Abstract
Whether in water or on land, any environment provides suites of resources that insects may exploit. Those resources most commonly vary across space and time (both seasonally and in the longer term of more permanent change), as does the suitability of the host environment, and differ markedly in kind, amount, and how they can be reached and used. From an entomological perspective, diversity and amount of resources (including plants and animals as consumables, with suggestions that limits to the variety available may be imposed by climate and space) is associated with insect diversity.
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Further Reading
(The following are key references to enlarge on some of the insect groups used as examples in this chapter)
Andersen AN (1990) The use of ant communities to evaluate changes in Australian terrestrial ecosystems: a review and a recipe. Proc Ecol Soc Aust 16:347–357
Crespi BJ, Morris DC, Mound LA (2004) Evolution of ecological and behavioural diversity. Australian Acacia thrips as model organisms. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra
Greenslade PJM (1978) Ants. In: Low WA (ed) The physical and biological features of Kunnoth Paddock in Central Australia. Technical Paper no. 4. CSIRO Division of Land Resources, Canberra, pp 109–113
Greenslade P (2006) The invertebrates of Macquarie Island (with Insecta by Rieks Dekker van Klinken and Penelope Greenslade). Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart
Hollis D (2004) Australian Psylloidea: jumping plant lice and lerp insects. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra
Majer JD, Shattuck SO, Andersen AN, Beattie AJ (2004) Australian ant research: fabulous fauna, functional groups, pharmaceuticals and the Fatherhood. Aust J Entomol 43:235–247 (background to ant studies, including functional groups definition and applications)
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New, T.R. (2011). Insect Communities. In: ‘In Considerable Variety’: Introducing the Diversity of Australia’s Insects. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1780-0_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1780-0_8
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