The Importance of Orthoptera in Ecosystems

Getting to know Orthoptera

We would like to highlight this occasion the importance of Orthopterans in ecosystems. Orthoptera are a very heterogeneous group that mainly comprises medium to large terrestrial insects, generally known as grasshoppers (Do you recommend this other POST), locusts and crickets, as well as other groups that don't have common names. In the Iberian Peninsula, there are a series of unique climatic and ecological conditions that allow the presence of abundant and varied orthopterofauna, with more than 350 species, among which a large number of endemic species appear.

Features

They generally have elongated bodies, with a rounded head followed by a thorax that may in some cases be smaller than the head. The rounded abdomen with very visible segments, on which we find the wings folded and stored inside hardened structures to protect them, known as tegmines.

However, the main characteristic of this group is the presence of modified rear legs, developed to be able to move by jumping. Often linked to the presence of homochromy and mimicry, resembling the environment in which they are found. All these characteristics have allowed it to adapt to a large number of different ecosystems, becoming a large group of insects, with around 19,000 species distributed all over the world except in aquatic and marine habitats.

Bioindicators

Orthopterans are phytophagous insects with a chewing oral apparatus, feeding mainly on plant material. These insects have an incomplete metamorphosis, with their juvenile forms having the same diet as adult forms.

From an ecological point of view, they show quite a few differences depending on the different groups that make up the order. There are species that are markedly hygrophilous to those that are clearly xerophilous, as well as species with nocturnal habits and others that are preferably daytime.

Some species that are closely linked to very specific environmental conditions, both weather and the presence of a certain specific vegetation to which they are linked by their diet. All this means that they are a group that has a very high value in terms of their use as indicators of the state of the environment and whose study can indicate the change of environmental conditions towards different systems or the presence of disturbances. Hence the importance of orthopterans in ecosystems.

Orthoptera can be used as bioindicators of environmental quality, especially in areas with low or moderate anthropogenic impact, thus being useful for knowing the conservation status of the habitats in which they are found and acting in some systems even as pollinators.

Finally, their importance in systems also lies in the fact that they are prey to a large number of predators, both vertebrates and invertebrates, and are generally found at the base of the food chains of almost all the ecosystems they inhabit. Among their predators are steppe birds such as the bustard (Otis tarda) whose diet, in addition to being based on vegetables, sprouts and seeds, features grasshoppers and crickets during the summer and spring periods.

The expansion of knowledge of entomological biodiversity is fundamental in the Iberian Peninsula, because of its morphological and climatic characteristics, it houses very diverse ecosystems in the geographical area it occupies, giving it a high interest in the studies of orthopterans and above all their influence on ecosystems.