Gondwanan groundwater: subterranean connections of Australian phreatoicidean isopods (Crustacea) to India and New Zealand

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 301 ◽  
Author(s):  
George D. F. Wilson

Phreatoicidea Stebbing, 1893 live in freshwaters of Gondwana: Australia, South Africa, India and New Zealand. Many of these isopods have a subterranean lifestyle. Parsimony analysis of morphological data of generic exemplars and a Triassic fossil was used to explore the timing of this habitat adaption. The monophyly of the Hypsimetopidae Nicholls, 1943, including blind taxa Hyperoedesipus Nicholls & Milner, 1923 (Western Australia), Nichollsia Chopra and Tiwari, 1950 (Ganges Plain, India) and Phreatoicoides Sayce, 1900 (Tasmania and Victoria) was strongly supported. Crenisopus Wilson and Keable, 1999 (Kimberleys, Western Australia) and the PonderellidaeWilson & Keable, 2004 (Queensland mound springs) may be sister to hypsimetopids. Blind Phreatoicidae found only in south-eastern Australia and in New Zealand were also monophyletic. The hypogean habitat, blindness, fossil and plate tectonic evidence were mapped on the cladogram to estimate timing of this adaptation. A subterranean adaptation before 130 million years ago was supported for hypsimetopids. Phreatoicus Chilton, 1891 and Neophreatoicus Nicholls, 1944 (hypogean in New Zealand) were in a monophyletic clade with epigean Phreatoicidae, Crenoicus Nicholls, 1944 (south-eastern Australia) and Notamphisopus Nicholls, 1943 (New Zealand). Blindness in epigean taxa is consistent with recolonisation of surface waters from underground refuges. Because Crenoicus is sister-group to the New Zealand clade, and because overseas dispersal between Australia and New Zealand is unlikely, the minimum age for these blind phreatoicids is ~80 million years. This evidence is consistent with a subterranean freshwater fauna surviving the presumed Oligocene inundation of New Zealand.

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Gibson ◽  
Barry J. Conn ◽  
Jeremy J. Bruhl

A phenetic study of morphological characters of the Drosera peltata complex (Droseraceae) supports the recognition of the following taxa: D. peltata from wetlands of south-eastern Australia; D. auriculata from south-eastern Australia and New Zealand; the morphologically variable D. hookeri from south-eastern Australia and northern New Zealand; the widespread D. lunata from southern and South-East Asia, as well as northern and north-eastern Australia; and the new species D. yilgarnensis R.P.Gibson & B.J.Conn is here described, from around granite outcrops of south-western Australia. D. bicolor from south-western Australia is recognised as a distinct species outside of the D. peltata complex. D. insolita, considered until recently as a distinct species, is reduced to synonymy of D. lunata. Phenotypic plasticity, vegetative similarity and fleetingly produced diagnostic floral and seed characters within the complex pose significant challenges in understanding the taxonomy of these taxa.


1982 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 917 ◽  
Author(s):  
BJ Richardson

Eight polymorphic loci were detected in a survey for electrophoretically detectable protein variation, carried out using liver samples from the Australian jack mackerel, T. declivis. The distribution of gene and genotype frequencies in sample sets from different areas shows that distinct subpopulations of the species occur in Western Australia and in New Zealand and that two or more geographically overlapping but genetically distinct subpopulations occur in the waters around south-eastern Australia.


Zootaxa ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 1645 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAURENCE A. MOUND ◽  
ALICE WELLS

Callococcithrips gen.n. is erected for the species Rhynchothrips fuscipennis Moulton that lives only among the protective waxy secretions of an eriococcid on Kunzea in south-eastern Australia. Larvae and adults of this thrips move rapidly amongst the sticky wax strands, and their maxillary stylets are unusually long and convoluted. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the thrips is predatory on immature stages of the eriococcid. Also transferred to this genus is Liothrips atratus Moulton, based on a single female from Western Australia.


2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew D. Moore

Dual-purpose cereals are employed in the high-rainfall zone of southern Australia to provide additional winter forage. Recently there has been interest in applying this technology in the drier environments of South and Western Australia. It would therefore be useful to gain an understanding of the trade-offs and risks associated with grazing wheat crops in different locations. In this study the APSIM (Agricultural Production Systems Simulator) crop and soil simulation models were linked to the GRAZPLAN pasture and livestock models and used to examine the benefits and costs of grazing cereal crops at 21 locations spanning seven of the regions participating in the Grain & Graze research, development and extension program. A self-contained part of a mixed farm (an annual pasture–wheat rotation plus permanent pastures) supporting a breeding ewe enterprise was simulated. At each location the consequences were examined of: (i) replacing a spring wheat cultivar with a dual-purpose cultivar (cv. Wedgetail or Tennant) in 1 year of the rotation; and (ii) either grazing that crop in winter, or leaving it ungrazed. The frequency of early sowing opportunities enabling the use of a dual-purpose cultivar was high. When left ungrazed the dual-purpose cultivars yielded less grain on average (by 0.1–0.9 t/ha) than spring cultivars in Western Australia and the Eyre Peninsula but more (by 0.25–0.8 t/ha) in south-eastern Australia. Stocking rate and hence animal production per ha could be increased proportionately more when a dual-purpose cultivar was used for grazing; because of the adjustments to stocking rates, grazing of the wheat had little effect on lamb sale weights. Across locations, the relative reduction in wheat yield caused by grazing the wheats was proportional to the grazing pressure upon them. Any economic advantage of moving to a dual-purpose system is likely to arise mainly from the benefit to livestock production in Western Australia, but primarily from grain production in south-eastern Australia (including the Mallee region). Between years, the relationship between increased livestock production and decreased grain yield from grazing crops shifts widely; it may therefore be possible to identify flexible grazing rules that optimise this trade-off.


1976 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 641 ◽  
Author(s):  
RM McDowall

The family Prototroctidae, the genus Prototroctes, and the two contained species-P. oxyrhynchus Gunther, 1870 (New Zealand) and P. maraena Gunther 1864 (south-eastern Australia and Tasmania) are described. P. oxyvhynchus is distinguished from P. maraena by much higher counts of lateral scale rows, vertebrae and gill rakers. What is known of the natural history of Prototroctes is reviewed. P. oxyvhynchus is extinct and P. maraena now rare; reasons for the decline of these species are discussed.


2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gintaras KANTVILAS

AbstractThe genusMycoblastusin cool temperate latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere is reviewed. Eight species are treated in detail:M. bryophilusImshaug ex Kantvilas sp. nov., from Campbell Island and Tasmania;M. campbellianus(Nyl.) Zahlbr.,M. coniophorus(Elix & A.W. Archer) Kantvilas & Elix comb. nov. andM. dissimulans(Nyl.) Zahlbr., all widespread across the austral region;M. disporus(C. Knight) Kantvilas comb. nov., from New Zealand and Tasmania;M. kalioruberKantvilas sp. nov, from Tasmania;M. sanguinarioidesKantvilas sp. nov., from Tasmania and south-eastern Australia; andM. leprarioidesKantvilas & Elix sp. nov., from south-eastern Australia (Victoria). Notes are provided on many other species ofMycoblastus, including those recognised for the Northern Hemisphere, and those originally described from austral regions but now excluded from the genus. Major characters of the genus are discussed, including thallus morphology and chemistry, apothecial pigments and ascus structure. It is suggested that the genus is heterogeneous and that some of its closest affinities may lie with the familyMegalariaceaeand the genusJapewia.


1993 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 1473 ◽  
Author(s):  
RV Southcott

Larval Leptus (Acarina : Erythraeidae) ectoparasitic on higher insects (Neuroptera. Coleoptera. Lepidoptera. Hymenoptera) are comprehensively reviewed (Diptera were considered previously) . The new species (all from Australia) comprise: L. spinalatus (from Neuroptera); L. belicolus. L. cerambycius. L. faini. L. halli. L. heleus. L. jenseni. L. orthrius. L. tarranus. L. titinius. L. truncatus. L. utheri (all from Coleoptera); L. agrotis, L. georgeae (from Lepidoptera); and L. monteithi (from Hymenoptera). A key is given to the larvae of Leptus from Australia and New Guinea . L. agrotis is an ectoparasite of Agrotis infusa (Boisduval), the bogong moth, whose larvae are an important pasture pest in south-eastern Australia; as well as the larva, the deutonymph and adult are described. Leptus boggohoranus Haitlinger is recorded from a further New Guinea species of Coleoptera. L. charon Southcott, originally described from an Australian dipteran, is recorded as ectoparasitic on an Australian larval lepidopteran (Anthela sp., Anthelidae), as well as from adult Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Leptus trucidatus (Hull, 1923), comb. nov., is proposed for Achorolophus trucidatus Hull, 1923, an adult from Western Australia.


1991 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
O Seberg

Ever since J. D. Hooker's famous 'Introductory Essay' to Flora NOVE-Zelandise, a classical problem in biogeography has been to give a casual explanation of southern hemisphere distribution patterns. An attempt is made to see whether the cladograms for the circum-Pacific areas (South America, New Zealand, Tasmania and Australia) are congruent. The area cladograms are derived from Nothofagus (Fagacae), Embothriinae (Protaceae), Oreobolus (Cyperaceae), Cyttaria (Helotiales) and Eriococcidae (Homoptera). The resulting general area cladogram showing southern South America as the sister-area to New Zealand, south-eastern Australia and Tasmania, and Tasmania plus south-eastern Australia as sister-areas to New Zealand are compared with different geological hypotheses for the area. The biological area cladogram is shown to be congruent with widely different geological hypotheses.


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