Despite of its economic importance little seems to be known about the development of the frequency of Hylotrupes bajulus (European House borer, house longhorn beetle, old house borer). In the fantastic study of Lindhe et al. (2010) evidence for a dramatic decline of the beetle in the last 100 years in Sweden was presented. A questionnaire returned by 104 experts allows the estimation of a similar decline in Germany (to be published 2016 or 2017). Does anybody know of data or estimates for other countries? Even a simple statement of your personal estimation of the development of Hylotrupes in your own country would be helpful. Thank you
Lindhe, A.; Jeppsson, T.; Ehnström, B. (2010): Longhorn beetles in Sweden - changes in distribution and abundance over the last two hundred years. Entomologisk Tidskrift 2010 Vol. 131 No. 4 pp. 241-508. ISSN 0013-886X .
The Dutch Centre for Pests (my translation) http://www.kad.nl/nl/home should know that for the Netherlands. The website is only in Dutch but they surely can answer in English. Bruce Schoelitsz is active on Researchgate and works there as entomologist.
It is still common in Latvia, but cannot be considered "pest" like 100 years ago.
In Luxembourg, the species has been known for a long time thanks to occasional samples or small series coming from urban localities throughout the country. Considered as a common pest at the beginning of the 20th century, it is evidently in strong regression today, not having been collected for more than 30 years.
I saw Hylotrupes bajulus only once in my life, on 2014-08-20 in Slovenia (see picture attached, ♀). The house, whereby I saw it, was not in a very good condition :)
In the Iberian peninsula it is widely distributed and does not constitute pest anywhere.
The species grows in decaying coniferous wood .
This question is particularly addressed to the long-horned beetle specialists (and I'm not). Only once, in the 70s of last century, I had the occasion, during summer, of observing many adult specimens of Hylotrupes bajulus: they were in the crevices of a big wooden pole, on the outskirts of Bologna. Otherwise I've found only very rarely individual specimens of H. bajulus, and I never found this species in natural environments, but only in the vicinity or within buildings. It is well known its link with wood work (poles, beams, planks, especially in coniferous wood) for larval development. If you go to the Italian Entomologists Forum (Forum Entomologi Italiani, www.entomologiitaliani.net) and you search for Hylotrupes, you can see 15 or 20 requests for identification of H. bajulus and you can find more information about localities and possibly also habitats, mostly in Italy. I don't know whether it is a species in decline, but perhaps the lesser use of wooden poles (e.g. telegraph poles) or wooden parts in rural buildings over the past few decades may partially explain the possible rarefaction of this species (or the fact that it is observed less frequently). Regards,
Rinaldo Nicoli
I received two more answers from European colleagues: “Unfortunately, we do not have exact numbers of the occurrence of Hylotrupes in the Netherlands. This information got fragmented, when pest management decentralized in the past. We do believe the occurrence has decreased, but are not able to back this up with numbers.” And from Slovenia: “Damage caused by Hylotrupes considerably decreased in the past decades.”
Here in C. Greece, although I search every summer quite a lot for saproxylic beetles in big, old coniferous forests (Mt. Ossa, Pindos Mts., Olympos Mt.,..) with many dead trees, I have encountered only very few specimens of Hylotrupes bajulus over the years (all females) there. Always, only single specimens encountered, and never found it to be common. It worths to mention that, in buildings, I only found it once in my life recently (1 female specimen) in the suburbs of Larisa city.
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