The Wart-biter used to be rather widespread and locally common on sandy soils in The Netherlands. In the course of the 20th century it has steadily decreased. From the coastal dunes it disappeared early this century, most inland populations vanished between 1950 and 1990. Now only three sites are known, mostly with relatively few individuals. The recently rediscovered population along a canal in the province of Noord-Brabant is currently the largest, but this also might be too small and isolated to guarantee survival of this species in the Netherlands. Its decline is not only due to a decrease of heath-land and poor grasslands, but also to a general deterioration of the quality of the vegetation, partly from acidification and nitrification. It is our most threatened orthopteran species, paralleling the situation in neighbouring countries. The extinction of the Wart-biter in the Netherlands and Western-Europe is, we fear, a matter of time.
Bron
Auteur(s)
Wingerden, W.K.R.E. van, Willemse, L.P.M., Nieukerken, E.J. van, Odé, B., Kleukers, R.M.J.C.
Publicatie
- Kleukers, R.M.J.C., E.J. van Nieukerken, B. Odé, L.P.M. Willemse & W.K.R.E. van Wingerden 1997. De sprinkhanen en krekels van Nederland (Orthoptera). Nederlandse Fauna 1: 1-415. Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum Naturalis, KNNV Uitgeverij, uropean Invertebrate Survey - Nederland.