Semi-natural grasslands in Japan have decreased due to management abandonment and urbanization over the last 100 years, but they remain in suburban areas in addition to rural areas. Because suburban grasslands have various land-use histories and disturbance regimes, plant and herbivorous insect communities are likely to differ among grassland types. To identify grasslands with high conservation value, we conducted a comprehensive survey of grasshoppers and plants in 150 grasslands with 5 grassland types differing in land-use history and current management in northern Chiba prefecture, Japan. We then analyzed the association of the distributions of grasshopper and plant species compositions. Our results showed that grasshoppers were classified into habitat specialists and generalists. Three out of four habitat specialists were almost exclusively found in semi-natural grasslands and vacant lots, while habitat generalists were commonly observed at the cropland margins. This habitat specialist–generalist distribution gradient corresponded well to that found in plant communities, which was probably due to current disturbance regimes. We suggest that vacant lots as well as semi-natural grasslands have high conservation value for grassland organisms of various taxa in suburban areas, and grasshoppers are candidate indicator species for monitoring grassland environments.

在过去的100年中，由于放弃管理和城市化，日本的半自然草原有所减少，但除农村地区外，它们仍留在郊区。由于郊区草原具有各种土地利用历史和干扰机制，因此植物和草食性昆虫群落可能在草原类型之间有所不同。为了确定具有高保护价值的草原，我们对日本千叶县北部的150种草原进行了调查，调查了5种草原类型，这些草原的土地利用历史和当前管理方式各不相同。然后，我们分析了蚱hopper的分布与植物物种组成的关联。我们的结果表明，蚱s分为栖息地专家和通才。四分之三的栖息地专家几乎完全是在半天然草原和空地上发现的，而栖息地通才专家通常在农田边缘被观察到。该生境专家-古生物学家的分布梯度与植物群落中的梯度非常吻合，这可能是由于当前的干扰机制所致。我们建议空置土地和半天然草地对郊区各种分类单元的草地生物具有较高的保护价值，而蚱hopper是监测草地环境的候选指示物种。这可能是由于当前的干扰制度所致。我们建议空置土地和半天然草地对郊区各种分类单元的草地生物具有较高的保护价值，而蚱hopper是监测草地环境的候选指示物种。这可能是由于当前的干扰制度所致。我们建议空置土地和半天然草地对郊区各种分类单元的草地生物具有较高的保护价值，而蚱hopper是监测草地环境的候选指示物种。