“Here in the South, our grasslands are where most of our, a huge part of our biodiversity are. And most people don't even know that we have natural grasslands in the Southeast…but they were some of the first things to be developed because they were already open. You didn't have to clear them…And so they were lost early on. And all we have now are these small little fragments. Within the last, I'll say seven years now, I've described close to 40 new species of grasshoppers, if we include these seven, from the southeast alone. And 34 of them, probably 35, are grassland inhabitants. So we almost, you know, we're in danger of losing all these species before we even knew they existed. Right here in our backyard in Eastern North America. You think, you know, oh, it's North America. We know, you know, most everything here. Well, we don't.”
In this episode, Dr. JoVonn Hill pulls us headfirst into the world of grasshopper research as he tells us about collecting in central Texas. He shares his thoughts on what accessibility in publications can look like, the unique role of scientific illustration, and advises us on the importance of an afternoon Dairy Queen break.
JoVonn’s paper “Diversification deep in the heart of Texas: seven new grasshopper species and establishment of the Melanoplus discolor species group (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Melanoplinae)” is in issue 1165 of Zookeys.
It can be found here: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1165.104047
New Species:
Melanoplus nelsoni - Nelson’s pouncer
Melanoplus walkeri - Walker’s pouncer
Melanoplus susdentatus - Hog-toothed pouncer
Melanoplus balcones - Balcones pouncer
Melanoplus corniculatus - Antlered pouncer
Melanoplus comanche - Comanche pouncer
Melanoplus tonkawa - Tonkawa pouncer
Episode image courtesy of JoVonn Hill
Follow JoVonn on Twitter: @JoVonnH
Mississippi State Moth Photographers Group: https://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/
Grasshoppers of North America: Volume 1 and Volume 2
A transcript of this episode can be found here: JoVonn Hill - Transcript
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