Habitat requirements of the endangered heath bush-cricket Gampsocleis glabra (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae) in an isolated
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Habitat requirements of the endangered heath bush-cricket Gampsocleis glabra (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae) in an isolated population Emilia Grzędzicka1 · Karim Vahed2 Received: 3 March 2020 / Accepted: 18 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Steppes and xerothermic grasslands are hotspots of biodiversity, but are threatened by habitat destruction and fragmentation. The heath bush-cricket, Gampsocleis glabra, is considered to be a specialist of xerothermic habitats and appears in national red lists as a threatened species in several European countries. The goal of the current research was to determine the habitat requirements of G. glabra in an isolated habitat patch in Poland, at the northern edge of its range. By comparing the composition of plant species and vegetation architecture of vacant and occupied sites in the summers of 2018 and 2019, it was found that this population of G. glabra still maintained a strict specialisation for the xerothermofilous Festuco-Brometea plant community. On the contrary to previous studies, however, Stipa-type grasses were not essential for the occurrence of the species and the majority of occupied areas were based on the plant Brachypodium pinnatum. The physiognomy of plant communities was crucial for the abundance of stridulating males, which showed a preference for dense grasses at 10 cm high. The habitat characteristics of patches occupied by males and females did not differ significantly. The study of habitat requirements of this endangered Orthoptera species in an isolated habitat patch could serve as a prelude to the restoration of similar locations before it becomes extinct. This study may also underpin the development of a global conservation strategy for G. glabra. Keywords Ensifera · Xerothermic habitats · Habitat fragmentation · Isolation · Extinction · Bioacoustics
Introduction Steppes and xerothermic grasslands are among the most valuable and the most endangered habitats in Europe (Török et al. 2016). Such habitats were widely distributed throughout Europe during glacial periods (Willis and van Andel 2004; Markova et al. 2009; Kajtoch et al. 2016) and were Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-020-00265-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Emilia Grzędzicka [email protected] 1
Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sławkowska 17, 31‑016 Kraków, Poland
Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Department of Natural Sciences, University of Derby, Derby DE22 1GB, UK
2
limited to eastern and south-eastern regions during interglacials (Fekete et al. 2014; Pokorný et al. 2015; Kajtoch et al. 2016). Today’s xerothermophilous populations are probably remnants of much larger populations of species that were widely distributed during glaciations (Kajtoch et al. 2016). Xerothermic habitats from the class Festuco-Brometea are hotspots for plant and insect diversity (Kajtoch 2011; Wilson et
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