Not all dead wood is the same - a selection error reveals an unusual emergence of beetles from decaying celerytop pine logs

An unexpected outcome of a study of beetle emergence from cut eucalypt logs in Tasmania’s southern forests was that three of the 60 logs in the study were later discovered to be celerytop pine rather than Eucalyptus obliqua. These three logs turned out to be a relatively high species-rich dead wood habitat type, with 43 species collected from 969 individual beetles. The diversity, however, within celerytop pine logs was markedly lower than similar-sized eucalypt logs of the same decay stage and occurring in the same forest type. In particular, the weevil, Ancyttalia oleariae Lea, 1906 represented 82% of all individuals collected from the celery top pine logs, and of the 44 species, 19 were represented as singletons and 11 as doubletons. While the emergence pattern observed from decaying celerytop pine logs was found to be very different and markedly lower in diversity to that observed from eucalypt logs, this selection error does highlight that not all dead wood is the same, but they all collectively contribute habitat for biodiversity.