Diptera in Clear-Felling Stumps Like It Dry

When stumps on clear cuts are harvested for bioenergy, retention of a share of them is recommended to mitigate environmental issues. To maximise benefits for the diversity of saproxylic beetles, retention should be done in dry positions. Saproxylic dipterans are usually thought to be associated with wetter wood substrates. We therefore hypothesised that dipterans would benefit from other recommendations. We tested that by rearing out insects from spruce and birch stumps sampled in clear fellings, and received a material of 866 individuals of 24 Diptera taxa. Among six Diptera species tested statistically, one was associated with dry stumps when comparing within spruce, and the total abundance of dipterans was higher in dry spruce stumps than in wet. No parameter (total species number, species number per stump, total abundances and abundances of individual species) showed a higher value for wet stumps than for dry. We conclude that there are several Diptera species that frequently use stumps, of which a large share was earlier regarded as very rare. For those, our hypothesis was falsified, as the affinities to dry stumps seem similar as for beetles and the same recommendations could be used.