What question did this study set out to answer?

This research aims to analyze the distribution and activity patterns of three protected saproxylic beetle species in Bulgaria using citizen science and professional data.

May 16, 2026Open Access

From professional surveys to citizen scientists’ observations: Presence-based spatial and temporal analyses of three protected saproxylic beetles (Coleoptera, Lucanidae, Cerambycidae) in Bulgaria

Key Points

This research aims to analyze the distribution and activity patterns of three protected saproxylic beetle species in Bulgaria using citizen science and professional data.
Survey data were collected over 20 years (2004-2021) from professional surveys and citizen science contributions via social media and platforms.
Data were collated into a comprehensive database combining records from the SmartBirds platform, GBIF, and historical collections.
Spatial and temporal analyses of species distributions were conducted, comparing records before and after 2000.
For Lucanus cervus, there were 1807 records noted, with a peak activity in July, contributing to 49% of citizen science records.
Morimus asper s.l. had 1148 records with an earlier activity peak shifted from June to May post-2000, representing 33% of records.
Rosalia alpina had 389 records, with 61% from citizen science, showing peak activity in July.

Abstract

The saproxylic beetles Lucanus cervus (Linnaeus, 1758), Morimus asper funereus Mulsant, 1862 and Rosalia alpina (Linnaeus, 1758), protected under the European Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC, became the subject of targeted surveys in Bulgaria after the country began establishing its national Natura 2000 network of protected areas. Significant data accumulation began after 2011, when the mapping of the Natura 2000 sites in Bulgaria started. Records of these easy-to-recognise beetles were collected for over 20 years (since 2004) as a result of scientific surveys and citizen scientists’ posts in the Facebook group "The Insects and the Entomologists". Data have been merged into the SmartBirds platform and supplemented with data from iNaturalist available at GBIF. The database has been further enriched with historical records from literature and the National Museum of Natural History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences collection, dating from 1897 to the present. The collated data ( L. cervus – 1807 records; M. asper s.l. – 1148; R. alpina – 389) were summarised and analysed spatially and temporally. The present distributions of the three species by habitat type, altitude and Natura 2000 sites in Bulgaria are provided. A comparison is drawn between the data collated from both targeted monitoring surveys and amateur reports. The peaks in the seasonal dynamics of imago activity were in July for L. cervus (49% of the records from citizen science) and R. alpina (61%) and in May for M. asper s.l. (33%). A comparison of the record frequency before and after 2000 showed a shift to the earlier activity peak only in M. asper s.l. from June to May.

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