Protected areas and insect conservation: questioning the effectiveness of Natura 2000 network for saproxylic beetles in Italy

摘要: Up to now, global conservation priorities are far from incorporating megadiverse invertebrate taxa. Thus, an important emerging field in biological is how we might manage landscape preserve insects. In this study, analyze the efficacy of Italian reserve network for protecting multiple saproxylic beetles, considering both nationally designated areas and Natura 2000 sites. We selected 150 species inhabiting territory European Red List on basis distribution data availability. For each species, a vulnerability score was assigned according their status, species' distributions were used perform irreplaceability analysis. Our analyses show that targets based geographic range extent achieved only 7% considered species. find 13 not represented any protected area: among these, two click beetle (Elateridae) listed International Union Conservation Nature threatened categories (i.e. Ampedus quadrisignatus EN Ampedus brunnicornis VU). area effectiveness beetles showed more irreplaceable than random selection cells. Surprisingly, addition sites did improve representation. Moreover, these reserves include identify some currently unprotected protection could prevent future extinctions ensure favorable status beetles. particular, stronghold conservation, which obtained high score, Adige river basin. recommend designation new complement existing help guarantee fauna protection.