Short-horned orthopterans (Orthoptera, Caelifera) of the forest zones of the Amur Basin in Russia and of the lowlands of Ukraine

The taxonomic structure and composition of life  forms of Caelifera (Orthoptera) of the forest zones of the lowlands of Ukraine and of the Amur Basin in the Russian Far East are analysed. In both regions, the short-horned orthopterans are represented by almost the same families, subfamilies and tribes, and the numbers of genera and species are also similar. Twenty genera (45 %) and 14 species (16 %) are found in both forest zones of Ukraine and the Amur Basin in Russia. The formation of the fauna of these orthopterans in both forest zones was dependent upon the maximum glaciation of these areas in the Pleistocene. The broad-leaved forest zone of Ukraine and the forest zone in the Amur Basin in Russia are located south of the ice sheet boundary and have a relatively rich orthopteran fauna with a more vividly manifested «forest-like» appearance. The Caeliferan fauna of Ukrainian Polissia, covered by an ice sheet in Pleistocene, lost its «forest» appearance and is composed of invasive species from the southern areas. The number of phytophilous species exceeds the geophilous ones threefold in the forest zones of both Ukraine and the Amur Basin in Russia. The similar ratio of life forms and low species similarity in both regions seems to be an obvious example of ecological parallelism, when in the areas with similar
landscape structures, different faunas are formed with differing species composition, but with similar types of the occupied ecological niches