The stag beetle Lucanus cervus is Britain’s largest terrestrial beetle. Adult male beetles can reach up to 70mm in length and are easily recognised by their prominent ‘antlers’, actually greatly enlarged mandibles. Stag beetle larvae develop underground feeding on decaying wood, the larvae taking at least three years to develop but can take as long as seven years. Female beetles burrow down beneath the surface of the ground to lay their eggs in the soil alongside decaying timber. Larvae can be found either in large galleries they have excavated within the wood or in the soil in close proximity, feeding on the wood from the outside. When mature, the larvae construct a large, hollow, pupal cell in the soil before transforming into a pupa. The adult beetles emerge from their pupae in late summer, passing the winter underground in their pupal cell in a state of torpor. The adult beetles leave their cells and dig their way to the surface in late spring or early summer.
The stag beetle has been recorded throughout much of Western Europe, though in a number of countries it is now thought to be very rare or even extinct. As a consequence, the stag beetle has been included on Schedule II of the EC Habitats Directive and is classed as a ‘European Protected Species’. Legislation giving the species protected status has been enacted throughout the EU. In the UK, the stag beetle is classified as Nationally Scarce (Hyman & Parsons 1992) and was listed on Schedule 5 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act in 1998, making it illegal to trade in the species without an appropriate licence. The stag beetle was included in the first tranche of Species Action Plans (SAP) produced by the UK Biodiversity Group in 1995.
In 1998 PTES became the Lead Partner for the stag beetle SAP and organised the ‘Great Stag Hunt’, the first national stag beetle survey. This was very successful, resulting in the production of up-to-date UK distribution maps for the species (Percy et al. 1999). ‘Great Stag Hunt II’, the second national survey, was carried out in 2002, when it was 
hoped that the offspring of beetles seen in 1998 would emerge. The Great Stag Hunt III, carried out in 2006/07, added further to our knowledge of the status and distribution of the stag beetle in England and Wales. The survey again found that, in the UK at least, urban and semi-urban habitats are important for stag beetles. The main areas of distribution in south-east England appear little changed over the period 1998-2007, and there are a number of areas where populations appear strong and the beetle has been recorded over all of the four national surveys to date.
Away from the south-east of England, records were again received from Wales and the Severn Valley, together with new records areas well away from “traditional” stag beetle localities. Pictures of both males and females from Cheshire suggest that there is indeed a small population present rather than the record being down to a single “vagrant” individual somehow transported by the actions of man. Overall, the number of hectads from which the stag beetle has been recorded increased again, suggesting that picture of a large strong population in parts of the south-east of England, with smaller scattered populations away from the core areas is indeed a true reflection of the distribution of the stag beetle in Britain.
The map above shows records supplied by the PTES and others. Click on the map to see where the records have come from and to investgate the records further. Thanks to the PTES for this article.