The tineid moth Scardia boletella (Lepidoptera: Tineidae) was until recently not known from the province of Halland, SW Sweden. It breeds in one of the most common polypo-rous fungi, Fornesfomentarius, which mainly grow on beech (Fagus sylvatica) in Halland. The species was searched for in 171 different suitable (=mainly old-growth beech) stands and a total of 957 colonised stems in 138 stands were found. Despite breeding on a wides-pread resource, its distribution in the province was restricted, mainly to oldgrowth stands in the middle of Halland. In other areas of the province it was absent even from large oldgrowth beech stands with very high amounts of dead beech and the fungus. Analyses of isolation patterns revealed a lower probability for stand to be occupied when occupied patches were more than 500 m away. Also high amounts of suitable stands within a radius of 5 km increased the probability to find the species. Apparently the species' dispersal capacity is limiting its distribution pattern in Halland. Although being hard to analyse be-cause the lack of exact data, it is probable that also the history of the patches is important.
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