A review of the fauna and bionomics of grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acridoidea) of the Ciscaucasia

Abstract

Eighty six species of grasshoppers belonging to 11 subfamilies and 3 families are recorded for the Ciscaucasia. Paracinema tricolor (Charpentier, 1825), Stenobothrus stigmaticus (Rambur, 1838) and Omocestus minutus (Brullé, 1832) are recorded for the region for the first time. Limits of distribution in the region are established for Stenobothrus miramae and Acrotylus longipes, firstly recorded in 2016. The distribution of grasshoppers by the main physical-geographical areas of the Ciscaucasia is shown. The highest diversity of grasshoppers is registered for the Eastern Ciscaucasia, where 63 species are recorded, 20 ones (23.3% of the total number of species) of which were found only in the region, that indicates the faunistic specificity of the territory. Fifty four species of grasshoppers are recorded for the Central Ciscaucasia. High similarity of faunas in the Terek-Sunzha Hills and Mineralnye Vody laccoliths can be explained by the pervasion of mountain elements from the North Caucasus. High similarity of grasshopper faunas is observed also between different areas of the Western Ciscaucasia, where 45 species are registered. Life forms of grasshoppers, such as gramineous chortobionts (32 species, 37%), eremobions (18 species, 21%) and facultative chortobionts (17 species, 20%) are most abundantly represented in the Ciscaucasia. Grassfeeding chortobionts are observed exclusively in the Western Ciscaucasia, while psammobionts are distributed only in the Eastern Ciscaucasia. The number of geophils in the Ciscaucasia regularly increases from the west to the east with increasing landscape aridization. Eremippus opacus is the only endemic of the Ciscaucasia; Stenobothrus caucasicus is an endemic of the North Caucasus; Asiotmethis turritus and Nocarodes geniculatus are two subendemic species in the North Caucasus.

Keywords

• acridoidea
• grasshoppers
• fauna
• distribution
• life forms
• ciscaucasia