Environments and Habitat for Insects in Australia

Abstract

‘Places to live’ can be considered at various scales, from broad biogeographical regions extending over thousands of kilometres, to part of a single small plant or individual animal host. Those scales form a hierarchy, so that an environment for any given insect can be considered as a series spanning these extremes, with each subordinate level representing increased specificity and ecological specialisation. One leading European ecologist recently used the apposite simile of the Russian matrioschka dolls to illustrate this, with each successive doll inside a larger one representing finer detail of need but still depending on the protection of the enveloping covers.