Abstract: In recent years, grasshopper pest occurred in large area and high density in hilly meadow steppe of Horqin plain, causing severe damage to the local animal husbandry. Based on the theories of guild structure in ecology, multi-gradients of grasshoppers feeding pattern and habitat selection were installed as the ecological indicators, and the grasshopper community composition and interspecific relationships in the hilly meadow steppe of Horqin plain were analyzed. Through cluster analysis, the grasshoppers in the steppe could be classified into six guilds, and there existed obvious differences in the habitat selection and biocompatibility among the guilds, indicating that diverse habitats provided a variety of living spaces for the grasshoppers. The environmental factors such as illumination and terrain and the biological characteristics of grasshopper played important roles in the distribution of the grasshoppers. To maximize the biological fitness, the grasshoppers in the steppe formed different resources utilization guilds. Three principal components were extracted from the ecological traits of the grasshoppers, and their cumulated contribution rate reached 82.91%. The representative biological information included the selection of ground substrate, feeding height, terrain, and sunlight regime. Due to the different degrees of habitat resources utilization, different grasshopper species presented diverse ecological niche breadths, and the similarity of habitat resources utilization decided the niche overlaps among the species.

Key words: urban landscape, ecological suitability, minimum cumulative resistance model, Zhuhai City.