insects Article Carcasses at Fixed Locations Host a Higher Diversity of Necrophilous Beetles Christian von Hoermann 1, * , Tomáš Lackner 1 , David Sommer 2,3 , Marco Heurich 4,5,6 , M. Eric Benbow 7 and Jörg Müller 1   Citation: von Hoermann, C.; Lackner, T.; Sommer, D.; Heurich, M.; Benbow, M.E.; Müller, J. Carcasses at Fixed Locations Host a Higher Diversity of Necrophilous Beetles. Insects 2021, 12, 412. https:// doi.org/10.3390/insects12050412 Academic Editor: Christos G. Athanassiou Received: 12 April 2021 Accepted: 30 April 2021 Published: 4 May 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Conservation and Research, Bavarian Forest National Park, Freyunger Str. 2, 94481 Grafenau, Germany; Tomas.Lackner@npv-bw.bayern.de (T.L.); Joerg.Mueller@npv-bw.bayern.de (J.M.) 2 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Vinicna 7, 12844 Praha, Czech Republic; dejv.sommer@gmail.com 3 Department of Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Kamycka 1176, 16521 Praha, Czech Republic 4 Department of Visitor Management and National Park Monitoring, Bavarian Forest National Park, Freyunger Str. 2, 94481 Grafenau, Germany; Marco.Heurich@npv-bw.bayern.de 5 Chair of Wildlife Ecology and Management, Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Tennenbacher Str. 4, 79106 Freiburg, Germany 6 Institute for Forest and Wildlife Management, Inland Norway University of Applied Science, NO-2480 Koppang, Norway 7 Department of Entomology, Department of Osteopathic Specialties, AgBioResearch and Ecology, Evolution and Behavior Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA; benbow@msu.edu * Correspondence: christian.vonhoermann@gmail.com; Tel.: +49-8552-9600-156 Simple Summary: Whereas vertebrate scavengers have a higher diversity reported at randomly placed carcasses, the drivers of insect diversity on carrion, such as the exposure type (fixed versus random) or the carrion species, are still incompletely understood. We analyzed beetle diversity at differently exposed carcasses in the low-range mountain forest of the Bavarian Forest National Park in Germany. We tested if scavenging beetles, similarly to vertebrate scavengers, show a higher diversity at randomly placed carcasses compared to easily manageable fixed places. Ninety-two beetle species at 29 exposed wildlife carcasses (roe, red deer, and red foxes) were detected. Beetle diversity was higher at fixed locations possessing extended highly nutrient-rich cadaver decomposition islands as important refuges for threatened red-listed species, such as Necrobia violacea (Coleoptera: Cleridae). Particularly noticeable in our insect traps were the following two rare species, the “primitive” carrion beetle Necrophilus subterraneus (Coleoptera: Agyrtidae) and the false clown beetle Sphaerites glabratus (Coleoptera: Sphaeritidae). In Europe, only the species S. glabratus out of the genus Sphaerites is present. This emphasizes the importance of carrion for biodiversity conservation. We clearly show the relevance of leaving and additional providing wildlife carcasses in a dedicated place in protected forests for preserving very rare and threatened beetle species as essential members of the decomposing community. Abstract: In contrast to other necromass, such as leaves, deadwood, or dung, the drivers of insect biodiversity on carcasses are still incompletely understood. For vertebrate scavengers, a richer community was shown for randomly placed carcasses, due to lower competition. Here we tested if scavenging beetles similarly show a higher diversity at randomly placed carcasses compared to easily manageable fixed places. We sampled 12,879 individuals and 92 species of scavenging beetles attracted to 17 randomly and 12 at fixed places exposed and decomposing carcasses of red deer, roe deer, and red foxes compared to control sites in a low range mountain forest. We used rarefaction-extrapolation curves along the Hill-series to weight diversity from rare to dominant species and indicator species analysis to identify differences between placement types, the decay stage, and carrion species. Beetle diversity decreased from fixed to random locations, becoming increasingly pronounced with weighting of dominant species. In addition, we found only two indicator species for exposure location type, both representative of fixed placement locations and both red listed species, namely Omosita depressa and Necrobia violacea. Furthermore, we identified three Insects 2021, 12, 412. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12050412 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/insects