Conservation parks don’t have to be vast – as one tiny grasshopper reminds us

Michael Kearney A vast stretch of land where animals roam widely and plants grow freely.

That’s what most people would picture if they thought of a conservation area.

Such places are vital for protecting large animals and entire ecosystems.

They make managing environmental threats , such as fire and weed invasions, much easier.

However, some parts of Australia simply don’t have the space to support a large conservation area.

This is particularly true in agricultural regions .

In the cropping country of northwestern Victoria, for example, remnant reserves may only cover less than 100 hectares.

These smaller reserves are often undervalued and overlooked .

However, our latest research reveals these remnant areas can be critical to the survival of smaller plants and animals.

Meet the matchstick grasshopper Our recent study took a closer look at grasshoppers in western Victoria.

We rediscovered a formerly undescribed species of the Keyacris genus of grasshoppers, which includes the threatened Key’s matchstick .

We named the new species as the Murray Mallee matchstick ( Keyacris bungunnia ) because it lives around the region where an old megalake, Lake Bungunnia , existed during the Pleistocene era.

The Murray Mallee matchstick likely hopped about on its shores.

Matchstick grasshoppers, named for their distinctive stick-like appearance, are unique to Australia .