The effects of fire frequency and of time lapsed since the lastfire on the species composition of ground beetles of chestnut forests of Southern Switzerland (Coleoptera: Carabidae).
Small, low-intensity forest fires are frequent in chestnut forests in Southern Switzerland. On 23 south-exposed slopes in the Swiss Canton Ticino, ground beetles were collected with pitfall traps to investigate the effects of fire frequency and time lapsed since the last fire on species richness. A clear increase of species richness occured with increasing fire frequency. But species richness did not change with increasing time since the last fire. Several species seem to prefer sites of forest fires. One of these species is Agonum quadripunctatum BAUDI, a threatened species on the "red list", which depends on forest fires for way of life. A new species for Switzerland, Stomis rostratus STURM, was found on a burned site. Sporadic and repeated low-intensity forest fires on small plots seem to enhance the species richness of ground beetles by providing a mosaic of small and differently structured habitats.