A vast stretch of land where animals roam widely and plants grow freely. That\u2019s what most people would picture if they thought of a conservation area.<\/p>\n
Such places are vital<\/a> for protecting large animals and entire ecosystems. They make managing environmental threats<\/a>, such as fire and weed invasions, much easier.<\/p>\n However, some parts of Australia simply don\u2019t have the space to support a large conservation area. This is particularly true in agricultural regions<\/a>. In the cropping country of northwestern Victoria, for example, remnant reserves<\/a> may only cover less than 100 hectares.<\/p>\n These smaller reserves are often undervalued and overlooked<\/a>. However, our latest research<\/a> reveals these remnant areas can be critical to the survival of smaller plants and animals. <\/p>\n Meet the matchstick grasshopper<\/p>\n Our recent study<\/a> took a closer look at grasshoppers in western Victoria. We rediscovered a formerly undescribed species of the Keyacris genus of grasshoppers, which includes the threatened Key\u2019s matchstick<\/a>. <\/p>\n We named the new species as the Murray Mallee matchstick (Keyacris bungunnia) because it lives around the region where an old megalake, Lake Bungunnia<\/a>, existed during the Pleistocene era. The Murray Mallee matchstick likely hopped about on its shores.<\/p>\n Matchstick grasshoppers, named for their distinctive stick-like appearance, are unique to Australia<\/a>. The roughly 250 related species are found in many habitats<\/a> across the country, including desert and mulga scrubland, eucalyptus woodland and grassy plains. Far from being pests, these native grasshoppers are a natural part of Australian landscapes, feeding on native plants and supporting local food webs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our latest study, led by student Kim Kaufmann, mapped the distribution of this grasshopper species across several sites. Our findings suggest each population was genetically distinct from the others. <\/p>\n Given matchstick grasshoppers don\u2019t have wings<\/a> even when fully grown, they don\u2019t typically travel far from where they are born. But in places with continuous habitat, they can spread slowly over generations. <\/p>\n Research shows one species reached northern Tasmania<\/a> from Victoria while another travelled 2,200 kilometres across the Nullarbor Plain<\/a> on the way from Kalgoorlie to Broken Hill.<\/p>\n As landscapes become increasingly fragmented, environmental threats such as fire or overgrazing during drought could wipe out whole populations<\/a>. This is particularly dangerous for animals like the Murray Mallee matchstick that don\u2019t have wings or any other way of shifting to other places.<\/p>\n High quality habitat<\/p>\n There\u2019s a flip side to our findings. <\/p>\n Finding a matchstick grasshopper in a small, remnant reserve could indicate you have stumbled across high quality habitat, home to other vulnerable species.<\/p>\n For example, one of our Murray Mallee matchstick sites was later discovered to support the largest known population of the threatened Eltham copper butterfly<\/a> (Paralucia pyrodiscus lucida). Many of these insects are poorly studied<\/a>, even when they play a crucial role in our local ecosystems<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, these valuable remnant reserves are typically overlooked in conservation efforts and are often poorly managed<\/a>, overrun by weeds or even covered with rubbish<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fortunately, conserving these areas for vulnerable animals doesn\u2019t have to be expensive or complex. Grasshoppers can survive<\/a> as long as food plants are available, even in small patches of suitable habitat. For instance, translocated populations of the Larapuna grasshopper (Vandiemenella viatica) have surged at several revegetated sites<\/a> near Melbourne. <\/p>\n Most recently, scientists have successfully introduced<\/a> the threatened Key\u2019s matchstick grasshopper into the Euroa arboretum in northeast Victoria.<\/p>\n