Insects in the diet of turkestan ground-jay podoces Panderi ilensis Menzb. et Schnitn., 1915 in the Southern Balqash desert region, south-east Kazakhstan

The article deals with: the first case of appearance of Asiatic migratory locust Locusta migratoria migratoria in the habitats of Turkestan Ground-jay Podoces panderi ilensis Menzb. et Schnitn., 1915 and the fact that this birds found egg capsules of the Desert locust Caliptamus barbarus under a layer of snow and soil surface. It was concluded that Turkestan Ground-jay finding these representatives of Acrididae family Orthoptera order as a forage objects with the greatest probability and with almost 100% success in capturing the Asian migratory locust and accurately finding the location of Desert locust egg capsules, upon the available selectivity spectrum in selecting forage objects; in the winter period egg capsules of locust are one of the sources of animal protein’s forage for the Turkestan Ground-jay that can be found their even before the larvae of first age hatch in the second half of May and in June; for the first time it has been reported that adults of Turkestan Ground-jay can catch the imago of the Darkling beetle Platynotus excavatus.