In the comments of the walks, you have been adding a lot of other wild life observations. They will never been analysed fully but we thougth it might be a good idea to go trough the list and see what kind of other things you have encountered during your evening walks. Concerning beetles, I think the June beetle (Amphimallon solstitiale), lesser stag beetle (Dorcus parallelipipedus) and tanner beetle (Prionus coriarius) have been mentioned the most. The field period of the tanner beetle starts when the stag beetles are declining. Among the other insects, we found several dragonflies and moths but also the invasive Asian hornet (Vespa velutina) has been reported several times for different Spanish transects.
The lesser stag beetle (Dorcus parallelipipedus), the small brother of the big stag beetle, has been seen a few times along the transects.
The magpie and noctule bat, two species seen hunting on stag beetles.
Furthermore, a lot of birds have been listed, with many common ‘garden’ birds like the house sparrow (Passer domesticus), barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), blackbird (Turdus merula) and robin (Erithacus rubecula) but also more forest species like the nightjar (Caprimulgus europaeus) and great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopus major) or even woodcock (Scolopax rusticola). Many of these creatures mentioned, give way that the transect were walked in the evening. When it comes to predation on stag beetles, the magpie (Pica pica) is mentioned a few times. Other predators on the lists have to be looked for among the mammals, the common noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula) was seen hunting and capturing stag beetles. Also Arianna, our internship student this year, could witness noctule bats hunting and found the dismembered stag beetle heads the next morning. Also some cats, organising their own stag beetle monitoring, are mentioned.
Other rare mammals seen were wild boar (Sus scrofa, resulting in this nice video) and common genet cat (Genetta genetta). Also some amphibians and reptiles listed also include common toad (Bufo bufo) up to snakes like smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) and Baskian viper (Vipera seoanei).
Finally, Arianna has also seen a stone marten (Martes foina) which had a great interest in our Belgian transect. Possibly, he or she also came to hunt on the stag beetles and even revisited the transect during three different evenings. Proof was finally delivered by this quick smart phone picture.
