“…Tropical mountains are not only hot spots of biodiversity and endemism (Körner & Spehn, ; Mittermeier, Turner, Larsen, Brooks, & Gascon, ; Myers, Mittermeiers, Mittermeier, da Fonseca, & Kent, ) but also evolutionary cradles, accumulating neo‐endemics as has been suggested for many tropical regions (Merckx et al., ) as well as on the East African mountains—particularly in their forest belts (Hemp, Kehl, Schultz, Wägele, & Hemp, ; Schwery et al., ). Climatic fluctuations on East African mountains over the past few 1–2 million years were the motor for the high biodiversity in Orthoptera in the area (Hemp, Grzywacz, Warchałowska‐Śliwa, & Hemp, ; Hemp, Kehl, Heller, Wägele, & Hemp, , ; Hemp, Heller et al., , ) connecting and isolating forest habitats and thus enabling a spread of forest dependent taxa or boosting speciation through isolation. During the last glacial maximum (LGM), East African vegetation now classed as montane was wider ranging at lower elevations (Schüler, Hemp, Zech, & Behling, ; Van Zinderen Bakker & Clark, ).…”