Germany:Europe Series: Endangered National Wildlife

On 6 May 2021, the German Federal Ministry of Finance issued a special postage stamp entitled "Endangered National Wildlife" from the "Europe" series.

Insects are amazing creatures in some ways: They have been populating the earth for at least 400 million years and no other animal class is even remotely as diverse as they are. So far, around 900,000 insect species have been scientifically described and several million previously undiscovered species are suspected, especially in the tropical rainforests. The largest order in the class of insects are the Beetles (Coleoptera) with 350,000 species. They were probably formed 265 million years ago and are now found on all continents except Antarctica. About 8,000 of them are native to Central Europe, many are considered to be adaptive artists. But changing environmental conditions and the disappearance of habitats threaten the continued existence of numerous species.

The endangered beetles also include Mycetoma Suturale (Harzporling Gloomy Beetle), Ceruchus Chrysomelinus (Bark Shredder) and Tragosoma Depsarium (Villus Ibex), to which the German edition of the European stamp is dedicated this year.

Issue Description
Mycetoma Suturale, Ceruchus Chrysomelinus, Tragosoma Depsarium - these names designate three of the 16 proven jungle relic beetles in the Bavarian Forest National Park. Before the establishment of modern forestry, those beetles were a familiar sight in the forests of the Bavarian Forest. When the forest began to be used more intensively at the beginning of the last century, the dead wood that had been left there and with it the beetle's habitat disappeared.

Each species colonizes an individual habitat, a so-called niche. While one species needs, for example, shady, thick, lying dead pine, another needs a standing, sunny, dead spruce trunk. These combinations are very rare and are only found in forests that have large amounts of deadwood. Since such areas are also rare, most of the jungle relic beetles are classified as endangered.

In large protected areas, such as the Bavarian Forest National Park, natural forest dynamics are allowed in line with the philosophy of “let nature be nature”. Endangered species will find their necessary micro-habitats here again and can build up stocks.

Stamp
The Postage Stamp depicts three Beetles - Mycetoma Suturale, Ceruchus Chrysomelinus & Tragosoma Depsarium.

Sheet
The Sheet contains 10 stamps (5 x 2) from the issue (one design) with an EAN code placed on all four edges of the narrow stamp sheet side. The remaining edges remain white..

EUROPA Series
Other Issues under the EUROPA theme include:

References & Notes
References

Notes