New data on the “silver-bell cricket” (Orthoptera, Gryllidae), a forgotten and overlooked cricket subject to a high risk of extinction in western Europe

Abstract

Gryllodinus kerkennensis (Finot, 1893) presents a disjunct distribution in the Southern part of the Western Palearctic from North Africa up to Central Asia inhabiting arid, semidesert or desert land mostly associated with saline soils near water sources of lagoons or river beds depressions. The species was not recorded in Western Europe (Iberian Peninsula) since 1936 and up to now it is currently excluded from all red list books for Orthopteran conservation. In this paper we report a few and localised populations of this cricket in Castilla-La Mancha inhabiting sandy shores of hiper-saline lagoons. We also provide information on its biometrics, phenology, ecology and behaviour including data of all collection specimens of the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN). Because of its audible and particular song, we propose campaigns of night listening points to search for this species in other potential sites where it could be present. We believe that this species may be subject to a high risk of extinction in the Iberian Peninsula, and thus in the whole Western Europe. This is because of their restricted populations and the fragility of its specific habitat. We propose an urgent integral protection and the inclusion of the species in the lists of highly endangered invertebrate species.

Discordant patterns of genetic and phenotypic differentiation in five grasshopper species codistributed across a microreserve network

“…Rh and Cb) species among those that have experienced a considerable fragmentation of their respective habitats, and (iii) focus future research efforts on other taxa that may be affected by similar threats to those species with which they share similar habitats and life history traits and that have been identified to be more vulnera-ble (e.g. low-mobility species linked to hypersaline lowlands; Cordero & Llorente 2008). In view of our results, we suggest that biodiversity conservation in networks of protected areas requires detailed ecological and evolutionary information on several taxa with different habitat requirements and life history traits to identify target species that are more sensitive to the effects of habitat fragmentation and would gain more benefits from management practices aimed to improve population connectivity, increase the size and quality of appropriate habitat within each fragment, and maintain the idiosyncratic evolutionary trajectories of those populations presenting strong local adaptations (Rouget et al 2006;Ouborg et al 2010;Habel & Schmitt 2012;Habel et al 2013).…”

“…To address this question, we used as a study system an assemblage of five grasshopper species codistributed across a singular microreserve network located in Central Spain (Figs 1 and 2). The study sites have been protected in recent years due to their unique plant and animal communities associated with their characteristic saline/hypersaline lagoons and lowlands (Cirujano-Bracamonte & Medina-Domingo 2002;Cordero et al 2007;Cordero & Llorente 2008). Although the patchy distribution of these inland saline environments is mostly the result of natural and historical processes, land clearing for agriculture has strongly contributed to their increased fragmentation and the destruction of many other natural habitats of the region such as esparto grass formations (Ortego et al 2012a(Ortego et al , 2015.…”

Using high-throughput sequencing to investigate the factors structuring genomic variation of a Mediterranean grasshopper of great conservation concern

“…crassiusculus should be focused on the preservation of areas with sensitive habitat occupied by the main lineages and units delineated by our genomic analyses. These should include the control of negative human interventions and the monitoring of local populations, actions that could also benefit other co-distributed and poorly-known species with similar ecological requirements and fragmented populations linked to gypsum and salt steppes of the Iberian Peninsula 7 , 10 , 27 , 66 , 67 . Given the extremely low number and size of extant populations of the species, ex-situ conservation plans and reintroduction/translocations programmes in restored habitats could help to reduce the chances of species/lineage extinction 68 , 69 .…”

Influence of grazing on populations of the specialist grasshopper Mioscirtus wagneri inhabiting hypersaline habitats in La Mancha Region, Central Spain

“…The estimate of droppings is even more important in our study if we consider that inland hypersaline habitats of M. wagneri are, by extension, shared by many macroinvertebrate species of great conservation interest within territories of high conservation concern. These include rare and fragmented taxa adapted to salinity, endemics dependent on salted soils, halophilous vegetation, or terrestrial steppic macroinvertebrates that find refuge from agriculture in these hypersaline ecosystems (Williams 1973, Ribera and Blasco-Zumeta 1998, Ribera 2000, Martín-Herrero et al 2003, Abellán et al 2005, Cordero et al 2007a, Cordero and Llorente 2008, Pichaco-García and Ramos 2016).…”