Can protected areas and habitats preserve the vulnerable Predatory bush cricket Saga pedo?

Abstract

Abstract Inconspicuous species challenge conservationists when it comes to delineate long-term conservation planning or assess their status, particularly when their actual distribution is poorly known. Invertebrates in particular feature among the less represented taxa in conservation assessments. Here we follow a multidisciplinary approach for assessing the conservation coverage and address future management of the threatened orthopteran Saga pedo across Europe, shedding light on its ecological preferences and associations with protected habitats at continental and regional scales. By developing species distribution models and assessing coverage by Natura2000 and Nationally Protected Areas networks, we found that only 31% of suitable areas is currently protected across Europe, a proportion significantly higher when using occurrences instead of potential range. At regional scale, we disclose that different legally-protected dry grassland habitats increase more the species’ suitability than non-protected grasslands, yet differently-listed habitats do not equally contribute to such increase i.e., not all habitats represent an effective tool for the species’ conservation. Taken together, our results provide an effective framework for addressing knowledge gaps and evaluate the conservation coverage not only of our target species, but more in general of poorly investigated species, at the same time pointing at the urgent need of transnational, coordinated, and increased efforts in monitoring and conserving insects, particularly in the case of threatened species.