Description
Czech nature is rich and diverse but there is a list of endangered species. Measures are framed in documents giving basic information and instructions how to treat the most endangered species. Such a document, usually for a species, less often for a group, is called an “action plan”. It is approved by Ministry of the Environment, and conservation authorities, researches and owners of land use it as the guidelines how to maintain species populations. An action plan is a special tool which contains complex knowledge about species and recommends the measures how to support it. The Red cicada (Tibicina haematodes) is a specially protected species therefore an expert document for a decision on the need to prepare its action plan was recommended in the “Conception of Action Plans and Management Plans for Specially Protected Species of Animals and Plants in the Czech Republic”. The project meets the target of the state environmental policy of the Czech Republic for 2012-2020. The main objective of the project is creation of expert document as necessary basis for nature-conservation authorities to begin active protection of the red cicada. The project aims to confirm the occurrence of the species in the Czech Republic, including a literature review and field survey. The project outcomes are improving knowledge of red cicada distribution and preparation of the expert document. The majority of measures of the project consists of field research and gathering published data regarding the species leading to precise and complex compilation of expert document. The project outputs are review of the literature and information sources including identifying historic sites. The field will be mapped and monitored at known sites. Project will also include part of publicity. The target group of the project is primarily a Ministry of the Environment and species. Secondarily, the protection and connected activities will carry out the awareness-raising in the general public via education.
Summary of project results
The Vineyard Cicada, Tibicina haematodes (Scopoli, 1763), is a thermophilous insect species, critically endangered and legally protected in the Czech Republic (Annex III to Decree No. 395/1992 Coll. as amended by Decree No. 175/2006 Coll.). Its current occurrence in the Czech Republic and details concerning its endangerment were insufficiently known. This project aimed at gathering basic scientific data needed to prepare a conservation action plan for this species. Particularly, the project aimed to confirm the occurrence of T. haematodes in the Czech Republic, to revise its historical localities in the country, to assess its current population size, and to reveal details of its biology, threats and possibilities of their mitigation.Based on the data acquired during the project, a report for the decision to establish an action plan for T. haematodes was prepared. The species is relatively common and probably not threatened in southern Europe. However, in the Czech Republic where it occurs at the northern edge of its range, this species represents a unique biogeographical as well as cultural element (as the only large cicada in the Czech fauna, producing loud sounds, it is reflected in the local folk tradition, e.g. in songs and proverbs). Therefore, appropriate conservation measures should be taken to support its single population in the country. These should include a continuation of environmentally friendly management of the extant vineyards on the Dubový vrch Hill and its environs excluding insectides, herbicides and artificial fertilizers. It is also necessary to adjust the forest management in the adjacent oak woodland, particularly to prevent clear cutting and outplanting of non-autochthonous tree species (Scots pine, European larch, Norway spruce). Natural processes should be given priority to reestablish open oak woodland at extant clearings. Dense and shady parts of the extant woodland should be partly opened. It is also important to preserve belts of native shrub species (Prunus spinosa, Ligustrum vulgare, Acer campestre) at vineyard and forest margins. The area suitable for cicada development could be enlarged by partial clearing of slopes with former orchards and fallows adjacent to the vineyards from dense stands of invasive scrub and alien herbs (Solidago canadensis, Calamagrostis epigejos). Areas with fragments of species-rich dry grasslands should be mown periodically (at most once a year, in a mosaic-like fashion).
Summary of bilateral results