Diversity of coleoptera of the bracket fungus Fomitopsis pinicola in a Norwegian spruce forest

The beetle fauna of 299 sporocarps of the bracket fungus Fomitopsis pinicol a in a 200 ha spruce forest in southeastern Norway was investigated in rela tion to sporocarp, tree and forest variables. The sporocarps contained 36 s pecies of beetles, of which six species are on the Norwegian Red List. Of 1 2,373 individual beetles collected, 91% were Cis glabratus. Plots of specie s accumulation curves suggested that there may be more than 60 beetle speci es present in F. pinicola in the area, but that probably all the specialist Ciidae were found. The major factor influencing beetle diversity turned ou t to be the level of dead wood at and in the vicinity of the sampling site, with a higher number of species per unit volume of sporocarps in areas wit h high levels of dead wood. There were also significantly more red-listed s pecies in those areas. Analysing the species occurrence with stepwise logis tic regression, we show preferential habitat selection of the six most abun dant species of Ciidae. Conservation of beetles associated with bracket fun gi using amount of dead wood as a surrogate measurement is discussed.