Restoration of urban forest remnants is an increasing activity worldwide, but the effects of restoration efforts on local wildlife in urban remnants remain poorly understood. Understanding the benefits of restoration can also be confounded because of difficulties in monitoring the abundance of representative species, or understanding their ecological requirements.
Tree weta (Hemideina) are an important component of New Zealand forest ecosystems and have been identified as possible invertebrate indicator species in restoration programmes. We present designs for artificial weta roosts that have been used to monitor tree weta in Hawke's Bay for five years. A variety of invertebrates use the roosts including two species of Hemideina. Our data suggest that occupation of roosts may take a number of years, each roost monitors a very limited area, and that occupation by invertebrates fluctuates seasonally.
Two tree weta Hemideina ricta and H. femorata are predominantly allopatric on Banks Peninsula (South Island, New Zealand) except for four small areas of overlap. H. ricta was found over the outer eastern portion of Banks Peninsula including the eastern slopes of Akaroa Harbour whereas H. femorata was usually lower down on the eastern edge of Akaroa Harbour and west of this. H. ricta ranged from 20 m to 806 m in altitude whereas all H. femorata were found below 450 m. Ninety-four per cent of H.
A 20-year capture-recapture study of alpine grasshoppers spanned three distinct sequences of abundance, featuring in turn dis-equilibrium, equilibrium and secondary cyclic equilibrium. This succession of population patterns in the most abundant species, Paprides nitidus, retained high stability between generations. It arose via superimposed life- cycle pathways and adaptive responses between grasshopper phenologies and their environmental constraints.
In a polygynous mating system, males frequently compete by locating and defending sites with resources essential to female survival and reproduction. We investigated seasonal changes in site occupancy in a sexually dimorphic, harem-forming insect, the Auckland tree weta (Hemideina thoracica). First we established artificial cavities as diurnal refuge cavities and potential harem guarding sites.
