i.e. the preliminary results of their volunteer-based mapping project.