Notes on the diversity and distribution of Australian Naididae and Phreodrilidae (Oligochaeta: Annelida)

This paper provides a summary of the diversity and distribution of Australian naidid and phreodrilid oligochaetes. As for other continents, the Australian naidid fauna consists mostly of cosmopolitan species, although there are indications of greater endemicity than currently recognised. While some naidids are widespread in Australia, others have a northern or a southern bias to their distribution, but few have been recorded in Tasmania. Many new records and species of Phreodrilidae have been documented since the review by Pinder & Brinkhurst (1997a) and these have allowed notions of phreodrilid zoogeography to be refined. The family is still considered particularly diverse in some temperate areas (Tasmania and the far south-west of Western Australia), but surprisingly few species are known from the temperate south-east mainland. Increasingly, new phreodrilid species are being collected from seasonal habitats on granite outcrops in the south-west and from refugial habitats (caves, groundwater and permanent river pools) in drier regions. A complete picture of oligochaete distributions will require much more work and patterns suggested by current data are presented here as hypotheses.     

Distorted perception of the spatial distribution of plant diversity through uneven collecting efforts: the example of Asteraceae in Australia

Aim Our aims were (1) to compare observed, estimated and predicted patterns of species richness using the Australian native Asteraceae as an example, (2) to identify candidates for hotspots of diversity for the study group, and (3) to examine the distortion of our perception of the spatial distribution of species richness through uneven or misdirected sampling efforts. Location Australia. Methods Based on data from Australia’s Virtual Herbarium, we calculated and visualized observed species richness, the Chao1 estimate of richness, the C index of collecting completeness, and an estimate of richness derived from environmental niche modelling for grid cells at a resolution of 1°. The 20 cells with the highest diversity values were used to define hotspots of diversity. Results Uneven collecting activity results in misleading diversity patterns for the family Asteraceae. While observed species richness is much higher in central Australia than in other parts of the arid interior, this is an artefact resulting from the area being a hotspot of collecting activity. The mountain ranges of south‐eastern Australia and Tasmania are candidates for unbiased hotspots of species richness. Main conclusions Vast areas of the Australian interior are insufficiently sampled on a local scale, although most of them can be expected to be relatively species poor. Some areas in the south‐east and south‐west of the continent remain undersampled relative to their high species richness. Observed species numbers, estimators and environmental niche‐modelling all have their unique advantages and disadvantages for the inference of patterns of diversity.     

Historical biogeography of Australian Rhamnaceae, tribe Pomaderreae

Aim To discover the pattern of relationships of areas of endemism for Australian genera in the plant family Rhamnaceae tribe Pomaderreae for comparison with other taxa and interpretation of biogeographical history. Location Australian mainland, Tasmania and New Zealand. Methods A molecular phylogeny and geographic distribution of species within four clades of Pomaderreae are used as a basis for recognition of areas of endemism and analysis of area relationships using paralogy‐free subtrees. The taxon phylogeny is the strict consensus tree from a parsimony analysis of 54 taxa, in four clades, and sequence data for the internal transcribed spacer regions of ribosomal DNA (ITS1‐5.8S‐ITS2) and the plastid DNA region trnL‐F. Results The biogeographical analysis identified five subtrees, which, after parsimony analysis, resulted in a minimal tree with 100% consistency and seven resolved nodes. Three sets of area relationships were identified: the areas of Arnhem and Kimberley in tropical north Australia are related based on the phylogeny of taxa within Cryptandra; the moister South‐west of Western Australia, its sister area the coastal Geraldton Sandplains, the semi‐arid Interzone region and arid Western Desert are related, based on taxa within Cryptandra, Spyridium, Trymalium and Pomaderris; and the eastern regions of Queensland, McPherson‐Macleay, south‐eastern New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, southern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand are related based on Cryptandra, Pomaderris and Spyridium. Tasmania and NSW are related based entirely on Cryptandra, but the position of New Zealand relative to the other south‐eastern Australian regions is unresolved. Main conclusions The method of paralogy‐free subtrees identified a general pattern of geographic area relationships based on Australian Pomaderreae. The widespread distribution of clades, the high level of endemicity and the age of fossils for the family, suggest that the Pomaderreae are an old group among the Australian flora. Their biogeographical history may date to the early Palaeogene with subsequent changes through to the Pleistocene.     

Distribution and phylogenetic relationships of Australian glow-worms Arachnocampa (Diptera, Keroplatidae)

Glow-worms are bioluminescent fly larvae (Order Diptera, genus Arachnocampa) found only in Australia and New Zealand. Their core habitat is rainforest gullies and wet caves. Eight species are present in Australia; five of them have been recently described. The geographic distribution of species in Australia encompasses the montane regions of the eastern Australian coastline from the Wet Tropics region of northern Queensland to the cool temperate and montane rainforests of southern Australia and Tasmania. Phylogenetic trees based upon partial sequences of the mitochondrial genes cytochrome oxidase II and 16S mtDNA show that populations tend to be clustered into allopatric geographic groups showing overall concordance with the known species distributions. The deepest division is between the cool-adapted southern subgenus, Lucifera, and the more widespread subgenus, Campara. Lucifera comprises the sister groups, A. tasmaniensis, from Tasmania and the newly described species, A. buffaloensis, found in a high-altitude cave at Mt Buffalo in the Australian Alps in Victoria. The remaining Australian glow-worms in subgenus Campara are distributed in a swathe of geographic clusters that extend from the Wet Tropics in northern Queensland to the temperate forests of southern Victoria. Samples from caves and rainforests within any one geographic location tended to cluster together within a clade. We suggest that the morphological differences between hypogean (cave) and epigean (surface) glow-worm larvae are facultative adaptations to local microclimatic conditions rather than due to the presence of cryptic species in caves.     

Late Late Cambrian Trilobites From Near Birch Inlet, South-Western Tasmania

The first late Late Cambrian basinal-facies trilobites to be described from Tasmania are from a succession exposed 8.5 km west of Birch Inlet, south-western Tasmania. Twenty-one taxa are described; the six agnostoid species include a new species of Leiagnostus, L inletensis. The polymeroids include five new species: Hedinaspis uniformis, Proceratopyge longa, Niobella birchensisSkljarella expansa and Ivshinaspis reticulata.SkljarellaIvshinaspis are described for the first time from Australia. The specimens are preserved in siltstone belonging to a basinal facies; the fauna has more in common with those of the South-East China Faunal Province than with the shallow-water carbonate-facies faunas from northern Australia. The fauna is of late Late Cambrian age (Payntonian–earliest Datsonian) on the north Australian biostratigraphic scale. The Birch Inlet fauna is correlated with those of the Siyangshan Formation of Zhejiang, the Guoziguonen Formation of Xinjiang and the Shengjiawan Formation of Hunan. There are similarities with late Late Cambrian faunas from Nevada, Kazakhstan and New Zealand. K ey words : Trilobita, Late Cambrian, Tasmania, basinal facies, biostratigraphy, palaeobiogeography.     

When is a native species invasive? Incursion of a novel predatory marsupial detected using molecular and historical data

Aim

Range expansions facilitated by humans or in response to local biotic or abiotic stressors provide the opportunity for species to occupy novel environments. Classifying the status of newly expanded populations can be difficult, particularly when the timing and nature of the range expansion are unclear. Should native species in new habitats be considered invasive pests or actively conserved? Here, we present an analytical framework applied to an Australian marsupial, the sugar glider (Petaurus breviceps), a species that preys upon on an endangered parrot in Tasmania, and whose provenance was uncertain.

Location

Tasmania, Australia.

Methods

We conducted an extensive search of historical records for sugar glider occurrences in Tasmania. Source material included museum collection data, early European expedition logs, community observation records, and peer‐reviewed and grey literature. To determine the provenance of the Tasmanian population, we sequenced two mitochondrial genes and one nuclear gene in Tasmanian animals (n = 27) and in individuals across the species' native range. We then estimated divergence times between Tasmania and southern Australian populations using phylogenetic and Bayesian analyses.

Results

We found no historical evidence of sugar gliders occurring in Tasmania prior to 1835. All Tasmanian individuals (n = 27) were genetically identical at the three genes surveyed here with those individuals being 0.125% divergent from individuals from a population in Victoria. Bayesian analysis of divergence between Tasmanian individuals and southern Australian individuals suggested a recent introduction of sugar gliders into Tasmania from southern Australia.

Main conclusions

Molecular and historical data demonstrate that Tasmanian sugar gliders are a recent, post‐European, anthropogenic introduction from mainland Victoria. This result has implications for the management of the species in relation to their impact on an endangered parrot. The analytical framework outlined here can assist environmental managers with the complex task of assessing the status of recently expanded or introduced native species.

     

New species of the Australian endemic wasp genus Notosigalphus van Achterberg and Austin (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from Flinders Island, Tasmania

A new species of the braconid genus Notosigalphus is described from Flinders Island, Tasmania ( N. sophae Iqbal and Austin sp. n). This is the third species recorded of this rare Australian endemic genus, and the first member of the subfamily Sigalphinae to be recorded elsewhere than on the mainland. A key to separate species of Notosigalphus is presented, as is a discussion of relationships, distribution and biology of the subfamily in Australia.     

Species richness and distribution of eastern Australian lake chironomids and chaoborids

1. Chironomids and chaoborids were collected across eastern Australia and Tasmania in dune, glacial, sinkhole and maar lakes. Based on sampling exuviae from these relatively undisturbed freshwater lakes, we observed that species richness on the Australian continent was substantially greater than previously reported, and challenge the long‐standing view that chironomid species richness is depauperate in Australian lakes, compared with the northern hemisphere. 2. While chironomid species richness was equivalent across the four geographical regions sampled (tropical northern Queensland, Fraser Island, south‐eastern mainland Australia and Tasmania), there were only five ‘cosmopolitan’ species found across all regions. In general, species distributions were more closely associated with geographical region than with lake characteristics, and there were species assemblage differences among biogeographical regions. More than half of the 134 identified species were restricted to a single geographical region. Overall, Tasmanian lakes had the highest proportion of locally endemic species. 3. Latitude and altitude more strongly influenced species assemblages than did lake chemistry, although species richness sometimes varied among lake geomorphic types within a region.     

A reconsideration of the Echinococcus granulosus strain situation in Australia following RFLP analysis of cystic material.

Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, previously shown to be a relatively simple and reproducible method for distinguishing discrete strains of E. granulosus, could not discriminate between E. granulosus originating from central Queensland macropod marsupials, Australian mainland sheep or United Kingdom sheep. Furthermore, sheep cyst material from Tasmania and the Australian mainland was indistinguishable using this approach. As a result of this DNA analysis, the existence of three distinct strains of E. granulosus in Australia, previously described on the basis of morphological, biochemical and developmental differences, may require re-evaluation.     

Daphniopsis pusilla Serventy (Cladocera: Daphniidae), an important element in the fauna of Australian salt lakes

Daphniopsis pusilla Serventy, an endemic species of cladoceran found in Australian salt lakes, is redescribed. It occurs in both the south-west and south-east of Australia (including Tasmania), and at salinities between about 2 and 71‰     

A Middle-Late Eocene inflorescence of Caryophyllaceae from Tasmania, Australia

A new genus and species (Caryophylloflora paleogenica genus and species nova G. J. Jord. & Macphail) are proposed for a fossil inflorescence found in Middle-Late Eocene sediments at Locharbour, northeastern Tasmania, Australia. A parsimony analysis of 75 extant species of the order Caryophyllales and five outgroups placed the fossil within Caryophyllaceae, either subfamily Alsinoideae or Caryophylloideae. The analysis used molecular (rbcL and/or matK), morphological, and anatomical data for the extant species and morphological data for the fossil. Tests on extant species imply that the placement of the fossil should be convincing. The fossil appears to be of a lineage distinct from any extant Australian Caryophyllaceae. In situ pollen are consistent with the form species, Periporopollenites polyoratus. This relatively simple pollen type first appears in Australia and New Zealand in the Late Cretaceous, the oldest known record of the Caryophyllaceae. The last appearance of P. polyoratus in Australia is in the Oligocene, and extant Australian members of the Caryophyllaceae are best interpreted as having evolved from species that dispersed from elsewhere during the Neogene or Quaternary.     

The marine permian faunas of Westcrn Australia

The marine Permian faunus (about 350 species) of Western Australia are briefly reviewed and compared with Tethyan, eastern Australian and Gondwana faunas. The Western Australian faunal province has close affinities with the eastern Tethys (Salt Range, Timor) and is rather dissimilar to the eastern Australian province, although some Western Australian elements migrated into the northern (Queensland) and the southern (Tasmania) regions of the eastern province.     

SEED MORPHOLOGY AND SYSTEMATICS OF MENYANTHACEAE

Scanning electron microscopic investigations of seed morphology of the five genera of Menyanthaceae illustrate a remarkable diversity of seed characteristics for a small family. Seeds of the monotypic northern hemisphere Menyanthes and Fauria are unomamented and similar, and those of the monotypic Liparophyllum of New Zealand and Tasmania are similar to some Australian species of Villarsia. Seed characteristics within the larger genera Villarsia and Nymphoides are variable and mostly species specific, but do not lend support to taxonomic separation of these genera. Interspecific affinities postulated on other grounds are, in many instances, supported by seed morphology. Various seed-coat features are believed to aid in water or animal dispersal of the seeds of several species. Ant dispersal appears to be important for Villarsia and Nymphoides in Australia, but does not seem to occur in these genera or in other members of the family outside of Australia.     

Gene flow of the canker pathogen Botryosphaeria australis between Eucalyptus globulus plantations and native eucalypt forests in Western Australia

Abstract The eucalypt plantation industry in Western Australia provides a unique opportunity to study the movement of pathogens between closely related host taxa. Eucalyptus globulus, a native to Tasmania and south‐eastern Australia, is the predominant species in Western Australian plantations, often being planted adjacent to native forest containing Eucalyptus marginata and Eucalyptus diversicolor. Since the commencement of the plantation industry 20 years ago, several fungal species, previously known only to eastern Australia or overseas, have been reported on E. globulus in Western Australia. Botryosphaeria australis is a newly described species, recently found causing cankers on Acacia spp. in eastern Australia. However, during a routine survey, B. australis was found to be the predominant species associated with E. globulus plantations and native Eucalyptus spp. in Western Australia. In this study, six short simple repeat markers were used to evaluate genetic diversity and gene flow between collections of B. australis from native eucalypt forest and E. globulus plantations at two locations in south‐western Australia. In both cases, there was no restriction to gene flow between the plantations and the adjacent native forest. Botryosphaeria australis has now been isolated from a wide range of hosts across south‐western Australia and was not isolated from E. globulus in Tasmania or South Australia. This extensive distribution and host range suggests B. australis is native to Western Australia. This study demonstrates the ability of a pathogen to move between plantation and forests.     

Taxonomy of Australian freshwater algae. I. The genus Micrasterias in South-Eastern Australia

A preliminary survey has been made of the desmid genus Micrasterias in Tasmania, as the first part of an intended series of detailed investigations of Tasmanian freshwater algae. For comparative purposes, samples from the south-eastern states of mainland Australia are included. Micrasterias hardyi West, apparently an Australian endemic, is discussed in detail and M. tropica var. indivisa (Nordst.) Eichl. et Racib., formerly known only from New Zealand, is figured from Tasmania. Some other Micrasterias forms are readily accommodated within the existing nomenclature. Others, however, have been uncertainly allied with existing taxa in keeping with a policy of not adding to the burden of nomenclature until a biological concept of species has been developed for the desmids. The taxonomy of Australian representatives of the genus Micrasterias is discussed against this background.     

Genetic evidence for the origins of range disjunctions in the Australian dry sclerophyll plant Hardenbergia violacea

Aim The distribution of genetic variation in the Australian dry sclerophyll plant Hardenbergia violacea (Fabaceae) is examined in the context of Pleistocene climate change in order to identify likely refugia. Particular consideration is given to the origin of range disjunctions in South Australia and Tasmania, and to determining whether the Tasmanian population is indigenous or recently introduced from mainland Australia. Location Southeastern Australian mainland and Tasmania. Methods A combination of chloroplast polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism and genomic amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) marker systems was used to examine the genetic structure of 292 individuals from 13 populations across the range of H. violacea in southeastern Australia. Results Hardenbergia violacea populations in Tasmania and southern Victoria were characterized by low, almost monotypic chloroplast diversity. New South Wales showed higher haplotype diversity and haplotype sharing among widely distributed populations. Principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) of the AFLP data found a strong latitudinal cline in AFLP variation from northern New South Wales south to Tasmania. The Tasmanian population formed an isolated and somewhat disjunct genetic cluster at one end of this cline. However, the South Australian population was an exception to the clinal variation shown by all other populations, forming a highly disjunct cluster in the PCoA. Within‐population genetic diversity was low in both disjunct populations. Main conclusions The genetic evidence indicates that the Tasmanian population is likely to be indigenous and probably the product of vicariance, which was followed by range contraction at the Last Glacial Maximum or an earlier glacial event. The deep phylogenetic disjunction in South Australia is evidence of a much earlier separation on mainland Australia. The chloroplast structure indicates that, during the Pleistocene, H. violacea underwent broad‐scale recolonization in southern Victoria and Tasmania, possibly from a large continental refugium in eastern New South Wales. We conclude that H. violacea, and presumably the sclerophyll communities in which it occurs, have undergone multiple range contractions to large continental refugia during different Pleistocene glaciations in southeastern Australia.     

GENETIC VARIATION AMONG STRAINS OF THE TOXIC DINOFLAGELLATE GYMNODINIUM CATENATUM (DINOPHYCEAE)

The toxic dinoflagellate Gymnodinium catenatum Graham has formed recurrent toxic blooms in southeastern Tasmanian waters since its discovery in the area in 1986. Current evidence suggests that this species might have been introduced to Tasmania prior to 1973, possibly in cargo vessel ballast water carried from populations in Japan or Spain, followed by recent dispersal to mainland Australia. To examine this hypothesis, cultured strains from G. catenatum populations in Australia, Spain, Portugal, and Japan were examined using allozymes and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Allozyme screening detected very limited polymorphism and was not useful for population comparisons; however, Australian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese strains showed considerable RAPD diversity, and all strains examined represented unique genotypes. Multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) of RAPD genetic distances between strains showed clear separation of strains into three nonoverlapping regional clusters: Australia, Japan, and Spain/Portugal. Analysis of genetic distances between strains from the three regional populations indicated that Australian strains were almost equally related to both the Spanish/Portuguese population and the Japanese population. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) found that genetic variation was partitioned mainly within populations (87%) compared to the variation between the regions (8%) and between populations within regions (5%). The potential source population for Tasmania’s introduced G. catenatum remains equivocal; however, strains from the recently discovered mainland Australian population (Port Lincoln, South Australia, 1996) clustered with Tasmanian strains, supporting the notion of a secondary relocation of Tasmanian G. catenatum populations to the mainland via a shipping vector. Geographic and temporal clustering of strains was evident among the Tasmanian strains, indicating that genetic exchange between neighboring estuaries is limited and that Tasmanian G. catenatum blooms are composed of localized, estuary-bound subpopulations.     

Differences in egg parasitism of Chrysophtharta agricola (Chapuis) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) by Enoggera nassaui Girault (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae) in relation to host and parasitoid origin

Abstract The first instances of egg parasitism of Chrysophtharta agricola , a pest of eucalypt plantations, are recorded. Enoggera nassaui was found parasitising C. agricola egg batches in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), New South Wales and Victoria: this is the first record of this parasitoid species from Victoria. One instance of Neopolycystus sp. parasitising C. agricola eggs in Victoria was also recorded. Parasitism of egg batches by E. nassaui ranged from 0 to 55% between five geographical populations collected in mainland Australia ( n  = 45), and from 0 to 2% between two populations collected in Tasmania ( n  = 300). For mainland sites at which parasitism was recorded, parasitism rates within sites differed significantly from either population in Tasmania. Reciprocal exposure experiments using one Tasmanian (Florentine Valley) and one parasitised mainland (Picadilly Circus, ACT) population were conducted in the laboratory to examine whether these different parasitism rates were attributable to egg or parasitoid origin. Parasitoids from the ACT parasitised C. agricola eggs of both origins more successfully than parasitoids from Tasmania, with up to 65% wasp emergence compared with 33% from Tasmania. Parasitoid origin significantly affected the number of wasps that emerged from exposed batches, but not the total loss from parasitism.     

A new opiine (Hymenoptera,Braconidae) from Australia with discussion of Diachasma Foerster

A new species of Opiinae, Diachasma dentatum Shirley, Restuccia & Ly, is described from Australia. This species is similar to several other Australian opiines previously described or included in the genus Diachasma, but the mandibles are unusually broad, nearly exodont. Notable differences between Australian and Palaearctic Diachasma are discussed. Diachasma tasmaniae Fischer, 1995, originally described from Tasmania and New South Wales, is newly recorded from Victoria. Diachasma rufipes Szépligeti, 1905 is transferred to Notiopambolus, new combination.     

THE BIRDS OF TASMANIA: ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION

SUMMARY Tasmania, about the size of Ireland, separated from the Australian mainland by 140 miles of sea, and isolated for about the last 12,000 years, has 104 species of native breeding land-birds, with the addition of ten introduced species. The environment is described; in particular the vegetation is classified into nine natural types and three produced by European man; and the distribution of the bird species among these is defined and discussed. The other vertebrates are briefly considered. No extinction is definitely known to have taken place as a result of European settlement except of the Tasmanian Emu (and of course Tasmanian Man). An attempt is made to reconstruct the Late Pleistocene history of Tasmania and its vegetation, with special reference to the Last Glaciation, when the island would have been joined to the mainland. When the avifauna is divided into categories, water-birds, raptors, etc., it is found to have much the same proportional composition as the Australian mainland avifaunas with which it is compared, though it consists of many fewer species. The vegetation types of the colder and wetter areas of Tasmania house far fewer species of birds than the drier and warmer habitats. The 104 breeding species include 14 endemics, which are considered in detail, and 27 endemic subspecies. As shown by comparison with other islands, the total proportionate endemism is extraordinarily high for a recent continental island (though it is actually lower than that in the remote ecological island formed by the sclerophyll of southwestern Western Australia). A contributory cause may be that Tasmania is not regularly visited by land-birds from the continent (though at least one-fifth of the Tasmanian species are partial or total migrants in winter). The most noteworthy endemics are two monotypic genera, Lathamus and Acanthornis, and the Native Hen Tribonyx mortierii, which has become flightless apparently in the face of a formidable array of local predators. Considerations of climate and habitat suggest that at least half the avifauna, including 19 of the endemic subspecies and six of the members of superspecies, arrived in Tasmania some time after the amelioration of the Last Glaciation began, some 18,000 years ago. Geographical considerations suggest that four of those six members of superspecies existed in their present form when the land-bridge to the mainland was cut, 12,000 years ago. Certain habitats, widespread over southeastern Australia during the glaciation, are now virtually confined to Tasmania where they form the stronghold of certain species, such as the Pink Robin Petroica rodinogaster, which occur only as relicts on the mainland. The endemic Scrub Tit Acanthornis magnus is practically confined to such habitats, where its ecology suggests it would have been well adapted to glacial conditions. Among the local endemics there is a strong tendency for colouration to be more saturated than on the continent of Australia (Gloger's rule) but there is less consistency in tendency to greater size (Bergmann's rule). A noteworthy proportion of the Tasmanian species have duller plumage than their mainland relatives, usually with an assimilation to female or juvenile plumage—unexpected in an island as big as Tasmania with so considerable an avifauna.