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Australasian Arachnology AUSTRALASIAN ARACHNOLOGY Number 66: February 2003 Price $2 ISSN 0811-3696 Australasian Arachnology No. 66 Page 2 THE AUSTRALASIAN ARTICLES ARACHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY The newsletter depends on your contributions! We encourage articles on a We aim to promote interest in the a range of topics including current ecology, behaviour and taxonomy of research activities, student projects, arachnids of the Australasian region. upcoming events or behavioural observations. MEMBERSHIP Please send articles to the Editor: Membership is open to amateurs, Dr Tracey Churchill students and professionals, and is Museum & Art Gallery of the managed by our Administrator: Northern Territory GPO Box4646 Richard J. Faulder Darwin NT 0801 Agricultural Institute Australia. Yanco, New South Wales 2703. Australia. email: [email protected] email : [email protected] Format: i) typed or legibly printed on A4 paper or ii) as text or MS Word file on Membership fees in Australian dollars CD, 3 % floppy disk, or via email. per 4 issues: Discount* Normal Institutional LIBRARY Australian $8 $10 $12 The AAS has a large number of reference NZ/ Asia $10 $12 $14 books, scientific journals and papers Elsewhere $12 $14 $16 available for loan or as photocopies, for those members who do not have access All postage is by air mail. to a scientific library. Professional *Discount rates apply to unemployed, pensioners members are encouraged to send in their and students (please provide proof of status). arachnological reprints. Cheques payable in Australian dollars to Contact our librarian : ·Australasian Arachnological Society". More than 4 issues can be paid for in Jean-Claude Herremans advance. Receipts issued on request. PO Box 291 Manly, Status box on the envelope indicates the New South Wales 1655. Australia. last issue paid for. email: [email protected] .au Previous issues of the newsletter are COVER PHOTOGRAPH by Matjaz Kuntner available at $2 per issue plus postage. Arbanitis variabilis d from S.E. Qld. Australasian Arachnology No. 66 Page 3 EDITORIAL MEMBERSHIP ~ Yes, another year has passed us by! And UPDATES ~ another four issues have passed too, so we now have a new taxon modelling the front cover. Perhaps my bias for strong Change of Address sturdy mygalomorphs is showing, but I certainly liked this photo taken by Matjaz Kunter during his Australian visit. It is, Dr Joseph Koh however, important to raise the profile of High Commissioner (Designate) mygales given the fact that species are at High Commission of the Republic of risk from increasing habitat loss and Singapore disturbance. This is especially the case in 17 Forster Crescent Queensland with current land use Yarralumla ACT 2600 practices. E-mail: [email protected] Covering a less obvious process threatening our beloved arachnids, is Judy Grimshaw David Hirst's story on the European wasp PO Box 1067 in South Australia. Perhaps this story will Mareeba OLD 4880 encourage members to keep a look out for the effects of this sneaky predator or other feral invertebrates on our native faunas elsewhere. Change of Email Still in South Australia, Travis Gotch has provided us with an abstract from his Lynne Kelly honours research on Mound Spring [email protected] lycosids. Travis enjoyed his project so much he has now gone on to do a PhD to study them in more detail, and we include an outline of that work as well. Congratulations to: The patient observations of Doug Wallace Doug Wallace on his 80th Birthday! again offer us a wonderful insight into the antics of our spiders - this time a cryptic 1 hersiliid! What else is hiding out there on Robert Raven on his 50 h Birthday! the trees in your backyard? ........ 7'l<Ue9 Australasian Arachnology No. 66 Page4 The European Wasp In Adelaide the spread of the wasps immediately altered the arachnid fauna in In Adelaide my garden at Windsor Gardens with Phonognatha graeffei and the introduced David Hirst harvestman, Nelima doriae disappearing South Australian Museum altogether by the end of the Autumn of the first heavy infestation. I believe that occurred the second year the wasps were present in Adelaide. Phonognatha was To most people in Adelaide, South always present during the first 14 years of Australia, the European or German wasp, my residing there and Nelima was the Vespu/a germanica, is little more than a most common animal seen apart from nuisance at barbeques as it is attracted to the Portuguese millipede and wood lice. sweet foods, soft drinks and meat. At Neither arachnid has been seen in the worst, the wasp can be life threatening if seven to eight years since wasp one accidentally disturbs a nest. What occupancy. most people may not appreciate, however, is that this introduced pest While the loss of an introduced poses an unsurmountable threat to our harvestman is possibly a bonus, it may invertebrate wildlife. well indicate that the native species still found on the eastern and southern Adult wasps apparently subsist mainly on outskirts of the city are disappearing nectar and insect honeydew, the latter equally as fast. Many other common also being an important food source for spider species have been greatly reduced other insects (Harris 1991). The bulk of in numbers including Stephanopis sp. prey taken by wasps are insects and (Thomisidae}, Venatrix psuedospeciosa spiders that are fed to the larvae. Prey and Artoria sp. (lycosidae), Breda biomass of wasps studied in some areas jovialis, He/pis occidentalis and Sondra sp. of New Zealand was similar to that of the (Salticidae}, Oxyopes gracilipes entire insectivorous bird fauna (Harris (Oxyopidae) and a small species of 1991). Colonies of European wasps in Zodariidae. All are now rarely, rather Australia and New Zealand are many than often, seen. times larger than those found in Europe with more queens produced, and also, Some of those spider species are diurnal wasps have been reported preying on an (as are the wasps) or, of the nocturnal endangered Tasmanian butterfly and the species, their diurnal retreat time is butterfly larvae. (Gullan 1999). In minimal. Wasps may fly low to the Melbourne, Victoria, wasps were recorded ground buzzing leaves in search of prey as preying on the leaf-curling spider, hiding beneath, or closely follow a branch Phonognatha graeffei (Tetragnathidae) of a shrub as they fly upwards to the tip (Martin 1995). before moving onto another branch or shrub. Australasian Arachnology No. 66 Page 5 An acquaintance has observed the wasps Admittedly, sparrows are only partly attacking black house spiders, Badumna insectivorous, but the availability of their insignis, on house walls chewing off the other sources of food is seasonal. It has abdomen into a manageable piece to also been reported in the press that the carry off to the nest. Larger spiders may numbers of smaller native birds have escape the wasps attention, however the been dwindling over the last ten years. young are taken and fewer remain to Again I can see many species that are reach maturity. Even the common orb­ not dwindling are feeding on insects not weavers (Araneidae) Eriophora biapicata, targeted by wasps. Araneus eburnus, and a species that I consider belonging to Novakia, are much The threat posed to native fauna by the less often seen than previously. European wasp will ultimately include not just invertebrates but insect eating birds The 'pet' huntsmen (Sparassidae) and may even extend further to flora invariably keep at home are now solely reliant on insects for pollination. relying on mealworms for food as moths flying to the rear porch-light have alarmingly dwindled in numbers. 1 have REFERENCES observed wasps attacking both moths and caterpillars. While I have seen Gullan P.J. 1999. Information to assist wasps attacking other small invertebrates consideration of the potential I have not been unable to ascertain their conservation threat posed by the spread idenmy as the smaller size enables wasps of the European wasp, Vespula to subdue it and fly off very quickly. gennanica, and the potential introduction of the English wasp, V. vulgaris, in the The apparent reduced number of ACT region. Prepared for the ACT Flora invertebrates appears also to be affecting and Fauna Committee, for meeting on 16 other types of fauna. Occasionally in the June 1999. Unpublished report. press over the last two years or so people have asked "where have all the sparrows Harris R.J. 1991. Diet of the wasps gone". Some people are blaming exhaust Vespula vulgaris and Vespula gennanica fumes. However that will not explain why in honeydew beech forest of the South some other birds with similar feeding Island, New Zealand. New Zealand requirements, such as the blackbird, still Journal of Zoology 18: 159-169. abound. The answer seems simple: watch a sparrow hunt for insects and Martin A. 1995. The wasp and the spider. spiders and it is hunting in the same The Victorian Naturalist 112(4) 1995:177. niches as the wasp, whereas blackbirds, dig into the litter and soil with their beaks where the wasps are unable to penetrate. Australasian Arachnology No. 66 Page 6 The Magic of Tamopsis by Doug Wallace Having found the spider, look closely at it Rockhampton, Queensland from side-on and you will see the flatness of the body and the small protuberance on the head. Here, the eye group is easily After observing many remarkable spiders, seen to be higher than the rest of the it is evident to me that their diversities are spider and this positioning enables it to never-ending, their habits eye-catching see over the top of the wrinkled bark as it and at times, almost incredible. One awaits the approach of ants and other example is the spider, Tamopsis fickerti spiders. (Koch, 1876) of the family Hersiliidae.
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