Recently, we unveiled an article detailing a comprehensive dataset of historical grasshopper occurrences in Australia. This dataset, compiled from field notebooks, forms a chapter of my PhD thesis. Through this research, we were able to recover 8975 geographic coordinates for 477 distinct species of grasshoppers found in Australia. For more information on the background and methodology of this study, please refer to our original article and the associated blog post in Unimelb Pursuit.

Grasshoppers in Australia are infamous for their periodic outbreaks, historically wreaking havoc on agricultural systems. From 1936 to 1989, the eminent entomologist Kenneth H.L. Key and his colleagues conducted extensive surveys along Australia’s vast road networks, meticulously documenting grasshopper species, their habitats, and associated plant communities. Their pioneering efforts created a foundational dataset for understanding the biogeography and ecology of these insects. Decades later, …