Who is jumping in a Serbian bog? – Orthopteran fauna of the Vlasina region

Abstract

Vlasina Plateau is a highland bog situated in the mountains of southeastern Serbia, close to the border with Bulgaria. From a conservation point of view, bogs are one of the most important habitats and they are considered as threatened all across Europe. As the Orthopteran fauna of southern European bogs has not been studied in detail, we decided to make an inventory of grasshoppers and bush-crickets of Vlasina region. During eight years (2012 to 2019) of orthopterological study, 63 species were recorded at Vlasina Plateau. Interesting findings are those of Balkan Field Grasshopper (Chorthippus bornhalmi) and Bures’ Bush-cricket (Isophya bureschi) recently reported as first for Serbia, as well as regionally rare Serbian Pygmy Bush-cricket (Anterastes serbicus), Domogled Meadow Bush-cricket (Broughtonia domogledi), Short-winged Cone-head (Conocephalus dorsalis), Club-legged Grasshopper (Gomphocerus sibiricus), Fieber’s Walking Bush-cricket (Psorodonotus fieberi) and Pygmy Toothed Grasshopper (Stenobothrus crassipes). In addition, we provided new distributional and bioacoustic data for Poecilimon pseudornatus and I. bureschi.