The Diversity and Abundance of Grasshopper Communities based on Differences Altitude in Malang Indonesia

The diversity of insects in general is influenced by the type of vegetation, climate, latitude, and altitude above sea level. One of the insects that can be easily found is grasshoppers. Areas with upland areas usually have lower locust diversity and abundance when compared to lowland areas. This research was conducted in 5 locations that were used as locust sampling sites in Malang district including Sumber Pujung sub-district (234-346), Bantur district (46-321) masl, Lawang sub-district (426-446) masl, Pujon sub-district (1184-1246) masl and Poncokususmo sub-district (1228-1482 masl). Each location was made 5 stations by making a transect line at each station with 3 replications. Grasshopper samples were collected using line transect and hand collecting methods with direct sampling using insect nets which were carried out at 09.00 WIB and 16.00 WIB. The abiotic factors observed included temperature, light intensity, wind speed and humidity, while the biotic factors observed in this study were plant vegetation at each station, and the presence of predators. Data were analyzed using species abundance analysis, Shannon Wiener index, evenness index, importance value index, dominance index and Jaccard similarity index to evaluate the proportion of the same species between sites and Biplot analysis to determine the Pearson correlation of each species to abiotic factors. The results showed that the abundance of grasshoppers at each location greatly influenced the elevation gradient. Meanwhile, the diversity of grasshoppers at each location shows moderate diversity. The correlation of grasshoppers with abiotic factors shows that the presence of grasshoppers is strongly influenced by wind speed and light intensity.