公園緑地におけるバッタ類の微視的生息場所選択

Abstract

For seven species of grasshoppers, air temperature and substrate on which grasshoppers settled, and distance from ground level to the site on which grasshoppers settled were investigated in four grassy spaces with different vegetation coverage, vegetation height and predominant plant species, to clarify environmental factors which affect inhabitation of grasshoppers in grassy space of park. All the seven species of grasshoppers investigated are not monophagous, but oligophagous or polyphagous. Generally, air temperature of site where Atractomorpha late settled seemed to be lowest, followed by Acrida cinerea antennate, and Aiolopus thalassinus tamulus. Gastrimargus marmoratus, Locusta migratoria, and Chorthippus bigutturus maritimus settled on the sites near earth surface, and air temperature near the sites was relatively high. Atractomorpha late and Acrida cinerea antennate inhabited higher places of the grassy place where vegetation coverage was high, and Trilophidia japonica settled only the earth surface of the grassy place where the vegetation coverage was lower. It was suggested that the grasshopper regulates its body temperature by changing stationary position. Therefore the air temperature and the vegetation structure should be important environmental factors of the grasshopper habitats, because they might constrain a certain body temperature and stationary position of the grasshoppers.