Coleoptera, Silphidae, habitat fragmentation, habitat preferences, forest, Ostrava, Czech Republic, Central Europe

The influence of forest fragmentation on diversity, abundance and structure of carrion beetles community have been studied. Beetles were collected using baited traps situated in 7 selected forest fragments (with different shape and area) in the agricultural landscape of the Ostrava city. Statistical analysis of obtained data did not show significant negative influence of forest fragmentation. Only the proportion of N. vespilloides indicated that we cannot exclude some relationship between the number of forest carrion beetles and the area of forest fragments. Presented results suggest, that beetles associated with forests are able to colonize also very small isolated forest fragments and are probably able to fly from one forest fragment to another one through the habitats (fields and meadows), which are normally avoided for their reproduction.