Impacts of Forest Cutting and Wood Removal on Saproxylic Insects: Conservation Implications from a Multi-Year Case Study of an Elusive Stag Beetle (Coleoptera: Lucanidae)

Saproxylic insects are key forest components but highly vulnerable to practices that reduce deadwood quality and diversity. We investigated the response of Platycerus caraboides (Coleoptera: Lucanidae)—an elusive, cool-adapted stag beetle associated with moist, small-diameter decayed wood—to forest coppicing in the Euganean Hills (northeastern Italy). Surveys were conducted both before (2017–2020) and after coppicing (2021–2025) to compare plots that had undergone coppicing with those that remained uncoppiced. Field investigation focused on the volume of downed woody debris and on P. caraboides occurrence, quantified as encounter rates of deadwood bearing stag beetle oviposition scars or the evidence of stag beetle presence. Coppicing and wood harvesting reduced the overall volume of deadwood but did not significantly affect the amount of small-diameter downed woody debris. Nevertheless, P. caraboides showed consistently lower encounter rates in coppiced areas, particularly during the initial survey period, suggesting that altered microclimatic conditions and reduced debris quality may hinder colonization or larval development. These findings underscore the need to retain small- and medium-diameter woody debris, maintain partial canopy cover, and enhance structural heterogeneity to conserve overlooked, cool-adapted saproxylic species—especially under climate change and in line with EU biodiversity restoration goals.