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V PROCEEDINGS OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF NSW O PROCEEDINGS L . 1 VOLUME 137 3 of the 7 D E C CCEDER A E E S M LINNEAN O THE F O R B LINNEAN N G T E E E T SOCIETY S R N I OF NEW SOUTH WALES 2 M V 0 D I 1 SOCIETY C X C C L X 5 of NEW SOUTH WALES P R CONTENTS O VOLUME 137 C Volume 137 E E Papers published in 2015, compiled 31 December 2015 D I Published at http://escholarship.library.usyd.edu.au/journals/index.php/LIN N G (date individual papers were published online at eScholarship) S O Volume 137 F Compiled 31 December 2015 T H E TABLE OF CONTENTS L I N 1-6 Stoessel, D.J., Raadik, T.A. and Ayres, R.M. N Spawning of threatened Barred Galaxias, Galaxias fuscus (Teleostei: Galaxiidae). E A N 7-12 Foged,A. and Powter, D.M. S A preliminary investigation of the reproductive biology of the Blind Shark, Brachaelurus waddi (Orectolobiformes: O Brachaeluridae). C I E T 13-16 Fulton, G.R. and Bialek, P. Y Picnic of the Linnaean Society, 1st May 1875: translation to English of speeches given to honour William Macleay O at a picnic of the Linnean Society, 1st May 1875. F N . 17-27 Mo, M. and Waterhouse, D.R. S . Fruiting phenologies of rainforest plants in the Illawarra Region, New South Wales, 1988-1992. W . 29-35 Mo, M. The history and status of apostlebirds (Struthidae conerea) in the Sydney region. 37-43 Timms, B.V. A new species of the fairy shrimp Branchinella (Crustacea: Anostraca: Thamnocephalidae) from western New South Wales, Australia. 45-55 King, R. Presidential address Early Australian botany texts for schools. 57-70 Martin, Helene The story of Science House and the history of the Linnean Society of New South Wales. 71-83 Humphrey, Margaret An alloenzyme electrophorectic study of populations of spiders of the genus Corasoides (Aranae: Stiphidiidae) from Australia and Papua New Guinea. NATURAL HISTORY IN ALL ITS BRANCHES 85-133 Zhen, Y.Y., Percival, I. and Molloy, P.D. Late Ordovician conodonts and brachiopods from near Greenvale in the Broken River Province, north Queensland. THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF NEW SOUTH WALES ISSN 1839-7263 B E Founded 1874 & N R E F E A Incorporated 1884 D C N T U O The society exists to promote the cultivation and O R F study of the science of natural history in all branches. The Society awards research grants each year in the fields of Life Sciences (the Joyce Vickery fund) and Earth Sciences (the Betty Mayne fund), offers W 1 I annually a Linnean Macleay Fellowship for research, L 9 L 8 and publishes the Proceedings. It holds field 1 I A - M excursions and scientific meetings including the 0 2 M 8 biennial Sir William Macleay Memorial Lecture AC 1 LE AY delivered by a person eminent in some branch of natural science. Membership enquiries should be addressed in the first instance to the Secretary. Candidates for election to the Society must be recommended by two members. The present annual membership fee is $45 per annum. Papers are published at http://escholarship.library.usyd.edu.au/journals/index.php/LIN and access is free of charge. All papers published in a calendar year comprise a volume. Annual volumes are available to any institution on CD free of charge. Please notify the Secretary to receive one. “Print on demand” hardcopies are available from eScholarship. Back issues from Volume 1 are available free of charge at www.biodiversitylibrary.org/title/6525. OFFICERS and COUNCIL 2015 President: R.J. King Vice-presidents: M. Gray, D. Keith, D.R. Murray Treasurer: I.G. Percival Secretary: J-C. Herremans Council: M.L. Augee, J.P. Barkas, M. Cotton, E. Gorrod, M.R. Gray, J-C. Herremans, D. Keith, R.J. King, H.A. Martin, D.R. Murray, P.J. Myerscough, I.G. Percival, J. Pickett, H.M. Smith, B. Welch and K.L. Wilson Editor: M.L. Augee Assistant Editor: B. Welch Auditors: Phil Williams Carbonara The postal address of the Society is P.O. Box 82, Kingsford, N.S.W. 2032, Australia. The Linnean Society of New South Wales publishes in its proceedings original papers and review Telephone and Fax +61 2 9662 6196. article dealing with biological and earth sciences. Intending authors should contact the Secretary Email: [email protected] ( PO Box 82, Kingsford, N.S.W. 2032, Australia ) for instructions for the preparation of manuscripts Home page: www.linneansocietynsw.org.au/ and procedures for submission. Instructions to authors are also available on the society’s web page (http://linneansocietynsw.org.au/). Linnean Society of New South Wales Manuscripts not prepared in accordance with the society’s instructions will not be considered. Cover motif: Illustration of Science House from original 1932 booklet. PROCEEDINGS of the LINNEAN SOCIETY of NEW SOUTH WALES For information about the Linnean Society of New South Wales. its publications and activities, see the Society’s homepage www.linneansocietynsw.org.au VOLUME 137 December 2015 Spawning of Threatened Barred Galaxias, Galaxias fuscus (Teleostei: Galaxiidae) DANIEL J. STOESSEL , TARMO A. RAADIK AND RENAE M. AYRES Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, 123 Brown Street, Heidelberg, Victoria, 3084 Australia Published on 27 April 2015 at http://escholarship.library.usyd.edu.au/journals/index.php/LIN Stoessel, D.J., Raadik, T.A. and Ayres, R.M. (2015). Spawning of threatened barred galaxias, Galaxias fuscus (Teleostei: Galaxiidae). Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 137, 1-6. Barred galaxias Galaxias fuscus is an endangered freshwater fi sh endemic to south-eastern Australia. Little is known of the species’ ecology. We investigated spawning biology of G. fuscus in three headwater streams and found spawning to occur mid-August to late September when photoperiod was 10 h 39 min – 12 h 25 min. Spawning sites were in fresh (range 35.3 – 56.6 EC, mean 44.7 EC), slightly acidic (range 5.7 – 7.1 pH, mean 5.9 pH), moderate to fast fl owing (range 0.4 – 2.0 m/s, mean 1.0 m/s), shallow (range 70 – 310 mm, mean 174 mm), well oxygenated (range 10.8 – 12.4 mg/l, mean 11.3mg/l), clear (range 1.2 – 6.3 NTU, mean 3.8 NTU), cool waters (range 8.4 – 10 °C, mean 9.1°C) immediately upstream of pools. Multi-layered clusters of up to 218 eggs were generally adhered close to the stream bed on the downstream side of cobbles greater than 180 mm diameter. Manuscript received 14 September 2014, accepted for publication 22 April 2015. Keywords: Freshwater, life history, nest site, reproduction INTRODUCTION and as Critically Endangered Internationally (Wager 1996). The barred galaxias, Galaxias fuscus is a small Knowledge of G. fuscus biology is limited. (maximum 160 mm TL, 40 g), endemic, scaleless, Preliminary observations suggest that spawning non-migratory fi sh (Raadik et al. 1996). Remnant occurs in late winter-early spring, and is likely to populations are restricted to 12 geographically isolated be triggered by increasing day length and water headwater streams above 400 m in elevation in the temperature (Raadik 1993, Shirley and Raadik 1997). Goulburn River system in south-eastern Australia Fecundity is low (~500 ova), and eggs are adhesive and (Raadik et al. 1996; Koehn and Raadik 1995; large (~2.2 mm; Raadik 1993). Limited observations Allen et al. 2003). This range is likely to represent of two nest sites, suggest multi-layered clusters of fragmentation of a much wider and continuous eggs are laid underneath and on the downstream side historic distribution within headwater streams within of large rocks in fast-fl owing, shallow, cold (1 – 5 the catchment (Raadik et al. 2010). Predation by alien °C) water (Raadik et al. 2010), and incubation time of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brown eggs is approximately 30 days in water at 7 °C in an trout (Salmo trutta) (Salmonidae) is the primary aquaria (Raadik, T. unpublished data). cause of the decline (Raadik et al. 1996; Raadik et al. This paper further investigates the spawning of 2010). Changed water regimes, genetic isolation and G. fuscus, and includes data on habitat, spawning deleterious stochastic events including wildfi re and season and site, egg description, incubation period, drought also represent signifi cant long-term threats to and description of larvae. The biological information G. fuscus (Raadik et al. 2010). The species is listed as obtained is vital for the preparation of management Endangered under the Commonwealth Environment strategies to maintain, enhance or restore processes Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 fundamental to survival, reproduction and viability of (EPBC Act) and the Australian and New Zealand remnant populations. Environment Conservation Council (ANZECC), SPAWNING OF BARRED GALAXIAS MATERIALS AND METHOD clear, well-oxygenated, cool, narrow (1 – 4 m wide), had moderate to fast fl ow and alternating sequences Study area and sites of pools and riffl es. The substrate was typically The study was conducted in three geographically composed of boulder, pebble, gravel and sand (Raadik closely associated headwater streams (S Creek, et al. 1996). Kalatha Creek and Luke Creek) of the Goulburn Within each reach, a 100 m long monitoring site River in south-eastern Australia (37º 28´ S, 145º was established and surveyed repeatedly during the 28´E) (Fig. 1). Considerable bushfi res in the region in study to assess for the presence of reproductively ripe February 2009, had resulted in varying loss of riparian females.