Associations Between Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionidea) and Plants, and Conservation Values in Two Tussock Grasslands, Otago, New Zealand
Ecosystem level processes and species interactions have become important concepts in conservation and land management. Despite being New Zealand’s greatest contributors to global diversity, native invertebrates have been largely overlooked in the assessment of land values, and their diversity has often been assumed to reflect native plant diversity without justification. Invertebrates can in fact affect plant species composition, and in ecosystems such as New Zealand’s remaining indigenous and semi-modified tussock grasslands can do so in excess of more conspicuous vertebrate grazers.