Dynamics of Reintroduced Populations of Oedipoda caerulescens (Orthoptera, Acrididae) over 21 Years.

Conservation programs increasingly involve the reintroduction of animals which otherwise would not recolonize restored habitats. We assessed the long-term success of a project in which the Blue-winged grasshopper, Oedipoda caerulescens (L., 1758), was reintroduced to a nature reserve in Northwestern Switzerland, an alluvial gravel area where the species went extinct in the 1960s.

Short-term responses of plants and invertebrates to experimental small-scale grassland fragmentation.

The fragmentation of natural habitats is generally considered to be a major threat to biodiversity. We investigated short-term responses of vascular plants (grasses and forbs) and four groups of invertebrates (ants, butterflies, grasshoppers and gastropods) to experimental fragmentation of calcareous grassland in the north-western Jura mountains, Switzerland. Three years after the initiation of fragmentation - which was created and maintained by mowing the area between the fragments - we compared species richness, diversity and composition of the different groups and the abundance of single species in fragments of different size (area: 20.