A vast stretch of land where animals roam widely and plants grow freely. That's what most people would picture if they thought of a conservation area.
Authors
- Ary Hoffmann
Professor, School of BioSciences and Bio21 Institute, The University of Melbourne
- Michael Kearney
Professor in Ecophysiology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Melbourne
Such places are vital for protecting large animals and entire ecosystems. They make managing environmental threats , such as fire and weed invasions, much easier.
However, some parts of Australia simply don't have the space to support a large conservation area. This is particularly true in agricultural regions . In the cropping country of northwestern Victoria, for example, remnant reserves may only cover less than 100 hectares.
These smaller reserves are often undervalued and overlooked . However, our latest research reveals these remnant areas can be critical to the survival of smaller plants and animals.
Meet the matchstick grasshopper
Our recent study took a closer look at grasshoppers in western Victoria. We rediscovered a formerly undescribed species of the Keyacris genus of grasshoppers, which includes the threatened Key's matchstick .
We named the new species as the Murray Mallee matchstick (Keyacris bungunnia) because it lives around the region where an old megalake, Lake Bungunnia , existed during the Pleistocene era. The Murray Mallee matchstick likely hopped about on its shores.
Matchstick grasshoppers, named for their distinctive stick-like appearance, are unique to Australia . The roughly 250 related species are found in many habitats across the country, including desert and mulga scrubland, eucalyptus woodland and grassy plains. Far from being pests, these native grasshoppers are a natural part of Australian landscapes, feeding on native plants and supporting local food webs .
Our latest study, led by student Kim Kaufmann, mapped the distribution of this grasshopper species across several sites. Our findings suggest each population was genetically distinct from the others.
Given matchstick grasshoppers don't have wings even when fully grown, they don't typically travel far from where they are born. But in places with continuous habitat, they can spread slowly over generations.
Research shows one species reached northern Tasmania from Victoria while another travelled 2,200 kilometres across the Nullarbor Plain on the way from Kalgoorlie to Broken Hill.
As landscapes become increasingly fragmented, environmental threats such as fire or overgrazing during drought could wipe out whole populations . This is particularly dangerous for animals like the Murray Mallee matchstick that don't have wings or any other way of shifting to other places.
High quality habitat
There's a flip side to our findings.
Finding a matchstick grasshopper in a small, remnant reserve could indicate you have stumbled across high quality habitat, home to other vulnerable species.
For example, one of our Murray Mallee matchstick sites was later discovered to support the largest known population of the threatened Eltham copper butterfly (Paralucia pyrodiscus lucida). Many of these insects are poorly studied , even when they play a crucial role in our local ecosystems .
However, these valuable remnant reserves are typically overlooked in conservation efforts and are often poorly managed , overrun by weeds or even covered with rubbish .
Fortunately, conserving these areas for vulnerable animals doesn't have to be expensive or complex. Grasshoppers can survive as long as food plants are available, even in small patches of suitable habitat. For instance, translocated populations of the Larapuna grasshopper (Vandiemenella viatica) have surged at several revegetated sites near Melbourne.
Most recently, scientists have successfully introduced the threatened Key's matchstick grasshopper into the Euroa arboretum in northeast Victoria.
The benefits of these projects go beyond grasshoppers. Matchstick grasshoppers are a crucial food source for other insects, spiders and small birds, especially in late winter and early spring when most insects are yet to hatch.
Many insect species, including the Murray Mallee matchstick, have likely persisted in remnant reserves. Conserving and managing these small, and often overlooked, areas is one way to help rare critters thrive.
Ary Hoffmann receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
Michael Kearney receives funding from The Australian Research Council.
