Acta Scientiarum Polonorum
Silvarum Colendarum Ratio et Industria Lignaria

Background. In the northern (Polish) part of the Karkonosze (Giant) Mountains, no comprehensive study of fauna related to dying trees and decaying wood has ever been carried out, despite the fact that in the 1980’s and 1990’s, catastrophic tree dying occurred there. Until the present time, as a result of tree stand decay pro- cess, dead tree and decaying wood resource remains high. The goal of the conducted inventory activities was identification of saproxylic beetles present in forest environments of the Giant Mountains.
Materials and methods. The works were carried out between 2013 and 2015 at 10 study sites representing the lower subalpine forests, coniferous upper subalpine forests, dwarf mountain pine shrubs in the subalpine zone of the Karkonosze Mountains. Most of these sites were located within the borders of the Karkonosze National Forest. The traps used to capture the beetles included barrier traps, outbreak traps, fermentation traps, Malaise and Netocia traps.
Results. A total of 14,836 beetles were captured out of which 10,028 were identified to the level of species. This paper present methodical assumptions for studies and obtained results in the form of beetle species list (Table 2). The list covers 458 species belonging into 53 families.
Conclusions. The obtained results were compared with fauna resources of other regions of Poland: Carpathian Mountains, Holy Cross Mountains, Białowieża Forest. The number of saproxylic beetle species in the fauna of the Giant Mountains is comparable to that in other regions of Poland.