Grasshopper (Orthoptera: Caelifera)
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University of Texas at El Paso DigitalCommons@UTEP Open Access Theses & Dissertations 2017-01-01 Grasshopper (orthoptera: Caelifera) And Plant Community Relationships On Indio Mountains Research Station, Hudspeth County, Texas Sara Ebrahim Baqla University of Texas at El Paso, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd Part of the Biology Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, and the Entomology Commons Recommended Citation Baqla, Sara Ebrahim, "Grasshopper (orthoptera: Caelifera) And Plant Community Relationships On Indio Mountains Research Station, Hudspeth County, Texas" (2017). Open Access Theses & Dissertations. 604. https://digitalcommons.utep.edu/open_etd/604 This is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UTEP. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UTEP. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GRASSHOPPER (ORTHOPTERA: CAELIFERA) AND PLANT COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS ON INDIO MOUNTAINS RESEARCH STATION, HUDSPETH COUNTY, TEXAS SARA EBRAHIM BAQLA Master’s Program in Biological Sciences APPROVED: Jerry D. Johnson, Ph.D., Chair Jennie R. McLaren, Ph.D. Shaun Mahoney, M.M. Charles Ambler, Ph.D. Dean of the Graduate School Copyright © by Sara Ebrahim Baqla 2017 Dedication I would like to dedicate this project and defense to my mother, Diana Caudillo. GRASSHOPPER (ORTHOPTERA: CAELIFERA) AND PLANT COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIPS ON INDIO MOUNTAINS RESEARCH STATION, HUDSPETH COUNTY, TEXAS by SARA EBRAHIM BAQLA, B.S. THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at El Paso in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE Departments of Biological Sciences THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO May 2017 Acknowledgements I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Jerry Johnson for allowing me to study grasshoppers in a herpetology lab. The scrumptious meals and late night hangs at Indio were much needed and greatly appreciated. Thanks are also due to Dr. Jennie McLaren whose guidance and advice were essential for the completion of this project. I would also like to acknowledge and give thanks to Shaun Mahoney for being my outside committee member. His words of encouragement pushed me to finish. I would like to especially thank Julie Schlichte who was my tent mate in the summer of 2015. We learned so much in the field and spent countless hours catching beetles, ants, spiders and grasshoppers. I wish her the best and I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for her. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Israel Del Toro for giving me the opportunity to travel and work in the field. I gained valuable knowledge and experience that I would otherwise have not been able to get anywhere else. Dr. William Mackay provided fantastic advice and valuable resources for grasshopper identification. Dr. Walsh led me to Dr. Xiogang Su and Dr. Soyoung Jeon who were an immense help with statistical analysis. I wish to extend my deepest gratitude to you. Lastly, I am grateful for everyone in Dr. Johnson’s herpetology lab: Julia Alva, Vicente Mata-Silva, Dominic DeSantis, James Emerson, Kayla Garza and Guillermo Alvarez. v Abstract An ecogeographic analysis of a grasshopper survey was conducted at eight sites on Indio Mountains Research Station (IMRS) in the Chihuahuan Desert during September 2014 through December 2015. Five sites contained ephemeral water sources (earthen tanks), one had perennial water (spring system), and two were open desert. A total of 23 grasshopper species were identified, and six of those were new records for the property. The most species rich site was Echo Tank, with 14 grasshopper species. A UPGMA dendrogram showed Red Tank and Rattlesnake Tank, both wetland sites, to be the most similar (CBR = .84). A poisson model was applied to identify any relationships of temperature, precipitation, vegetation and seasonal patterns between the monsoon and dry season, and between years. The model of species count showed significance for three grasshopper species (p<.03), vegetation coverage among seven grasshopper species (p<.009), and seasonality patterns found in four species (p<.02). Information on variation and spatial pattern of grasshopper biodiversity on IMRS, will allow future studies to compare grasshopper diversity in response to grassland and shrubland ecosystems in an ever increasing arid environment. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................v Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vi Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. ix List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................x Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 Materials and Methods .....................................................................................................................5 Study Sites ..............................................................................................................................5 Squaw Spring .................................................................................................................5 Rattlesnake Tank ............................................................................................................5 Mesquite Tank ...............................................................................................................7 Echo Tank ......................................................................................................................7 Red Tank ........................................................................................................................7 Lonely Tank ...................................................................................................................8 Woodpecker Well ..........................................................................................................8 Oak Arroyo ..................................................................................................................10 Data Collection .....................................................................................................................10 Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................10 Results ............................................................................................................................................13 Sampling Effort .....................................................................................................................13 Grasshopper Richness and Abundance .................................................................................18 Seasonal Abundance Patterns ...............................................................................................18 Plant Composition and Structure ..........................................................................................23 Grasshopper and Vegetation Species Patterns ......................................................................24 Comparison of Survey Sites - Grasshoppers ........................................................................28 Discussion ......................................................................................................................................31 Sampling Effort .....................................................................................................................31 Grasshopper Richness and Abundance .................................................................................31 Seasonal Abundance Patterns ...............................................................................................32 vii Plant Composition and Structure ..........................................................................................33 Grasshopper and Vegetation Species Patterns ......................................................................33 Comparison of Survey Sites - Grasshoppers ........................................................................34 Future Directions ..................................................................................................................34 Works Cited ...................................................................................................................................37 Vita 41 viii List of Tables Table 1 – Grasshopper species records for the eight survey sites used in this study. An X denotes that the grasshopper species was present. Species in bold are new account records for the property. ........................................................................................................................................ 14 Table 2 – Total number of sampling event, actual and estimated grasshopper species richness and Shannon’s Diversity index per site. .............................................................................................