Investigating changes in Auchenorrhyncha (Hemiptera) communities in Illinois prairies over 25 years

The global decline of insects has become a prominent area of research over the past decade, with studies agreeing that insect populations are declining due to human-mediated processes including habitat destruction and climate change. Within the current available literature, there is a bias towards charismatic taxa and many studies measure change at a broad scale (i.e., overall abundance, biomass) which does not account for changes in individual species including extinctions and introductions. To address some of the limitations in the existing literature, this study aimed to assess the status of an understudied group, Auchenorrhyncha (Hemiptera), in Illinois prairies. To achieve this, I sampled four areas of remnant prairie in Illinois from 2022 to 2024 that were previously sampled from 1995 to 1999 to document species-level changes in Auchenorrhyncha communities that occurred between the two sampling periods. I found that total species richness did not change at most study sites, while abundance decreased at almost all sites. Only communities at sites that were not intensively managed between the sampling periods changed significantly, while communities at sites that were intensively managed by prescribed fire did not change significantly. Across all sites, there were decreases in richness and abundance of species that are sensitive to disturbance such as those in the leafhopper subfamily Deltocephalinae and increases in richness and abundance of species that are tolerant or adapted to disturbance such as those in the leafhopper subfamily Typhlocybinae. My findings emphasize the need for robust long-term, species-level data when studying changes in insect populations.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Entomology

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Brown, Morgan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dietrich, Christopher H
• Berenbaum, May R
• Molano-Flores, Brenda

• Entomology
• Insect decline
• Conservation
• Biodiversity

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Morgan Brown

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129287

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129287