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Evaluating tree wētā (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae: Hemideina species) as bioindicators for New Zealand national biodiversity monitoring

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Abstract

Indicator taxa are increasingly being used to evaluate the natural environment because they provide both quantified and simplified information about complex phenomena and because they result in huge cost savings compared with monitoring entire biotas. In this paper, we examine the suitability of an iconic New Zealand invertebrate, the tree wētā (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae: Hemideina species), as a bioindicator for invertebrates under a national biodiversity monitoring scheme in New Zealand. Tree wētā are common and widespread in New Zealand, comprising a distinctive component of the native invertebrate fauna, being large-bodied (up to 40 mm in length), relatively long-lived, flightless, and nocturnal. Arboreal tree wētā species are commonly monitored in conservation areas containing scrub or forest, particularly after mammal control, because they can be easily monitored using artificial roosts without harming them and they are readily identified by field workers. We evaluated whether data supported the use of tree wētā as a range of bioindicators for such monitoring and conclude that the arboreal species are good indicators for monitoring the effects of controlling the abundance of insectivorous mammals and that they are likely to be reliable population indicators of taxa sensitive to mammalian predation pressure, especially by rodents. However, it is unlikely that arboreal tree wētā are useful population indicators of habitat change (e.g. degradation and fragmentation) as they commonly survive in exotic vegetation and urban gardens throughout New Zealand. Although poorly studied for indicator value, tree wētā may not be good biodiversity indicators although there are insufficient data to establish this. We recommend further research be undertaken to develop standardised methods for monitoring so that conservation managers and researchers produce results that are consistent and comparable across different locations.

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Acknowledgements

This review was originally done for a Landcare Research contract report (LC2362) prepared for and funded by the New Zealand Department of Conservation. Its metamorphosis into a paper was supported by a writing scholarship funded by MBIE Core Funds to Landcare Research. We thank Kate McNutt (Department of Conservation) for her discussion on DOC’s Tier 1 national monitoring programme and her constructive review of the report. John Early (Auckland War Memorial Museum), Ricardo Palma and Phil Sirvid (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa), Cor Vink and Matthew Shaw (Canterbury Museum) kindly provided locality data for tree wētā specimens in the collections they manage used in Fig. 1. Steve Trewick and Mary Morgan-Richards (Massey University) generously provided distributional data included in Fig. 1. We thank Danny Thornburrow who helped collect the Mahoenui giant wētā data and for the photo of a wētā in Fig. 1, and thanks to Robbie Price for preparing Fig. 1. George Gibbs, William Lee, Anne Austin, James Pryke and two anonymous reviewers provided useful comments that improved this manuscript.

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  1. Landcare Research, Private Bag 3127, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Corinne Watts & John Innes

  2. Department of Conservation, P O Box 10420, Wellington, New Zealand

    Ian Stringer

  3. Department of Conservation, P O Box 5244, Dunedin, 9058, New Zealand

    Joanne M. Monks

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  1. Corinne Watts
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  4. Joanne M. Monks
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Correspondence to Corinne Watts.

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Watts, C., Stringer, I., Innes, J. et al. Evaluating tree wētā (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae: Hemideina species) as bioindicators for New Zealand national biodiversity monitoring. J Insect Conserv 21, 583–598 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-017-9997-8

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