Salvage Logging and Edge Effects on Pill Beetle Abundance (Coleoptera: Byrrhidae)

Abstract Pitfall traps were employed to investigate the effects of post-fire salvage logging on abundance of pill beetles (Coleoptera: Byrrhidae) across an ecotone from unsalvaged habitat into the interior of a salvaged stand in the Canadian boreal forest. Byrrhids (mainly Byrrhus geminatus LeConte) were dramatically more abundant at the edge of salvaged habitat and more common in the salvage habitat relative to the unsalvaged stand. This holarctic beetle, herein reported for the first time from Alberta, is characteristic of disturbance, and its abundance appears to reflect a relative degree of disturbance over natural post-fire conditions.