Abstract
The species composition and community structure of the acridoid fauna in selected habitats of a moist deciduous forest in India were studied over the course of a year. The habitats represented a range of anthropogenic disturbances, including an undisturbed site, a naturally recovering site (deforested and replanted 20 yr earlier), a moderately disturbed site (lightly grazed by cattle), and a severely disturbed site (artificially reforested and heavily grazed by livestock). The former three study sites were mixed forests, dominated by Shorea robusta Gaertn.f. and Mallotus philippinensis Muell- Arg., and the latter site was a plantation of Tectona grandis Linn. F. The sites supported a total of nine species of Acrididae and Pyrgomorphidae. Oxya velox Fabr. Cantantops humilis humilis Serv., and Atractomorpha crenulata Fabr. were the most abundant species, representing 17 to 27% of the total number of individuals collected. With respect to potential indicator species, 93 to 100% of Tylotropidius varicornis Walk., Eupropocnemis alacris S., and Chrotogonous trychypterus Bl. were found only in the sites that were not currently disturbed. Conversely, in the disturbed habitats, 0. velox and A. crenulata were ca. 1.7 times more abundant than in the other sites. The diversity, evenness and richness of the sites tracked the intensity of disturbance, the greatest values being associated with the undisturbed site, followed by the naturally recovering site, the moderately disturbed site, and the severely disturbed site. The undisturbed site had the greatest acridoid abundance, while the other sites supported less than one-third as many grasshoppers. In all ecological measures, the effects of disturbance were much greater than the changes associated with seasonality. Thus, it appears that grasshopper communities are sensitive to anthropogenic disturbance, and the community structure of acridoids may be a viable diagnostic tool in assessing environmental conditions.
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