Despite bark beetle, Šumava comes to life

Every cloud has a silver lining.

After more than one hundred years, the rare beetle kornatec velký (Peltis grossa) appeared again in the Bohemian Forest. The beetle was discovered by accident just last year, when scientists knocked it out of a bark beetle trap near the Bear Trail.

Kornatec is present only in the Žofín Forest, Beskydy Mountains and now also in the Bohemian Forest. It is very demanding for optimum living conditions. Kornatec needs a dead standing torso of spruces and firs. The trees have to be drying for at least ten years and must be exposed to the sun. Such conditions are now usual thanks to the bark beetle in the Bohemian Forest. It is precisely in the area of ​​the Třístoličník (Tricollus), where the crustacean was discovered, where you can see many standing dead trunks exposed to the sun now. 

Kornatec is not the only beetle to reappear. Another beetle is roháček jedlový (Ceruchus chrysomelinus Hochenwarth), which also needs dead wood, preferably in decomposition. Roháček has always been present in the Bohemian Forest, but only in certain places and to a limited extent.

The “wasteland” left behind the bark beetle eventually created ideal conditions for new inhabitants of the Bohemian Forest.