On Saturday, April 27th, in the Škocjan Caves Park, an outdoor lecture titled "Discover the Beetles of the Škocjan Caves Park" was held. The event was organised as part of the E-Nat2Care project and funded under the Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia cross-border cooperation program.
Participants gathered at the Information Center of the Škocjan Caves Park, where they were greeted by beetle specialist Andrej Kapla. Together, we walked from the Information Center to the Kaliči karst pond, continued towards the viewpoint of Štefanja, and returned to the starting point - the Information Center.
During the walk, we observed the differences between bugs and beetles, found a beetle from the Crisomelidae family and another one from the Geotrupidae family, and confirmed the presence of saproxylic beetles on a decaying trunk. Specialist Andrej Kapla informed us that beetles are by far the largest group of insects and one of the largest groups of animals in general. They inhabit diverse habitats both on the surface and underground, except for the sea. We know over 350,000 species of beetles, which represent 40% of all known insect species and 25% of all known animal species. Despite this diversity and abundance, beetles are widely overlooked.
The topic attracted the interest of the participants, and they asked many questions about the habitats that beetles inhabit, their life cycle, and species diversity. Visitors returned home with new knowledge and information about the diverse world of beetles.
