Session

The bush cricket, Saga pedo, currently listed as Vulnerable globally by the IUCN and included in Annex IV of the European Union Habitats Directive, is a parthenogenetic species, highly sensitivity to environmental changes and thus facing threats due to the expansion and encroachment of forests as well as the intensification of agriculture. Indeed, S. pedo prefers dry and open habitats with sparse vegetation, and due to its pronounced thermophily and heliophily, it occurs in xerothermic patches, thereby establishing itself as a primary insect indicator of these habitats. Semi-natural grasslands are highly fragmented in many areas of Italy, including the Northern Apennines (Piedmont, Italy) where we carried out this study. Here, open habitats have been reduced to small and isolated patches surrounded by forests due to the abandonment of agropastoral activities such as mowing and extensive grazing. Consequently, the occurrence of open habitat-species in these territories is related to the quality and availability of suitable areas, as well as ecological connectivity between the remaining open patches. To identify areas of occurrence for the predatory bush cricket, S. pedo, we applied spatial site occupancy models and then used the inverse of the resulting probability of occurrence to derive ecological corridors among suitable patches for this species. In conclusion, given the risk of extinction S. pedo is facing in our study area, we urgently advocate the intervention of local administrations and managers to maintain and possibly improve suitable areas for conservation and guarantee the network of ecological corridors, identified in our research.