Lowland Insects and Their Environments: Non-forest Habitats

Abstract

In the last chapter we noted the importance of alpine grasslands and herbfields as insect habitats, with a substantial number of localised high elevation insects depen­ding on these resources, and sometimes being seasonally abundant in what may generally be low-competition environments. Considerably greater variety of grasslands and allied ‘open vegetation’ habitats occurs at lower elevations, and these – ranging from grasslands and herbfields and others with little or limited tree cover, are considered here. These open systems each have ecological peculiarities and insects that are restricted to them, or predominantly found there. Clearly, they also intergrade with more woody systems, so that biotopes such as mallee and open grassy woodlands are in many ways intermediates between grassland and forest – and their characteristic insects also encompass that breadth of variety. Many of these vegetation types are geographically circumscribed. But, as the major entomological contrasts are with the true forest-dependent insects, it is perhaps sensible to consider them together here and to exemplify some of the features they have in common. Forest insects are discussed in the next chapter.