JUNE 15, 1963

Registered at the General Post OfficeOffice, for transmission by post as a periodical VOL. XIV, No. 6

PRICE, THREE SHILLINGS CONTENTS Page

CuCKOOS-H . 1. de S. Disney 169

K ANGAROOS AND W ALLAHI ES I ABORIGINAL LI FE A D ART- frederick D. McCarthy 174

Til E COMMO FRES IIWATER LEECII 179

F OSSI L M ARSUPIALS AND DRIF TI NG SA DS-R . A . Stir/on 180

CARN IVOROUS SECTS-C. N. Smithers 185 TRI LOBITES 187 COPPER M I N I N G AT -£. 0. R ayner 188 1 ELLY·FI S II S n GS-£. C. Pope 193 SPONGES, T il E FIRST R EPUBLICA s-1. R . Simons 194 N OTES AND NEWS 197 B AT BANDING-P . D. Dwyer 198

(Photography. unless otherwise stated, is by 1-foward Hughes. )

• FRONT COVER: Head of the caterpillar of the Tailed Emperor B utterfly (Eriboea pyrrlws sempronius). The "horns" do not appear to have any special function. The head is black in young caterpillars of this species and green in old ones. A full-length photo of this spectacular caterpillar is on page 192.

VoL. XIV, N o. 6 Junel5.1963 AUS IAN NATUR !STORY

Published Quarterly by the Australian Museum College Street, Sydney

Editor : J. W. Evans, Sc.D. Annual Subscription, Posted , 14/ -

VoL. X IV. No. 6 JU E 15. 1963 ---

CUCKOOS

8y H. J. de S. DISNEY

T H E Order C uculiformes contains two Neomorphinae, and Ground ta mifles, Musophagidae or Planta in- Cuckoos. These incl ude the famous Cali- eater confined to Africa, and the Cuculidae fornian R oadrunner, (Geococcyx ca/ifor­ or Cuckoos with a world-wide di stribution. nianus), which a lthough it usually runs, can ' The Cuculidae are zygodactylou , in fly and makes its ne t in a low tree. which the outer toe i reversible to the back. Couinae. Thi subfamily is clo e to the They have been divi ded into six subfa milies. Phaenicophaeinae. but is confined to the the Cuculinae, Phaenicophaeinae, Crotopha- island of Madaga car. ginae. Ncomorphinae, Couinae, and Ccntro- podinae. Although members of some of the Ccntropodinae. These are tropical birds subfamilies a re found in both the Old and found from Africa through south-east Asia ew World s, there arc no genera common to Australia. to both. Fourteen Species 1 n Australia Cuculinae are the true or parasitic . which a re not fo und in the New In Australia we have fourteen species of World. cuckoos: thirteen of these belong to the parasitic Cuculinae. The remaining species, P hacnicophaeinae are found in America the Phea ant Coucal (Cemropus phasianus) and South-east Asia. with one specie in belongs to the Centropodinae. one of our Africa. They differ from the Cucul inac by species actuall y make the cuckoo call li ke making their own nests. which are u ually the E uropean Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) flimsy structures made of twig . but the Koel (Eudynamis orientalis) has a Crotophaginae or Anis and G uira are a disti ntive "coo-cc" call and is sometime small American group whi ch bui ld large called the Coo-ce . untidy tick nests. l n the case of the Cuckoos are mainly tropical and nearly (Crotophaga ani) several fema les lay their all a rc migrato ry, although ome of the eggs together in the one nest. Australia n species do not appear to move

June, 1963 Page 169 The Channel-b illed Cucl..oo. the largest pa rasitic cuckoo, i a migrant to Australia from the Malayan Archipelago. ( Length, 2-1 in.).

very long distances. The C ha nnel-billed in its own genus, but Dr. D . L. Serventy Cuckoo (Scythrops novae-hollandiae) win- and H . M. Whittell (" Bird of Western ter in the Malayan Archipelago. returning Austra li a." 3rd edition, 1962) consider they to breed in Austra lia in the summer months. a ll belong to the genus Chrysococcyx. This i The Pallid Cuckoo (Cuculus pallidus) comes the same genus as the Bro nn or Didric south in August from the north to breed. Cuckoo (C. caprius) a nd Klaa ' Cuckoo The Oriental Cuckoo (Cuculus saturatus ) (C. Klaas) in Africa . on the other hand, is only a visitor in summe r from the northern hemi phere Insectivorous Birds Para itized winter. where it occurs as fa r north as ln Au tralia the birds parasitized a re a ll Siberi a. T he European C uckoo migra te to in ectivorous: this may be because there South Africa, while the Madagascar Lesser are relatively few seed-eating birds in Au - Cuckoo (Cuculus polioceplralus) migrates tralia. It has been tated that, a cuckoos northwa rds to the African mainla nd after a re insectivo rous, if their eggs were laid in breeding. The Sh ining Bron7c Cuckoo nests of ced-eating birds the young would (Chrysococcyx lucid us). which breed in die. This. however. is not true for the Bronze New Zeala nd. ha been recorded occa ion- Cuckoos. The Shining Cuckoo of New ally in eastern Au tralia, but it winter Zealand, although it genera lly lays its eggs qua rters arc the Solomon rsla nds, a distance in nests of the Grey Warbler (Cerygone of about 2.000 miles of ocean. and onl y on ieata). has been recorded using the nests of Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands have a few the introduced eed-eaters, the H ouse stracmlers been found. lt is not known how Sparrow (Passer domesticus) a nd the Chaf- the Shining Cuckoo does thi ama7ing ocean finch ( Frigil/a caelebs) . The Bronze or journey or by what route. Didric Cuckoo and Klaas' Cuckoo of Africa The Austra lian Bronte Cnckoos were previ- regula rly use the nests of weaver birds and ously placed in the genus Clralcites, with the other seed-eating birds. besides insect-eating Black-cared Cuckoo (Misocalius osculans) birds. Weavers either feed their young

Pa((e 170 A u~tra/ia n arural History entirely on insect , although they themsclvc All the para tttc cuckoos how definite a rc feeding on seed. o r they feed their young preferences for particular species of birds for the fi rst five day on insects, as in the and types of nests to deposit their eggs. The case of the Sudan Dioch (Que/ea que/ea), Pa llid Cuckoo arrives in spring and lays its and gradua lly wean the young onto green eggs in cup-shaped nests, usually honey- gra s seeds. When in Northern Rhode ia in eaters'. The eggs closely resemble tho e of 1956 with Mr. C. W. Benson and Dr. D. L. the honeyeater in colour, being a pale fl esh Serventy I hot a young female Didric colour. marked wi th a few reddi h pots. Cuckoo. which had recently left the ne t. The Fan-tailed Cuckoo (Cacomantis pyrro­ On examination. the tomach was found to phanus) eem to prefer domed ne t a nd be filled with !!ra s ceds and a few hard in particular in the Sydney di tict the Rock pa rts of bee tles~ T here were several weavers Warbler's (Origma so/it aria). The Brush or in the a rea. but none were seen attending the Square-tailed Cuckoo (Cacomantis variola­ young bird. An adult Didric was een sus), although very similar in appearance to nearby. Benson a nd Serventy reported this the Fan-tailed Cuckoo and belonging to the occurrence in " The Ibis," Vol. 99 p. 343. same genu , prefer to Jay in open ne ts, I 956. It i known that, unlike other para- usually fl ycatchers'. such as the Rufou sitic cuckoos. the Bronze C uckoos. both of Fantail ( Rhiphidura rufifrons), and the Africa a nd New Zealand, may feed thei r Scarlet Robin (Petroica multicolor) . All the own young after they have left their fo ter species of Bron7e C uckoos (Chrysococcyx). parents. I think the most likely explanation both in Australia a nd Africa, prefer to use of the emergence of thi habit is, as suggested as hosts sma ll birds which build domed independently by both Dr. A. J. Ma rshal! nests-in Austra lia usually nests of warblers and Mr. R . E. Moreau and tated in the and thornbills and in Africa weaver ne t . above report, that respon e to a young such as the Sudan Dioch , and T have cuckoo is vestigial in the adults of the several times seen them round the large Bronze Cuckoo and that it may have colonies of the latter birds. survival value where the young ha been The Koel i unique among cuckoo for receivi ng seed. the very great difference in colour of the

The male Kocl or Coo-ee Bird. which has glossy, blue-black plumage. (Length. 18 io.).

June. 1963 Page 17 1 plumage of the male and female. T he male is glossy blue-black, while the fema le has the upper parts and tail brown barred with New Subscription whi te. The crown is black and the under pa rts are buffy-wh ite barred with brown. Arrangements T hi is a la rge cuckoo, much larger than the previous species, being about 18 in. A s from July 1, 1963, payments by long, including the tail. This cuckoo usually post for subscriptions to "Australian places its eggs in the nests of orioles a nd the Natural History" should be addressed larger honeyeaters, like the Friar Bi rds to the Government Printer, Harris (Philemon spp.) Street, Ultimo, Sydney, who prints this maga~ine , instead of to the Australian Largest Parasitic Cuckoo Museum. The Channel-billed Cuckoo is a lso a This new arrangement is to facilitate remarka ble cuckoo, and at a first glance handling of subscriptions, and will not, appears very sim ilar to some of the African of course, result in any change to the hornbills, due to its la rge bill a nd size. It maga~ine. is the largest parasitic cuckoo, be ing 24 in. Visitors to the Museum will still be long. I t lays its eggs in the nests of crows. able to take out subscriptions there, magpies, and currawongs. Several eggs a re and single copies of the magazine, both laid in the one nest and some of the host's current and " back" numbers, will eggs removed . Like the Great Spotted continue to be sold there. Cuckoo (Clamator glandarius), found in southern Europe and Africa, which also lays its eggs in crows' nests, the yo un~ do not throw out the eggs or young of the foster it immediately tries to throw it out of the parents; both sets of young a re brought up nest. A young European Cuckoo was seen together. This is presumably because the to throw out all the young from a R edstarts' foster parents a re nearly as la rge as, or ( Phoenicurus phoenicurus) nest, while the larger than, these cuckoos, a nd they have mother foster pa rent sti ll brooded. After no difficulty in feeding the whole brood, four days in the case of the European while in the other cases the foster parents Cuckoo this sensitivity is lost a nd objects a re very much smaller. dropped on its back a re no longer thrown out. I n some cases the foster parents will There is much evidence to show that each not accept the cuckoo' egg a nd throw it out breeding season the female cuckoo returns to or even build it into the lining of the nest the same a rea to breed . Although this may or abandon the nest altogether. not yet have been proved by banding, many other birds have been proved by ba nding Tn general cuckoos' eggs resemble those of to return after long and complicated migra- the main foster parent of the area, both in tions to the same place and also by the same size and colour. The Black-earcd Cuckoo routes. After the female arrives she keeps (Chrysococcyx osculw1s) usually lays in the a watch on intended foster parents and nest of the Speckled Warbler (Chthonicola appears to find their nests this way. rather sagillata). The eggs of both are a simila r than by random searching. The female wa its reddish-brown, but the cuckoo's egg is until the nest a nd clutch are ready before usua lly slightly larger and can be further she lays her egg. If the nest a nd clutch a re distinguished from the warbler's egg by the ready before she is ready to lay her egg, fact that when it is rubbed some of the red she may remove the eggs so that the host colour comes off. bird wi ll continue to lay, or she may destroy the nest completely so that it has to be Laying Of Eggs built again. When she lays an egg, she lf the host nest is cup-shaped the female t l~uall y remove one of the owner's eggs. cuckoo lays directly in it. and if it has a The cuckoo egg usually hatches first ; the side entrance the bird eems able to eject young cuckoo has a sensiti ve cavity on its its egg into the nest. The old idea was that back and, should anything touch this a rea. where the nest wa domed or had a difficult

Page 172 Australian Natural Histon The Golden·bronze Cuckoo, which, like most Bronze C uckoos, usually lays it egg m a domed nest, such as that of a thornbill or wren. ( Length. 6 in.). entrance the cuckoo laid her egg on the a stra ight, la rk-like claw to the inner hind ground a nd carried it in he r bill. to the toe. T hey a rc sometimes put into a separate chosen nest. T hi s has in fact never been family, but they are connected to the true observed and it is significant that when the cuckoos, which have a curved hind claw, cuckoo lays in a nest with a side entra nce by the African species Ceuthmochares areus, she is not always successful. If the egg in which the hind claw is also curved. should fall to the ground or rest on the edge The coucals arc all fairly large birds, a nd of the nest, she ma kes no attempt to pick it the Australia n Swa mp Pheasant is one of the up with her bill and put it into the nest. largest of the genus; it is nearly as large as There is no difficulty tor the small Bro nze the Cha nnel-billed Cuckoo, being 23 in. Cuckoos to enter weaver birds' nests in the long. ll will eat more or less any sa me way as their owners. T he Shining food it can catch. such as mice, frogs, mall Cuckoo can push its way into the G rey reptiles a nd insects, also the eggs a nd young Warble r's nest. Thus, unless the cuckoo can of birds. lay directly in the nest of a bird, that bi rd T he nest is a la rge round structure in tall will not be pa rasitized . grass. made by pull ing the tops of the grass It is well known that a ll cuckoos, both together. M r. A . H . Chisholm recently re- New and Old World. feed on insects. parti- ported in " The Emu" (Vol. 62. p. 197, cularl y hairy caterpillars and other obnox- Oct., 1962) that M r. Bravery, of Atherton, ious insects, which few other birds wi ll eat. Queensland. had informed hi m that if lf the stomach of a cuckoo is examined , Swamp Coucals nested in a canefi eld and the it appears to be lined with fur, but thi s fur nest was disturbed or likely to be cut down, is really the hairs from the caterpill ars. T he the parent birds quickly made a nest in stomach of a Great Spotted C uckoo I another part of the canefi eld and apparently examined in Africa had several grasshoppers transferred the eggs or yo ung to the new of the species Z onocerus elegans. These nest. A coucal was seen carrying a n egg in grasshoppers a re fai rly brightly coloured its beak. The White-browed Coucal (C. with what might be termed "warning" superciliosus) of Africa has also been re- colours. T hey are evil smell ing and tasting ported transporting its young between its and few other creatures wi ll touch them. thigh <; like a Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) The Centropodinae or coucals can b e when menaced by a forest fire or other separated from the other cuckoos by having dar-ger. l11ne, 1963 Page 173 1\n Aboriginal hunter preparing a J..a ngaroo for cooJ.. ing. The to nes. as he and a nd "ith " hich the carca;s \\ill be CO\crcd a re being heated in the fire behind him. An oven pit will be dug in the fireplace. [Photo : Author.]

Kangaroos and Wallabies in Aboriginal Life and Art

By FREDERJCK D. lcCARTHY A '> the ka ngaroos (a nd some of the wal- parts of the co ntinent abo ut fo ur species of labie ) a re the biggest land mammals rat ka ngaroo and over twenty of wa llabies. in Au tralia, they supplted the largest quan- The men of any local gro up o r horde of tity of meat to Abo riginal hunters thro ugh- Abo rigines. comprising from thirty to forty o ut the continent. One of the principal duties persons. would be a ble to hunt o ne o r two of the men was to obtain meat fo r their fam- species of kangaroo , and from three to ili es and these animal s became their prin- eight kinds of wallabies, in thei r own terri- cipal game, the ta rget of the magician's skill . tory, depending upon the enviro nment, there the theme of camp-fire corrobo rees. a nd a being mo re pccie of wallabies in the fertile subject of the deepest ignificance in legend, eastern re!! ions than elsewhere. Giant kan- ri tual a nd a rt. Quite appropri ately. the kan- ga roos we"i='e hunted by the a ncesto rs of the garoo is pai red with the emu on the Au t- Abo rigine . but it i not known prcci ely ralian coat of arms. how long ago these anima l became extinct. There are three pecies of kangaroos- the Great Grev o r Fo rester in the east a nd south-we t, the R ed o r Plainic in the inter- Methods Of Hunting io r, and the Euro o r Walla roo. widely dis- Ka ngaroo a rc oft en talked while re ting tributed but no t all over the co ntinent. In o r , lecping in the shade of a tree during the addition. there a rc two species of tree ka n- heat of the mid-day. Tn the open plain and garoos in no rth Queensland. and in vario us undulating country of the inland, a fami ly

Page 174 Australian Natural H istory will stalk a kangaroo. the wife signalling the struct a zigzag line of fence with a pit at movements of the animal to her hu band. each a pex. The fence, too, may be erected This i a gruelling experience for the hunter, a round a waterhole. with two opening , who ha to pursue the anima l until it i through one of which the kangaroo enter exha usted, particularly in a hot summer tem- to drink; the hunters c;,asc it into the other pera ture ot over J 00 degrees. In droughts one. where it is caught in a net. l n Queens- and times of food shortage hi s ucce s or land conical cane traps a re set behind open- failure i of vital importance to hi s fa mily. ings in the base of a bough fence. and the After rain kangaroo a re ru n down in the !.Jrush wa llabies are trapped in them as they soft ground with the aid of dog . lt i dart through the holes to evade the pur uing common for a group of hunters to go out. hunte rs. Wa ll abies a re speared or killed v ith led by their most kilful spearman. and a throwing club. when kangaroos a rc sighted severa l of the In place of the fence the natives of the younger men act a beaters to drive them tablelands and pl ains of Q ueen land a nd to a pot where the leader can spear one or made a tout net ( no two of them. Sign-language for quietness, longer in use) o ut of plant-fibre cord. ~ in. a nd skilful co-operation. make this a highly thick. fashi oned into a mesh of 12 in. by successful method of hunting. Sometimes the 9 in. T hese nets. 6 ft. to 7 ft. high, formed men, women and children of a local group an o pen-sided ba rrier up to 120 ft. long. surround kangaroo or brush wall abies in a T he t> nds were fa tencd to trees. and the thicket. finally driving them into the spear- net supported by poles in between. They men's range. Burning-off was a common were erected ac ros~ narrow ravine . tracks practice all over Au tralia. a co-operative used by the game. breaks in the forest and effort of local gro up members who. in the simi la r place where kangaroo could be sub-tropical north. burnt out areas of the drive n into them a nd kill ed with p ear or tall wet-season gras . a nd elsewhere patches ·:lub. of crub. killi ng the terrified animal a they attempted to escape. How Many Kangaroos Were Killed? Pit traps a re widely employed. Ln some It i interesting to speculate about the inl and areas spikes arc set in the bottom of number of ka ngaroos killed by the Abo- the pit. Frequently a log is placed across a ri gines. It is certain that they were. in prc- track to force the game to leap over it into white-man time, . carce in the a rid regions the pit. Bru h fences are erected a long both and abundant in the more fertile a reas, the side of a track to guide the into only restrictions on their increase being Abo- the pit trap. and some keen hunters con- riginal man. dingoes. droughts and fire .

A cave painting of hunters spearing a kangaroo. 1 ote how the hunter. spear and kangaroo are joined together.

June, 1963 Page 175 kangaroos ha vc increased in numbers 111 po t-white-man times.

Cooking And Sharing T he hunters carry the game back to camp, where the women have the _firewood ready, o r to a po t o n the o pen platn where the gro up will camp o r have it meal. In Arnhem Land it is a n ho no ur for the pear- ma n, who is given a specia l ta tu_s term in recognition of hi s ki ll , to carry h1s quarry. even though it may be a fully-grown buck. into the camp. where he prepare it for the oven. Other men may a sist him. Sometimes the anima l is cut into joint which a re all cooked in the o ne oven. ually, the fur is burnt o ff over a big fi re . The entrails a rc baked. and with trings of fat and lumps of undioe ted gra ::. fro m the stomach. are eaten whil; the c~ rca i cooking. The carcass is dumped o n it back into the pit, and buried in the hot sand, a he and tones scraped o ut of the oven pit. the body cavity being filled wi th ho t sto nes. These ovens a re covered with paperbark and soil in Arnhcm An "X-ray"' ca,·c painting at Oenpclli. "estcrn Arnhcm Land. Northern I erritOr\. of a dead Land. l..angaroo. ho" ing the vertebral column a~d Variou part of the body are given to stomach organs. painted in red on a "hrte ground. [Photo: Author.] pa rents, parent - and bro ther -in la_w, hunt- ing companio ns and other . men, either b~ ­ fo re or after the anima l IS cooked. Th1 There were 600-odd Aboriginal tribes. com- compulsory haring of kangaroo , irrespec- prising about 8,000 l ~cal group . in A ust- tive of who was the spearman. and other ra lia. of which o ne-thtrd were coa tal a nd food. is jealously admini te rcd in a local estuarine d wellers whose principal food was !!ro up. and evasio n are puni heel e_vercly. fi sh a nd mollu. c and fo r who m the hunting Sharincr vari es from the spearman losmg the of kanoaroos was no t a daily ta k. In the whole "'a nimal ( in south-western Victo rian other tribes, the local g ro up · living in 4oo tribe. ) to giving pecific joint to c~ rt a~ n the fertile a reas would pro bably kill from relatives. and in o mc a reas every fam1ly 111 six to e ight kangaroo a week. a nd those in the g roup receive a share. Shortage or the arid region from three to fo ur. Thus. abundance of food affects the proportionate takino an a ~e ra ge of fi ve per week for 6.000 shares. Ano ther type of discipline was that h o rd ~s . the n~mbc r of kangaroo ki lled of the Wo tjobaluk tribe in Victoria , which would ha ve been in the vicinity of 30.000 forbade boys to cat kangaroo a nd other per week. o r J 56.000 per annum. to which foods. in the firm bel ief that they would the 2.000 fi him!. horde at two per week become sick if they bro ke t h i~ rule. would add another 20.000 per annum. A imila r figure is arrived at ba cd on six kanoa roos a week killed by ten people, as Other Uses For Kangaroos I witnessed in western Arnhem Land. rel- ati ve to a to tal population of 300.000 Abo- All over Au tralia, the lo ng incws from rigines. With this kind of control eliminated. the tai l of the ka ngaroo provided binding th'C dineo removed fro m va t area of o n spear and pcarthrowcr , the fur wa co untry.~ and better sources of water pro- twisted into an excell ent twine, and the vided by pasto ra list . it is probable that incisor teeth were fashioned into attractive

Pac:e 176 Australian all/ral H istory necklets, forehead band and other orna- the clan ge neration after genera tion. In north ment . Warm winter cloaks were made out a nd (;entra l Australia, and along the east of the whole skin in the southern temperate coast, ceremonies were performed by the po rtion of the continent. In the eastern men of the cult-clans to incrca. e the num- half of Au tralia the kin was cwn uo, bers of the totem animals and plants sym- and the onnce scaled. to torm a water bag. bolically by clearing out hole . di tributing and in south-ea tern Victoria the pouch was dust, water a nd other thing at the totem used for this purpose. Jn New South Wales centres. or by retouching cave paintings (in and Victo ri a a rectangle of the furry skin the K imberl eys) accompani ed by the singing wa cut into a fringed pubic apron. The of acred chants. the perfomancc of imitative leg bones were commonly u ed as death dances and other rite . T he Aranda clan - pointer and awl , in Queensland as d rill s, men pour blood from their arms over the and in the Kimberleys as pressure-flaking sacred ka ngaroo rock at Undiara. and elab- tools for the making of stone spea r-points. orately decorated men sing and dance about The lower jaw incisor tooth formed a ready- made cutting and engravi ng tool. ln Arnhcm La nd the shoulder bl ade is fashi oned into a knife for slicing Macro7amia nuts.

Ritual The Aborigines classify kangaroo and wallabies according to sex. izc. colour. habita t and age as totem of clans a nd other social gro ups~ examples be ing hil l. female, rock. red. black. small and long-legged kan- garoo . T he kangaroo. because of its great economic value, is usually one of the mo t importa nt totem among the hunting tribes. but the Karicra and other tribes of north- we tern Au tnllia did not have a ka ngaroo totem. Although the eating of a totcn;' a ni - mal or plant may be trictly forbidden or permitted o nl y as a ritual by some tribes. in others it may be eaten at any time. excep- ti on sometimes being made in the case of a taplc food. A rcpre entation of the totem is p:t inted on a clansma n's body during cere- moni es, painted or engraved on hi s weapons A cave painting in red of a kangaroo in an to give them magical efficacy or in the rocks unusually am:nated po e. at Oenpelli. [Photo: beside a watcrhole, and the totem is repre- Author.] sented in the ~ac red art galleri e . Few of the folk-lore talcs about the long the ka ngaroo and its mythical ancestors for legs a nd tail and the hopping acti on of kan- several day . cl uring which they eat a ritual garoos have been collected. The Wiradjuri meal of its ne h. At the famo us ochre mine of ew South Wale believe that the tail is at Wilgamia. Western Australia. the blood a spear thrown into the buttocks of a man of a kangaroo speared on a nearby hill in during a quarrel in mythical times. T he mythi ca: times produced the red. hi s li ver Aranda kangaroo clansmen in centra l Aust- the ye ll ow. and his gall the green pigments. rali a relate that a party of kangaroo spirit A popular corroboree around the campfire men travelled from Ultainta to Karinga in is the kangaroo hunt in which the men imi- the Dreamtime. One called Unburtja ~di e d tate very skilfully the hopping, sitting, but his spirit survived in a sacred stone, the scratching and other postures of the tjuringa, a nd it is re-born in members of animal .

June, 1963 Page 177 The Kangaroo In Art bodied. thin-legged kangaroos a nd walla bies. The ka ngaroo and emu a rc a mong the often lacking paws, but in many unu ual a nd most importa nt and widely distributed art graceful postures, are pa inted in groups of mollfs or the A bo rigines, a nd in some a reas co nsidera ble deli cacy and animatio n. T he do mina te the a rt. They are shown in pro fi le magninccnt X-ray 11gurcs ponray.::d in tnc a a rule. in itting. crawling. leaping a nd caves a nd ba rk painting of A rnhem L a nd other po turcs. occa ·iona ll y eating gra . and are undo ubtedly tne most co1o un ul and as single fi gure o r in lines and gro ups. They triking repre entations of the e a nimals are o tten depicted truck with a pear, club do ne by Abor i g in ::~ l arti t . O n the ba rk o r boomerang. sheet a kangaroo may represent a sp irit man who ha turned either into a kangaroo Ln the o utline engravings of the Sydney- or into a painting. o ne is a ka ngaroo woman Hawkesbury dis trict a rc many fine life-size who plays a vitH l part in rain-making. and compositions il lustrating the ka ngaroo. others arc p:>rtraycd simply as a nimals of hunters and the tracks of both. a nd in this the co un t ry~ide. These well haped and area fig ures up to 24 ft . long of kangaroos pose::! kangaroos. p:1 inted in sets of fin e red occur. In the linear design pha e of engrav- o r black parallel lines over a white o r yellow ing the compo iti ons consist of the tracks of silho uette. form a triking contra t to the the kangaroos. hunter.> a nd sometime their stiff. ill -prop0rtioned a nin'lals po rtrayed in dogs. or of the track of the a nimals be ide broken line and dots by the G rootc Eyla ndt a pothole. A mo ng the later pecked intaglio artists where the to tem a nd the legendary many excelle nt engravings of kangaroos and o rigin a nd travels of its clan ancestors give wa llabies. up to l i f e - ~ i 7e but also in mi ni- sanctio n to the cave and ba rk painting . ature. have been found in gallerie in west- ern ew South Wales a ri"d no rth-western A ustra lia. T he pecked tracks a rc often very big. up to 2 ft. long a nd several inche wide and deep. enlarged to repre ent gigan- tic mythical ka ngaroo . Hunting compo i- Butterfly Tagging tio ns in thi pha e range from those lim ited to tracks, o r tracks a nd the speared kan- Programme garoos, to tho e in which the hunter. kan- garoo. weapon and tracks are included . In an attempt to obtain an ind icatio n o( the distances tra\ell cd by m igrating butterfl ie in Abo rig in al artists have prod uced their A ustralia a preliminar} ~rogramme of ob ervation. fi nest representation of kangaroo in the marking a nd relea~e of specimen is being carried out b} the Au tralian Museum \\ ith the co-opera- cave paintings. T he dry pigment drawings tion of entomologist in several place in ' ew of these animal . up to life-size. in eastern South Wale. New So uth Wa le . tho ugh somewhat ti ff in The butterflie are marked b} mean o( a small style. possess a feeling of strength a nd bulk label attached to the underside of the hind wing, unusual in this subject. T hey a rc drawn in each label having the words " Return Museum red o r black, sometimes p :~ i nt ed in reel . yel- Sydne}" printed on it. together with a serial number. Of about 1.300 butterfl ie labelled and low, white o r black, mostly less than a foot released so far. 16 have been returned, or reported lo ng. T hey di play a sensitivity in the po - found again. Eight o( these were from one batch tures, a realism in the g ro uping . and a of 100 released at Turramurra, near }dney. To keen appreciatio n of the a nato my not date recap t ure~ have all been clo e to the points of release. but they indicate that the techniques marred by the flat monochro me technique u ed a re ~ati'>factory and that the informatio n on e mployed. In this area the hunting of ka n- the lab~l is ufficicnt to make cerlain that the garoos and emus. often depicted with the pecimen are returned to the Mu cum. So far magicians pc r for min ~ a rite to render the most of the specimen marked have been Wan- derers ( Danaus plexippus), tol!ether with a few animals easy to kill. fo rms the princi pal of the Lesser Wanderer ( D. c lr rvsippus) and some inspiration of the art. A nother intcrc. ting Caper Whites (A naplraeis ja1•a). style of representation occurs in the Groote Eventually it i ~ hoped to exte:1d the marking to and Chasm isla nd caves. where la rge- other specie and to m~rk in more loc11litic .

Page 178 Australian Natural History The e photos of a Common Freshv. ater Leech (Lim11obdel/a australis), travell ing by a serie of loopinj:! movements. show it s tremendous power of contraction and expansion. Top left: Anchored by the rounded posterior sucker (above). the narrow front end stretches out and attaches by another sucker. around the mouth. to the surface it is on. Bonom left: The posterior is then brought tov.ards the head by a shortening and thickening motion of the rear end. Bollom right: With the posterior sucker now re-attached. the hzad end again reache out. questing for a new place of attachment. Top right: The leech, now at maximum e\pan ion. shows cl earl} one of the well-knO\\ n colour patterns of this specie - five dark brO\\nish-black stripes on a background of creamy-}ellow ochre. It \\as coll ected by a Museum field party at Lake arran. near Brewarrina. v.e tern ev. South Wales.-E.C.P.

June, J 963 Page 179 FOSSIL MARSUPIALS AND DRIFTING SANDS

By R. A. STJRTON University of California, U.S.A.

ANY kinds of a nimals are restricted that preceded it. The last one, from June to M in thei r distribution to Australia, T as- August, 1962, wa · no exception to this mama a nd ew Gumea. Most of these trend. creatures are so diffe rent from those in other Our participation in this project ha been parts of the world that ma ny question have at the invitation of the South Australian ari sen concerning their origin, relationships Museum. ln the beginning the expeditio ns and rates of evolution. These queries can be were prima rily fina nced by Fulbright answered only when the fossil records of Awards, and the l a~t three explorations by the groups a re adequately known. It is ob- the United States ational Science Founda- vious that most of the families, many of tion. Funds were &lso contributed by the which a re still living, have been isolated in South Austra lian Museum and by the the Australian Continental Re!!ion for not Museum of Paleontology. The holotypes of and~ less than 70 million years, ome prob- the species de cribed will be returned to ably longer. Since J 953. the South Aust- Australia. ralian Museum a nd the Uni versity of Cali- forni a Museum of Paleontology have had six For many reason ·, we have found it more expeditions in the Tira ri Desert to find fossil profit able to include no more tha n fi ve per- that would throw some light on these sons in our fi eld pa rties. This past year there problems. were four: Pa ul F. L awson. of the South Australian Museum, and R ichard H . Ted- The Tirari Desert is a sand ridge country ford . Michael 0 . Woodburne and the east of L ake Eyre and west of the Birdsvill e a uthor, from the Unive rsity of California. Track. In a north-5outh directi on it lies All were experienced prospectors and col- between the Warburton R iver a nd the divide lectors of fossil vertebrates. Our work was between Lake Eyre and the Frome Basins. greatly facilitated in having for the first ti me A we have continued the excavations and a McCormick International tractor for re- the explorati ons, the result of each fi eld moving the overburden above the fossil- trip have been more productive than the one bearing beds. This machine was generously

Paul Lawson removes over- burden at Law on Quarry. while Richard H. Tedford collects fossils.

Page 180 Australian Natural H istory upplied by Mr. Vincent P . Keaoe, of Adel- F or a while I lay there watching a bright a ide. l t was furnishcJ wi th a hydraulic back- moon and even picked out the Southern acting hoe (back-acter) with a capacity of Cro where its stars sparkled through the three-eights of a cubic yard. We also pur- gum tree . chased a trailer to be pulled by the tractor. Next day we pushed on to M arree and The party left Adelaide early on the a rrived at noon. lt was fi ve o'clock before mo rnmg of J une 18 in two Land R overs, the tractor and our gear were off the fl at car one putling a trailer. The tractor a nd its and the trailer was loaded . Then we were trailer, six drums of fuel, our fi eld gear and off up the Birdsville Track with Mike driv- most of our provisions had been shipped to ing the tractor. M ost of the time he made M a rrec by ra il. We were thirty-four miles about twenty m iles per hour. Next day we no rth of Adelaide before the morning li ght went by L a ke H arry, acro s dry Clayto n had broken to the extent that crows could Creek. to Dulka ninna Station. past Blazes be een on posts and in paddocks along the Well a nd at last reached Cannuwalkaninna highway. The countryside was green, but Bore at noon. By 3.20 we had cro sed a fruit orcha rds revealed the time of year in gibber plain a nd were eight miles to the the o uthern hemisphere, with leaves fallen north-west at our old camp site under the and left-over apples on the ground. L ater cooliba h trees on the leeward side of Ca nnu- large fl ocks of corcllas, disturbed by the walka ninna Dune. pa ing car , a rose noisily only to settle on All of us were a nxious to get to work in the ground again :md continue feeding. At the Lawson Quarry where Dick Tedford Quorn the petrol station man told us there and 1 had left a few fossil bones in place had been good rains farther north. Along last year. Paul selected a slope with a the road to Hawker a flock of crows and a rea onably modest incline a nd had little big Wedge-ta iled Eagle ci rcled away from tro uble driving the tractor over the big dune the carcas of a Red Kangaroo that had near camp. Dick, Mike and I fo llowed in a been run into the night before by a car. La nd R over as Pa ul attempted to fol low ' Roos we re common here nine years ago, our old trail four miles across the desert to but now they have been greatly depleted . the escarpments along the we t side of the Near Brachina C reek we saw the first li ve Lake Pa lanka rinna salt pan. The desert was emu. T o our r ight was the colourfu l blue in m a rkcd contrast to t he dry. wind blown Flinders R ange showing a limb of the syn- condition so prevalent last year. L ater we clinc that forms the spectacular Wilpena learned that there nad been 6.2 in . of rain Pound. Nearer the highway the salt bush up to J une. This was well above the aver- and open spaces over the rolli ng hills bore age for an entire year in this a rea. The effect a remarkable re .:: mblance to place in wa, apparent. with young plants popping Wvoming and Colorado. F a rther on a a nd- through the and everywhere. Even the storm. blowing out of L ake T orrens. crossed bushes a nd coolibahs around camp had our path a nd thoroughl y bathed u in d ust for everal miles. In the meantime a long taken a new lease on life. Birds were ing- ing everywhere and there were some specie coal train roared past on its way fro m we had not seen before. Leigh C reek to Port Augusta. Soon. how- ever. we were out of the wind and du t and The discovery site of the Pa lankarinna everything was bright again . Camp was fauna. known as the W oodard Quarry. was made for the night below the Aroona Da m. depleted in 1954. Then in 1957 another ite. where a wooll y euro came bouncing up the one-ha lf mile to the north-ea t, was cli - creek and was within 75 ft. of the car covered whi ch later was developed as the before it took o ff up over a rocky slope in Lawson O• •arrv. T he exti11ct macrooorlid enormou leaps. As our fire splashed its kanga roo Prionotemnus palcurkarinnicus has light on the white trunks of the hu ~e gum been the dominant element in thi s fauna. trees. the aroma of coffee a nd barbecui ng We were parti cul a rl y anxious to learn more lamb chop stimulated our a nticipation of aboul the other creatures in that environ- the evenin g meal. L ater we contentedly zip- melll. e peci:.~ Jl v thr lame !.!round bird . clip- oed our elves into our sleeping-bags and rotodont called M P11isco/ophus maw~oni listened to the mu ic of crickets and frog . and the other smaller marsupials. With

June, 1963 Pafle 181 earth-moving equipment now at hand our trcam channel several mill ion year ago, pos ibilitie were promising. continued to app~ar in abundance. Fortun- Last year was unu uauy dry. and con- ately there al o were parts of the diproto- equcntly the quarry wa full of '' indblown donts a nd emu-like bi rds. Each pecimcn anu. W1thin a few hour this was cleared added some additional information. At every away with shovels, and the Mampuwordu opportunity both Paul and Mike prospected channel and relocated with its few exposed elsewhere with the earth-moving equipment fossils. That was where we reluctantly whe re there were traces of the Mampuwordu topped working last year. P aul inched the and along the escarpment . Without the tractor up the slope a nd onto the fl oor of tractor time would not have permitted thi the qua rry. where all fossils had been re- exploration. After a few fruitless attempt moved. Thus he was in a position to reach they finall y located bones within a stone' out with the back-acting hoe, cut through throw of the Woodard Qua rry. There we the tough, brick-red, argillaceous sand of uncovered a sociated parts and better pre- the overlying Tirari formation without the served specimens of the diprotodonts than weight of the machine on the fossil bed . had been di covered at the other ite . This In le than two days approximately 576 we called the Keane Quarry. cubic feet of earth wa moved out of the The days slipped by rapidly. and almo t way and we were ready to locate and coliect before we reali zed it was time to break our fossil s. camp under the cooliba hs and move on to Although a cold damp wind almo t con- Lake gapakaldi deep in the heart of the tinuou ly wept across tne lake for the next Tirari De crt. With our water containers re- fiv e day , we tuck tenaciously to o ur job. filled. a generous upply of fresh beef kindly At time there wa so much sand whipping given u by Brian a nd Cathy Oldfield . of and wi rling through the quarry that our Etadunna Station. and exhilarating bath in work stopped a we protected our eyes. the warm water at Cannuwalkaninna Bore, When the wi nd subsided a nd the temper- we struck off to the north. Following our ature ameli orated. bush fli es moved in, truly landma rks of previous trips, we passed the making their annoying presence felt by . alt-pan lakes of Kanunka and Piticanta and crawling over our faces and even behind fin a ll y pitched our tent back of a dune ridge e ur glasses. half a mile east of Lake Ngapakaldi. The Mampuwordu sand matrix was read- lt has been said that every camp has it ily scratched away. but the bone and teeth charm. but most of the time it wa<; difficult were u ually pa rtly incased in sheet gypsum, to find any merit in thi location. The wind requiring time. patience and skill to remove blew. filling the air with sand and dust. Thi them . Jaws and limb-bones of Prionotemnus, was fo llowed by a build-up of cloud in the where they had come to re t in the old outh-we t that culminated in cold rain

Brown chan nel sands with bones a nd teeth, a nd over- lyin '.l hori7ontally-bedded mud tone with leave . A new locality at Lake gapa- kaldi.

Page 182 A tutralian arura/ H istory mall diprotodont limb and foot bonei in 1 gapakaldi Quarrr.

sometimes lasting ior days. The de ert was the orange chats, the crim on chats, and the dripping wet. When the sun came out tho us- equally colourful, tiny. red-capped robin . a nd of bush fli es converged on u as if to Most charming. however. were the li ttle blue make up for lo t time. wren with white wing coverts: without them Discomforts were diminished and even the desert would not be the same. forgotten as the life-giving moi ture stimu- lated growth. From the a rid waste of last Small Diprotodonts year the interdune valleys meta morphosed Ra in or shine, day after day. we pu. hed into continuous flower garden . Dominant on with our work. With the big tractor were yellow daisies, white and yellow Pa ul and Mike removed the overburden. poached-egg dai ies, a nd purple wild tock. then cut through a layer of dolomitic lime- The e fo rmed patterns of yellow. white and tone at the Ngapakaldi Qua rry. expo ing light purple that were les densely distrib- the green claystonc unit in which we had uted up along the sides of the golden dunes. round such excell ent fossils last year. T hi h was as though someone had designed thi was the oldest of our Tertiary fa unas. Soon colourful di play with pathway of fresh Di:k di covered most of a mall diproto- clean and a mong the fl ower . dont skeleton. Both hind feet were cla ped Closer in pecti on revealed delicate deep together. indicating that the animal had died Furple blossoms of the "wandering lawyer," on its back in the mud. Among the other as it is called . It grow as a fl attened vine bones were a left front limb a nd foot with on the sand. ft wa difficu lt to believe that every bone in place. Next day Mike found such a precious little fl ower would in fact another individual. More than a week of the eventuall y produce such a nasty burr. most painstaking work passed before the c Bird . some of which we had onl y seen small e. t of known diprotodonts were re- rarely in the de ert, re ponded to the change moved. The length of a skull was 9 in .. a in climate in number and kinds. Australi an rema rkable contrast to the big Dipro!odon song-larks were everywhere, but each with skull from La ke Callabonna which measured its lim;ted territory. The male would take 32 in. Then we found some dasyurid jaw . ff in a bur t of continuou song. Moving Of even greater interest was part of what through the air on flntterinl! wi ngs and wi th promi. cs to be a . mall phalanger. Careful landing gears down like a helicopter. it )!ave preparation will reveal it identity. a cheerf11l song to the desert that had come One day Paul came into the ouarry with to life. There were many interesting birds the news that he had fo und another promi - but those mo t likely to be remembered were ing site several hundred yards fa rther along

June, 1963 Paf?e 183 the edge of the lake. Sure enough, there at the edge of a and dritt was evidence ol an old stream channel that had apparently cut into the underlying Etadunna fo rmatio n. Australian Museum Within an area of 10 ft. were the haltered carapace and pia tron of fi ve turtle . Fish Publications bo nes, bits of fo. siI wood and gravel littered The following Australian Museum publi- the surface. Again our big machine played cations are available at the Museum:- an important role in getting into the cha nnel deposit. Dick was the first to find a small A STRALIAN IUSEUM HAN DBOOK: A comprehensive natural history handbook. ma mmal jaw. Fro m tha t time o n we worked as well as a guide to the Museum; I 40 almo t fro m daylight until dark. pages; ~/ -, posted 4/ 6.

When we fin a lly left the field we all agreed THE ~AT RAL HISTORY OF SYDNEY: that thi was the mo t intere ting fauna we An account of much of the land and marine fauna, topography. geology. fos ils. native had encountered in Au tralia. lt was next to plants, and Aboriginal relics of the Sydney the oldest in o ur tratigraphically controlled area; contains articles already published in ectio n ea t of La ke yre. Some of the thi magazine. with two others added; sixty- genera were al o found in the Ngapakaldi four pages: 5/ -, posted 5/ 6. fauna . but the pecies appeared to be differ- EXPLORING BETWEEN TIDEMARKS: ent. It wa very much a fo re t stream and An introduction to eashore ecology; forty- woodland assemblage. There were ringtail- five pages: ~/ - , posted 4/ 6. like po sums. bushytail-like po sums. koala- THE FROGS OF N.S.W.: Thirty-eight like fo rms. the fir t known Tertiary wombat, pages: 3/ 6, po led 4/ ·. and a jaw and teeth uggesti ve of a pig- AUSTRALIAN AUORIG INAL DECORA· footed bandicoot. As near as we could judge T IVE ART: Sixty pages: 6/ ·, posted 6/ 6. there were fo ur o r five kinds of macropodid . There wa also a rathe r primitive diproto- A STRALIA, ABORIGINAL ROCK AI{T: Describes engravings and painti ngs on dont. but not like the one in the olde t fauna. rock faces and in caves: seventy-two pages; The da, yurid . that a umed the role ol 6/ 6, posted 7/ -. carnivore a nd in ectivores in o ther part KS.W. ABORIGINAL !'LACE NAMES of the world. a usual were fascina ting. One AND E I' IIONIO S WORDS, with their little fellow in thi fauna appeared-to be meanings: thirty-two page~: 1/ 6, posted 2/ ·. primitive and another re, embled the potted- Dasyurops. A STRALIAN ABORIG INES: A booklet tai led Even more interesting wa of '>pecial interest to school children: 6d., a mandible about the ize of that in Dasyu­ posted 1/ ·. rops, but the fo. si t had an unusuall y la rge T liESE AJ{ E JNVERTEURATES: A folder. premolar. We also fo und five mammalian illu<,trated in colour. explaining how to use teeth that have us pu!7led as to ordina l the 1\lu,eum'> unique e\hibit "These Arc cla sification. There were also teleost fish. lnv.!rtebratc'>": 1/ 6, posted 2/ ·. lung fi h. turtle. crocodilian and bird re- LIFE THRO GH THE AGES: A coloured. main . Of considerabl.:: importance ''a<; the illu trated chart (3~in. deep and :!4in. wide). presence of the fir. t Tertiary leaves to be ... hov. ing the progre'>'> of life from the prim· fo unJ associated with our faunas. They were iti ve invertebrate~ o f more than 800 million year<, ago to the present. The durations of remarkably like the coolibah leaves we had the geological periods are shown and for compa ri sen. example\ of the forms of life that exi~ted in cad1 arc illu~tra t cd. Dc'>igncd for hang· Each year we have returned to the Tirari ing in schools: 6 ·, posted 6/ 9. De. ert o mcthin!! new has been di covered. a nd mo re has bee n added to our knowledge. LEAFLETS on natural-hi\lory and Abo- We realite that much mo re of the Cenozoic riginal topic'o: t= rcc of charge. cquence of life can be fo und there and else- Al..,o on sale: u STRAUAN ABORIG· where o n the continent. but it will require INAL CULT RE, publi>hed by the Aust- ralian National Advisory Committee for considerable det.::rmi natio n a nd patience to U ESCO. A handbook of the life. art and get it. craft\ of the Aborigines: 2/ 6. posted 3/ -. [Photos in this article are by tl1e author.]

Pas:e 184 A ustralia11 Natural History The Praying Mantis. a well-k nown in ect pre- dator. a nd (bel<. ~>. ) its head and forelegs. T he forelegs are speciall y adapted for setzmg and holding prey. CARNIVOROUS INSECTS

By C. N. SMITHERS

Q NE of the most important factors con- tributing to the success of the insect , as a group, has been the a bility to expl oit food sources. Hardly a species of plant or plant product is immune to insect attack a nd with uch versatility it is only to be expected that ma ny species of in ects would turn from a vegetable diet to investigate the other a ni - ma l in their environment as a source of food. This ha happened many time in the long evolutionary history of the in sects and there a re few orders of insects in whi ch there are no predaceous ~p ec i es . We usually think of caterpilla rs as bdng typically leaf-eating insect and most of the m are. but even amongst the caterpillars there are specie which a re carni vorous. feeding, for example. on scale insects and tree hoppers; other have formed a clo e as ociation with ants

June, 1963 Paf?e 185 and a re found in :mts' nests, where they wing. The incessant to-and-fro hawking of feed on the a nt larvae. Some groups of the drago nfly is in strong contrast to the insects are entirely carnivorous, their a nces- flight of the ro bber fl y, which rests quietl y tors having long ago ceased to be vegetar- on a grass sta lk or a bra nch waiting for its ians. prey; when a suitab!e victim passes nearby the robber fly fli es at its prey. captures it, Bei ng such a successful group of animals often ta king it with an a udible impact, and a nd having the abil ity to reproduce a t a then la nds on a co nvenient perch to eat its rapid rate and thereby build up their popu- meal at leisure. Although both dragonfly lations rapidly, m akes many insect species a nd robber fly will take ra pidly flying prey, a n ideal food source themselves and the they can usually find sufficient in the way of predaceous insects have not been slow to fairly slow-fl ying insects to satisfy their re- ta ke adva ntage of the food source thereby quirements without the need for any great provided . With such a ready source of food turn of speed . and with la rge numbers of species which arc carnivorous, it is inevita bl e that special- It is those insects which are themselves iza ti ons should arise ma king for the m ore not very fast-moving that exhibit some of effi cient capture of prey. Much depends, of the more specialized means of capturing course, on whether the prey is fast or slow their food, the methods used usually in volv- moving ; some of the most vulnerable species ing lying in wa it for the prey to come within a re those which a re immo bile. Aphids reach or making some form of trap. Of a ll (plant lice) form the prey of many insects insects that lie in wait for their prey the a nd, in genera l, the;r predators a rc not very mantids, of which all species a re carniv- fast-moving. Groups of aphids ca n usually orous, are perhaps the best example. for be found in spring and summer on the new not only does the structure of their forelegs shoots of rose bushes or bean pla nts a nd enable them to grasp and retain hold on such groups a rc nea rly always accompanied relatively powerful insects but their behav- by ladybird beetl es and their la rvae as well io ur patterns are such that they will find as by the carnivorous maggots of the hover a nd occupy a suita ble situati on. one into Oies; these predawrs move a mongst the which li kely prey will come sooner or la ter. aphids without undue haste, eating as they Also, they have the a bility to rema in immo- go. and between th-:: m arc capable of des- bile with their predominantly green or brown troying entire colonies of a phids. colouring making them relatively inconspic- uous, to our eyes at least. The forelegs a re [n the case of slow-moving prey the pre- o formed that they have the tibia a nd dators a re oft en also fai rly slow-moving or femur very well develo ped and these can are capable of fl ying somewhat faster than be brought together edge to edge. the edges the prey. Ground beetles are a ble to run a t being spined and the spines fitt i n ~ between a fairly ra pid rate and can overtake and one a nothe r when the femur and tibia arc attack the slaters. millipedes and insects on brought together. T his a rra ngement results which they feed . For this they use their in a highly effi cient grasping mechani sm. powerful jaws. seizing a nd chewing up the Tn order to give an extended reach the coxa victi m. T he fl ying predators a re more spec- (basal section of the leg) . whi ch is usuall y tacul a r in action tha n some of the ground- quite short in insects. is _greatly elongated . dwellers, a nd the sight of a d r a~o nfl y fl ying M a ntids, like dragonfli es, find their prey by over water in search of the fl ying insects sight. a nd they, too. have large eyes. whi ch form its food is a ppreciated even by those least interested in natural hi story. The It is somewhat surprising that. despite the d ragonfl y's head is large. most of it being fact that insects pa rallel so ma ny of the occupied by well developed compound eyes; achievements found in other groups of a ni- this is to be expected . as the drago nfl y hunts mals, they have seldom evolved mechanisms its prey by sight. T he lower part of the head for trapping their prey. The secretion of silk is occupied by the jaws. and the legs a re so is widespread a mon.!!st insects yet we find a rranged in a forward position that when little use of it in ma king sna res. The most they hold prey it is brought close to the spectacula r of the insect trappers is the mouth ; actua l feeding takes place on the familia r antlion. wh1ch makes it s conical

Page 186 A IIStralian Natural History pitfall in loose, dry sand. The larva respon- the formation of the nest, the provtston sible for the pit rests in the sand at the of food and , in the species which a re bottom of the pit, often with its mandibles social in habits, th

inch) a re nu merous while large forms measuring more than 8 inches are rare. Trilobites belo ng to the class T rilobita of the phylum Arthropoda wh ich a lso includes such well -known creatures as the prawns. lobsters, crabs, insects and spiders. Trilobites were the d ominant form of li fe in seas, about 600 million years ago, and frequented the muddy and sandy bottoms in shallow water. They were bottom crawlers and slow movement was by means of paired legs on the underside of the body, but occasional fast spurts could be achieved by rapid movements of the tail flaps. In early Cam brian time man y complex families had already evolved and it is certain that pri mitive types ancestral to trilobites had been in existence in late Pre-Cambrian time, possibly 1.000 mill ion years ago. Following Cambrian time trilobites steadily waned in number and variety until at the close of the Palaeozoic Era, in time. they were represented by only a few genera and very soon became extinct. Duri ng the approxi - mately 250 million years life-span of the trilobite group they evolved into man y specialized and This fossil tri lobite was recently presented to diffe rentiated types with diverse ornamentation. A the Australia n Museum. recent esti mation of the number of trilobites which has been described is I ,500 genera with at least T ri lobites form a n interesting and important 10,000 different species. group of exclusively marine an imals which lived Trilobites a re well represented in rocks of o nl y during the Palaeozoic Era. They form a Palaeozoic age in Austra lia and many species compact group, distinguished by a hard shield-like differ little from those found in rocks of si milar covering which is trilobed longiwdinally into a age in other pa rts of the world . The illustrated central and side regions and a l o differentiated specimen is a ·pecies of Leo1wspis from rocks of tra n ver ely into an terior (head), midd le (body), U pper age at a locality a bout even miles and posterior (tail) portions. The average length west of Forbe , New South Wales, and was of trilobites varies from 1 to 4 inches. Minute recently presented to the Museum by Timothy forms. 5 to 15 mm. (one-fifth to three-fift hs of an Bradley, aged l ~-

June, 1963 Page 187 COPPER MINING AT COBAR

By E . 0 . RAYNER Geological Survey of New South Wales

HE Coba r region in central-western T N ew South Wales has been well en- dowed with na tural mineral resources, and in the past has been the State's major copper producer. At the present time, new opera- tions towards the large-scale mining of cop- per ores at and near one of the dormant mines, known as the C.S.A., has re-focu sed interest on this mineral belt.

History The na me Cobar is said to be d eri ved from an Aboriginal word meaning burnt or red earth, ochre or " raddle". A low hill with o utc rops of this reddis h oxide or ochre, on which a nati ve rock-well ex isted. became a tribal meeting ground and the Aborigines used this "raddle" to paint themselves for ceremoni al occasions. Na tive guides showed this spot to a pa rty of tank-sinkers (Campbell, H artman a nd Gibb) in 1869 or 1870, and samples were collected from the outcrop a t the waterhole, streaked green and blue by malachite and T ypi cal primary copper ore from the Great azurite, the carbonates of copper. At this Cobar Mine. showi ng veins of chalcop yr.te- pyrrhotite-magnetite and q uartz in slate. site, what was to become the Great Cobar [Photo: A uth or.] Copper Mine developed . and the township of Cobar grew alongs ide it. (especially for f1u xing purposes) with more By 1871. the Chesney, Occidental and acid, siliceous ores from several neighbour- C.S.A. ore-bodies and many other prospects ing a nd outlying mines. Over 4.000.000 tons had also been found, and shortl y afterwards of ore were mined and treated by the Great the Queen Bee. Peak and Fort Bourke (later Cobar gro up up to 19 19. called the New Coba r) were discovered. Probably all the mai n outcropping mineral At first, because of the deep ?one of oxi- deposits in a belt some twenty miles long dation and enrichment extending several comprising the Cobar mining fi eld had been hundred feet from the surface down to water found by 1907. level, as is c haracteri stic of such semi-a rid regions. all mines were able to exploit high- Water shortages hindered early mining. grade secondary ores (upwards of ten per So did high freight costs, p3rt icul a rly before cent copper). When the underlying zone of the railway was pushed this fa r west in primary sulphide was reached. however, 1892. Several of the earliest ore pa rcels had the recoverable grade dropped to between been taken by bullock train to Louth on the one and three per cent copper. This stage Da rl ing River and thence by ri ver-boat to of lower-grade and costlier d eeper mining South Austra lia. had been reached in the m a ior mines before Smelters were erected at the G reat Cobar the end of World War I. When there was to treat its basic ore. which was mixed coupled with this condition a worl d-wide

PaRe 188 A ustralian Natural H istory ._.- r.-

Abo ve: The commencement last year of a new major copper mine at the site of the old C.S.A. Mine, seven miles north of Cobar. [Photo: Author]. Below : Mining on the Great Cobar outcrop in 1874. [Photo: Frank Lean.]

June, 1963 Page 189 slump in copper prices in 1919-1920, most ing tin, lead, zinc, tungsten, bismuth, uran- of the Cobar mines were forced to close, ium, molybdenum, platinum, iron, limestone, and there was virtually no activity on the magnesite and gypsum are also known in field between 1920 and 1931. this region. Most of the Cobar copper lode also con- tain and have produced some gold. Such Curre nt Operations mines as the Chesney, Fort Bourke and R ecent investigations have resulted in Queen Bee were at first worked only for Cobar M ines Pty. Ltd., in which Broken gold, at the surface a nd in uppermost levels, Hill South Ltd. holds a 76~ per cent interest and only later were they exploited for copper and Consolidated Zinc Pty Ltd. the re- when copper mineralizati on either fir t ap- mainder, commencing last year a new major peared or increased in a mount in subsurface copper mine at the site of the old C .S.A. positions. The New Occidcntal, two miles mine seven miles north of Cobar. The name south of Cobar, has been essentially an C.S.A. was originall y bestowed on the old important gold producer, the lode contain- mine because the three men who first worked ing only minor a mounts of copper. it were respectively Cornish, Scottish and In 193 L. because of a sudden ri se in the Austra lian. price of gold. the New Occidental mine was The operation wi ll exploit not only the re-opened and commenced gold production old western or footwall ore-body, on the by 1935, the m etal being recovered by fine upper p art of which the former C .S.A. and grinding and cyanidati on. The New Occi- Tinto workings were placed, but also a more dental company also acquired the nearby recently discovered parallel hanging wall Chesney and New Cobar properties to win ore-body on the east, found by geophysical copper and gold, producing copper-gold con- survey and diamond drilling. The drilling centrates by the fl otation process. Rising has indicated ore down to 3.000 ft. and the freight and mining costs were everal of the ore-bodies can be expected to continue some factors which led to the closure of the mines distance below this. again by 1952, after considerable produc- tion from this group. In recent years, sub- Disclosed ore reserves (chiefly for the sidiaries of two la rge Broken Hill companies C.S.A .. but also including the Chcsney) are have explored the lodes fro m C.S.A. to 18,000.000 ton containing an average of Chesney and have disclosed significant just over three per cent copper. It is planned amounts of low-grade copper ore by deep at the C.S.A. to wi n o re at an initial rate of drilling beneath the known workings. about 325,000 tons per year by J une, 1965, with provision for thi rate to be doubled The Cobar mining field from C.S.A. in within twelve months from the sta rt of pro- the north to Queen Bee in the south has ducti on. A mechanized cut-and-fill method produced several millions of tons of o re of mining, with hydraulic stowage, will which have yielded about 135.000 tons of introduce some features novel to mining metallic copper, over 1.250,000 o unces of practi ce in Australia. Copper concentrates gold, and over 1,750.000 ounces of silver. produced in the milling and concentrating plant at the mine site wi ll then be railed to Jn what might be termed the greater Port Kembla for the p roduction of metallic Cobar region, bounded on the east by the copper. Bogan River. on the north by the Darling River and on the south by the Lachlan Two vertical, circular, concrete-lined River, other mineral deposits have been hafts arc now being sun k. The main shaft worked. particularly for copper and gold is for hoisting ore and handling men and (e.g., at ymagee, Shuttleton. Mount Hope, equipment, and for a downcast airway in the Mount Boppy-Canbclego, . Giril- ventilation system. lt is 18 ft. in diameter. ambone. Bobadah. Mineral Hill. Condo- and initia lly pla nned to 2.100 ft. The second bolin, and T ottenha m) . Tn round figures, shaft. 14ft. in dia meter. is an upcast airway, this greater Cobar region has produced and is being sunk first to 1.200 ft. and later about 200,000 tons of metallic copper and extended to 1.800 ft. by raising. stripping 2,000,000 ounces of gold. Deposits contain- and concreting from 1,800 to 1.200 ft.

Page 190 Australian Natural Historv A ra ilway line is to be laid from the mine geophysical surveys by magnetometer are to the railhead at Cobar. Sufficient water thus capable of detecting bodies of minera li- will be available in the developmental stage zati on which contain them. Other metals by p ipeline from the Coba r reservoir, but a nd minerals present in the ore include gold. fo r an adequate p ermanent supply a pipe- sil ver, bismuth, bismuthinite, pyrite, m arca- line will probabl y be necessary from the site, spha lerite, galena, bornite, cubanite. Da rling River or, more likely, from the va lleriite. a rsenopyrite, tetra hedri te, a nd Bogan at . some eighty-three miles coba ltite. to the east. The gangue of the ore, in addition to cherty ( metasomati sed) slate, quartz, chlor- The Cobar Ore-bodies ite, and lesser calcite and side rite. in many cases is cha racterized by the comparatively T he Cobar minera lized zones are strongly ra re da rk-green to black p laty iron silicate. sheared a nd faulted belts, mostly trending stilpnomelane. north-north-west, which dip steeply and Zones of oxidation and secondary enrich- traverse a group of folded and slightly meta- ment a re we ll developed. in some cases (as morphosed slates, siltstones and sandstones at C.S.A .) down to nearl y 500 ft. From the (or greywackes) . The individual ore-bodies earlier mining of such zones, pa rticul arl y at of econo mic grade within such zones have the Great Cobar, many beautiful specimens great vertical extent, commonl y greatly ex- of green malachite and blue crystals of ceeding their length and width, so that the azurite now grace mineral collections in ore is in steeply-pitching, pipe-like masses Austra lia a nd~ around the world. Native having the shape of a fl attened spindle or copper a nd cuprite were also fairly common carrot. Deep drilling in recent years has in the oxidized zone, and masses of chalco- confirmed that for several of the lodes the cite were formed in the secondarily enriched mineralization is continuing down strongly sections of the lodes at and near water level. below a ve rtical depth exceeding 3,500 ft. Secondary lead mineralization also occurs. The Coba r ore-bodies are chiefl y made particula rly in the gossanous upper part of up of a great number of veins of ore and the C.S.A. footwall ore-body. qua rtz. commonl y aligned along cleavages An observer in the Cobar field will note a nd interleaved with the sedimentary host- tha t most of the lodes which have been cut rocks. The chi ef copper ore minera l in the by the present land surface are on isol ated prima ry sulphide zone (below water level) low hills. This is beca use mineralization, is chalcopyrite. T ypically this is accom- and especially silicification, has stiffened the panied by a bundant pyrrhotite and magne- lode areas against erosion more than the tite; these two iron minera ls being magnetic. surrounding country rocks.

Banded radiating malachite from the Great Cobar Cop per Mine.

June, 1963 Page 191 South of the Cobar mining field there are Broken Hill and it famous lead-zinc-silver copper ore-bodie of si milar form and mine- lodes. Great progre is being made wi th the ral assemblage at , Shuttleton and bitumen-sealing of this highway. and when Mount H o p ~. o tn at thts great copper- this i completed Cobar wi ll also become a bearing belt is over 100 miles long. stopping place for increased tourist and commercial road traffic. lt i a point of The Outlook interest that for the bitumen urfacing car- Although it started as a mining camp. ried out in the Cobar district the aggregate Cobar has also developed a an important consist of crushed slag from the huge resi- pastoral centre. urrounded by many heep due dumps of the old G reat Cobar smelter. grazing propertie . When the New Occi- The mining operati ons envisaged at the dental min ing group ceased operations in C.S.A. are on a large scale, but will be con- 1952. Cobar did not become a "ghost town". ducted by deep mining on ore of low grade. Indeed. the effort of civic-minded towns- Thus the mining method adopted, the cost people. guided by a progressive Shire Coun- structure, and the maintenance of good ci l and supported by the pastoral commun- prices for copper. are critical factor . If ity have greatly improved this western town the undertaking proves profitable. the way in recent year . becomes open for si milar large- cale mining The population of Cobar is about 2.300, at other localities in the Cobar belt. where and success for the new mining ventu re, reserves of low and marginal grade ores are with the anci llary developments it wi ll bring already known and more may be expected about, could well see this population from further pro pecting and deve lopment. doubled in the nex t five years. Cobar is a Am o n ~ pro pective area for further railhead 469 mil es westerl y from Sydney. mineral discovery and production in ew and also lies on the Barrier Highway which South Wales. the Cobar region may be runs a further 290 miles west to the city of rated highl y.

The caterpillar of the Tailed Emperor Butterfly (Eriboea fl)'rr/ws sem pronius), the head of which appears on the front cover. ·r h;s caterpilla r is found from Cape York. Queen land. to Sydney. lt feeds on A cacia (wa ttl e~). Brachychiron (flame trees) and Albi::ia. 11 is !Jright green. the mall ra!sed spots are white and the band acro s the abdomen, which vary m number from one ·pec1men to another. are yellow. These colours and their arran~emcn t make the caterpillar inconspicuous in the dappled light and shade of the foliage of it food plants.

Page 192 Australian N a/lira/ History a t orah Head, .S.W., during an easterly blow is a Brown Jelly-blubber (Ca/Osryltts mosaicus). The sting seems to be localized in the fingers-like mouth arms, as the bell could be handled with no ill-effects. Out of water the mouth arms seemed to loose their power of stinging. [Photo : Patricia McDo nald.]

Jelly -fish Stings In the Summer of 1962-63

During a fie ld trip to orah H ead, ew South 1t is believed that the phenomenon erroneously Wales, in February, 1963. Miss Patricia McDonald attributed by newspapers and members of the and Miss Eli zabeth Pope, of the Australian public to "sea lice bites" in the surf is in fact due Museum. were able to establish the fact that the to stings resulting from swimmers cominj!. in common Brown Jellyblubber (Catostylus m osai­ contact with sucn rtoat .ng fragments of jelly- fish. cus) can defini tely sting if handled underwater. This pecies, which is common in harbours and In the summer of 1962-63 three "waves" of estuaries all along the 1 ew South Wales coast, complaints by surfers of "sea lice bites" were can apparently be handled by the umbrella-part recorded, a nd these could be correlated wi th the with impunity, but, when the mouth-arms were occurrence of strong and continued easterly blows a llowed to brush against the softer skin of the in each case and the presence of swarms of jelly- inside of the forea rm underwater, a distinct rash ll ~ h offshore. The fir st wave of tin!!ings corres- developed after a few minutes. Small. raised, red ponded wi th mass visits of the Purple Stinger lumps appeared, scattered at irregular intervals ( Pelagia panopyra) and occurred in late ovem- over the sk in, and were intensely irritating. The ber. The second outbreak of complaints occurred rubbing of wet fi ne sand over the affected area bet,veen Christma and ew Year, when the sea was sufficient to remove the s tin.~ing nettle-cells and harbour waters were full of Giant Bl ubbers from the fle sh and the itchiness soon died down. (Cyanea ea pi/lata). and the third was in late The same sort of sti ng was also experienced January and early February, when Catostylus when tiny pieces of jelly-fish flesh which were mosaicus swarms were present in the sea-at the floating in the sea brushed against the less horny same time as the observations described above parts of the skin. Strong and continued easterly were made by offi cers of the Australian Museum. winds were causing mass stranding of Catosrylus in the rock pools at the time, and many were From this it would a ppear that the best first- being mashed up as they were battered against aid treatment for stings of unknown o rigi n, either the rocks. The sea was full of floating f ra~men t s, in the surf or harbour waters, is to treat for jelly- some so small they could scarcely be felt when fish stings-and the sooner the term "sea lice" is they brushed against the bare arm. fo rgotten the better.-E. C. Pope.

June. 1963 Page 193 Sponges- The First Republicans

By J. R. SIMONS Department of Zoology, University of ydney

IT comes as a urpri e to mo t people when they learn that ponge are a ntma l . Certamly, tne ra ther ou11. untnteresung looking object of various shapes and sizes frequently found above the high tide ma rks on beaches, give few cl ues about their ani- ma l o rigin. T he c objects, generally dark brown or grey in colour. are rather brittle and " scratchy" to the to uch. a nd clo e examination shows them to be formed by a tangled meshwork of threads. The thread , composed of a ubstance called pongin, chemically similar to silk, make up the greater part of the ~ ke l eto n of the sponge. so that in life the mcshwork is rea ll y the caffolding which supports a nd protects the ti ssues and " body" of the sponge. In most sponges, other elements go to make up the keleton, in particul ar thousand of minute needle-l ike rods called spicules which a re usua lly sili ceou in composition. although there are species of sponges in which the spi cules are calcareous. l t is the picules which impart the ·':-cratchy" quality to the sponges found on the beaches. Some sponges lack spicul cs altogether and peciali7e in using pongin as the only keletal ma terial, a nJ it is from a mong the e types that the once-fa milia r "bath sponge" A specimen of the common Australian fresh- i ~ prepared. Tn thee days foam plasti cs water ~po n ge. L"phydatia multidentaw, encrust- have la rgely replaced " ponges" as a house- ing a unken br:mch. Gemmulcs can be seen hold a nd bathroom accessory, but never- as small whitish spheres on the wood below theless the natural product is. by a wide the sponge as well as in th•: sponge tissues. mamin. the superior one. if only because (Ph<,to: P. J. Stanbury.] of its greater durabi!ity. Although known a nd u ed by man from Most . pongc a rc marine. but there are antiquity. it was not until the last century ,ome. bclonc.! ing to the group Spongi llidae. that t~e true a nima l nature of sponges wa~ which inhabit fresh water. These freshwater established. T he my tery lasted so tom; ponges a rc world-wid e in distribution and largely bccau c their method of feedi ng was A ust ralia has its f:lir sha re of them . not directly o bserva ble until the microscope Some sponges show a definite form as revealed it. they grow. re embling fans or vases. whi ch Unlike most other anima ls, sponges a rc may be quite large. but the majority do not sessil e a nd do not move about in search of have a ny definite form and come simply to food: instead they eau e their food to b t.: encru t and spread over submemed rocks. brought to the m. They do this by crca t in ~ pieces of wood or ~ n y other suitable sub- currents of water whi ch pass in thro u ~ h stratum. tiny pore in the "skin" into fin e canals in

!>age 194 Australian 1 mural History the interior of the body. In these canals, produced. Because they show a high degree special cells ea li ed choanocytes, grouped of a utonomy and even interchangeabil ity the together in chambers, cause the current of tissues a nd cells of sponges are of great wate r to flow by the beating of sma ll whip- interest to the biologist. like structure on the cell, the fl agell a. Microscoptc particle of food carried in the Sponges Nerveless current are caught by the collar of the ame cell and ab tracted from the water. The vast majo ri ty of animal a rc noted The water move on past the chamber and for their a bility to respond rapidly as a into another system of canals to be ex- whole to stimulation. They a re able to do hausted fin a lly through la rger pore on the thi beca u e they possess nerve and hormone body surface. The food particles a rc diges- systems wh tch serve to integrate all the parts ted a nd the products distributed thro ughout of the creature into a unity. Sponge do not the sponge by other types of cells which possess nerves a nd probabl y do not have are capable of moving about among the well -developed hormone system . so their ti s ue . power of general response is very limited, F rom this brief description it i obvio u ~ a nd , where it does occur, very slow. that the sponge body is made up of many ( Indeed . there are some plant which react cells a nd that the cells are of different type faster than sponges). Thi being so. we -epi thelial cell , for instance, which form can see that the degree of integration within th e outer covenng a nd linings of the cana l sponges is very low. systems, the choanocytes which a rc respon- Again. in anima ls in genera l, once the sible for the creation of water current and early embryonic s t a~;es are passed thro ugh, the removal of sui table food particles. the cells which have become differentiated into a moebocyte which move about the interior their various categories-mu cle cells. of the sponge and, of course. other type. nerve cells. connective tissue cell and o of cells which lay down the spongin fibre on-cannot change into another type; they and the spicules of the skeleton. This differ- continue to produce cells like themselves. enti ation of cell . each type spcciali7ing In sponges. however, it is possible for a in some pa rticula r function, is, at first sight. choanocytc to cha nge into an a meoboeyte very simila r to the sort of thing we find in and for a moebocytcs to become temporaril y all other a nimals except the acell ular proto- cell s producing spicules o r epithelial cell s. zoans. Although there is this imilarity. There is also a special kind of large a meo- sponges, however. diffe r very considerably boid cell in ponges which is capable of in the way the cells a re organized with re - produci ng not onl y cell like itself, but also peel to each other and in the way they are the other type a \"ell.

A close-up 'iew of some of the cells in livi ng sponge tissue. The darker cells are archaeo- cytes; the other type present are more transparent and there- fore do not show up so ~e ll. [Photo: Author.]

Jun e, I 963 Page t95 A young s ponge just emerged I rom a gemmule, which is een as the ''yolk" of this "fried egg". The youn_g sponge ·s "hitc area nearer the _gemmule is fo rmed by a thick concen- tratio n of cell : the more transparent outer region is formed by a thin layer of epithelial cells which gradually extend the peri- meter of the sponge a it grows. (Photo: Author.]

In contrast, then, to the vast majority of puppy by taking a mixture of white blood the ma ny-cclled members of the animal cell and liver cell from a dog and allow- kingdom with their great variety of fully ing them to develop in some uitable med- differentiated, highly pccialized cells domi- ium. lt could not be done. of course. a l- nated by nerve and hormone systems, spon- though something simila r has been done ges a re orga nized, o to speak. as fai rly using the embryonic cells from chickens at loose federations or republics of almost about the fourth day of incubatio n. In these equa l cells capable of variou activities at experiments a mixture of kidney and li ver different times, depending. presumably, upon cells orted them eive out to form recog- the particul ar demands being made on them ni zable kidney a nd Ji ver tis ues, but that i a t the time. a far cry from building up a complete chi cken. This " republicanism" i mo t evident in the event which occur a fter a pongc. or part of it, i fragmented. The aim of frag- Fre hwater Spcmge menting the ti sues i to obtain a yield of All sponge , o far as i known, have inglc isolated cell s, and this is quite easy thi capacity to re-aggregate i olated cells to do. T he isolated cells immediately behave and to re-form to a greater or less degree a amocbocytes and. crawling a bout on the a miniature sponge; some more ucces fully substratum. cventuctlly meet up with each than others. The pecie I have been study- other. Contacting cell s immediately adhere ing most i the common Au tralian fre h- together o that after a short time, say about watcr form. Ephydatia multidentata. This ten minutes or so, clumps of dozens or even is a common encrusti ng sponge (see illus- hundreds of cells come to be formed. The tration) a nd like al l the f reshwater sponges clump become spherical and internall y ha an interesting mechanism for urviving there is much rearr:1ngement of protoplasm (a a species) over long period , such a and nuclear material. Eventually, after drought, which are inimical to the individ- about ten to twelve days, a miniature ponge ual. A the water level of the pool or stream begins to form. Now the import ant thing the sponge is living in begin to fall , and the here i that if o riginally only amoebocytes water becomes more stagnant and polluted. a nd choanocytes arc incorporated into the the larger amoeboid cell s begin to collect to- cell mas all type of cell are present in gether in the hody of the pongc to form the young ponge, so they have been manu- little spheres. The e are invested and ealed factured, as it were, by the o riginal two with a series of tough membranes and coat- types. In terms of some higher animal, it ings bv other a mo-ebocytes from the out- would be equivalent to, say. produc ing a side. T he main part of the sponge dies as

Page 196 A ustralian Natural History the water dries away, a nd all that i left is mass of cells obtained by the re-aggregation the skeleton holding within its meshes the of isolated cells. Once again we find that coated and sealed sphere which are called all the cell types are present, despite the gemmules. ln Ephydaria multidenrata the fact that only one type of cell was originally gemmules are each about half a millimetre enclosed in the gemmule. (about one-fiftieth of an inch) in dia meter. From what has been related here, I think The gemmule a re permeable to water the reader will agret> that far from being a nd after a few days' dessication are com- uninteresting a nd perhaps pitiable objects, pletely dried out ; nevertheless, the shrunken sponges are most fascinating and possibly contents remai n viable for at least three hold the secrets of much we would like to years with certainty, but are probably cap- know about the ways cells come to be differ- able of surviving much longer than that. entiated, organized and controlled in higher On being returned to water the content organi sms. Jt would not be the fi rst time swell and in a bout ten days break through sponges contributed to the under tanding of the sealed capsule to form a young sponge. higher organisms, for it was from watching The events which go on inside during the the wandering amoebocytes in sponges that ten days a re too complicated to de c ribe Metchnikoff. last century, got hi ideas about here. but they a re similar in some ways to the possible function of the white cells in the events which occur in the spherical the blood of vertebrates.

NOTES AND NEWS

ASSISTANT CURATOR elouera and uniface pebble implements from the Mr. Douglas Miles, B.A .. has been appointed coast of .S.W .. where some of the camp-site Assistant Curator of Anthropvlogy at the Aus- have been obliterated by m unicipal and other tra lian Museum. Mr. Miles, a graduate of the operations. Cylindro-conical stones from Queens- University of Sydney. has lately been carrying o ut land, a scraper made from opal, and pebble research work in southern Borneo. im plement s illustrated in early papers add to the scientific va lue of this collection in which the INSECT-COLLECTING specimens were collected with great di crimina- lion. The D irector of the Australian Museum. Dr. J. W. Evans. spent t"'o "eeks collecting insects in CON FERENCES AT MUSE M Victoria in Ma rch. T wo conferences were held at the Australian VISJT TO M USEU I Museum in April. both pon ored by the Aus- tral ian Instit ute of Aboriginal Studie . One was The D irector of the British Museum ( Blooms- attended by archaeologists from all over Australia bury). Sir Frank Francis, visited the Ausralian who discussed the typology and nomenclature of Museum in February. Australian stone implements and prehistoric cul- tures. The other was attended by representat ives METEORITE CRATERS of the va rious State mu eums. \•. ho d iscussed co- Dr. Brian Mason. Curator of Minerals. the operation betweer. the museums and the Institute, America n Museum of atu ral History. cw York. and ways and mea ns of fi :ling gaps in existing a nd Mr. E. P. Henderson. Associate Curato r of collections and t>f building up a collection. for Meteorites. nited States atio nal Mu cum, the Institute. of Abo riginal material culture. Washington. a re examining meteorite craters in Australia, and meteorite localities. particularly in ART DESIGNS ON BUKA CANOES the arid inland regions. Mr. R. 0 . C halmers. Dr. H . Spiegel, of Sydney, is making a study of Curator of M:nerals at the Australian Museum. the :trt designs <>n Bu ka canoes and paddles, of is accompanying them for part of their trip. which the Au tralia n Museum possesses a splendid series of s pecimens. ABORIGI AL JMPLEME TS Mr. Robert Turner. of Syd ney, has pre ~ ented MUSEU 1 EXPEDITION to the Austrl' lian Mu cum a collection including Mr. Rolf Los in, an Australian Mu cum prepa- 4.000 Aboriginal tone implements from camp- rato r. accompa nied the British Museum bird- site in 1ew South Wales. Implement types par- co ll ecting ew editio n in ew South Wale . Vic- ticular!} " ell represented are Bondi points. toria and Queen land in Ma rch and April.

June, 1963 Pa~e 197 the pre ent article discusse result that have BAT BANDING been obtained from this work. The purpose of the study is to determine the tructure of 8 y J>. D . DWYER bat populations. in terms of sex and age composition and ocial organization. a nd to Zoo lo~:y Department, niversity of New Engla nd, New South Wales discover how thi tructure contributes to the year-ro und population proce e of J Australia there are forty-five pccies of birth , death and movement mall bats, the M icrochtroptera. Many of 10,000 Bat these are rare, but even for the common So fa r just over 10,000 indi viduals of species which live in cave or mine colonies nine species have been marked. For most, of thou ands there is only fragmentary the method used has been to place an knowledge of their year-round biology. In individually numbered aluminium band J 957 the Au tralian Bird Banding Sche me around the "wri st" of the bat. about half- extended its activitie to include bat , and way along the leading edge of the wing. now ba t bande r a re operating in mo t Here it does not impa ir fli ght and can be States. However, in Europe and the nited easily read if the bat is recaptured. Different States large-scale bat-banding progra mmes ized band a rc used fo r diffl.! rent pecies. have been in cxi tence for over thirty years and on the in iuc of the band i an in crip- and by the e sta ndard the study of bat in tio n requesting the finder to fo rward it to Australia is sti ll in its earliest stages. The the C.S.f.R .O. in Canberra. Banded bat writer has been banding bats in north- that a rc recovered by the public often yield eastern ew South Wales since 1960 and information of considerable importa nce .

.t. MOREE

Movements of the Bent-w in g~d Bat.-The large map !.hows move- menl of breeding females and jLI\ cnile to and from maternity colonies (black ci rcles). Females arri\e at the colonies during spring and earl} !.ummer: mo\ements awa) occur durin!! autumn. The number beside each arrow indi- cates the number of individuals J..nO\\ n to have foliO\\ ed that route. The in et mao hows the study area, hadcd. [Map by the author.]

.6.. SYDNEY

Page 198 Australia/! Natural History Bent-wi nged Bats massed 150 to ihe sq uare foot on a cave roof. [Photo: C. Sourry.]

The nine species are by no means equally the Bent-winged Bat. Although most of the common. Only one individual of the large. bats recovered have been retaken only once. ha ndsome, white-striped Mastiff Bat there are a number which have been taken (Tadarida australis ) has been marked. This two or more times, with a few being cap- wa ~ caught, together with about fifty Broad- tured on as many as six different occasion . nosed Bats (Scoteinus rueppelli and Scotei­ Most have been taken in the cave or mine nus orion), when these left their roost in a where they were banded (no tree bats have ho ll ow eucalypt branch and fl ew into a net yet been recovered) but over 400 have been tixed under the entrance. By contrast to the retaken after moving from one locality to scarcity of specie such as these. some of another. For example a Horseshoe Bat the cave-dwelling bats are freuuently avail- ( R hino!ophus megaphyllus) has been re- able in tremendous numbers. The medium- ::apturcd after shifting fo urteen mile from sized Bent-win!!ed Bat ( Miniopterus schrei­ a summer cave colony to a winter colony in bersi) occurs in colonies of hundreds or a mine tunnel a nd sixty-three Little Bent- thousands of individuals. In the caves or winged Bats have been retaken after moving mines that are used as daytime roosts it between caves. Most of these latter have may be massed on the roof in dense clusters travell ed distances of less than twenty miles, of 150 or more to the square foot. Its with the longest movement being a fli ~ ht of relative, the Littl e Bent-winged Bat (Mini­ thirty-seven miles. Of course. the distances opterus australis) is less abundant. Colonies recorded as a movement a rc taken in a of a few hundred are known from several direct line between the banding and recovery caves and mines of the eastern Clarence sites and this may have no real relati on to River and Macleay River watersheds but the distance "as the bat fli es". previously thi species was not recorded The interpretation of movements in rela- from New South Wales : in fact. it was not tion to dif-fering seasonal needs of the species known south of R ockhampton. more than a nd possible migratory behaviour depends 500 miles to the north. These latter species upon having a la rge number of records. To a rc easy to catch. a powerful torch and a date it is only for the Bent-winged Bat that long-handled net being the only equipment a reliable picture is emerging. This is a needed. 1t is o nly necessary to get the net fast-flying species which, in forested areas, under a good-sized cluster to capture 100 usually flies well above the canopy. Distances or more squeaking bats-enough work for travelled by banded individuals have varied an hour of ba nding and recording data. from less than I 00 ya rd ~ between two caves Recoveri es of ma rked bats now number to a record flight of 220 miles for a bat 1.425. T hese have included only four of banded by Mr. D. Purchase. C.S.T.R.O., in the nine species marked a nd, in fact, more Sydney and retaken when it flew into a mi st than 1,000 of them have been recoveries of net set up over the entrance to a cave near fu11 e, 1963 Kempsey. Several individuals banded at one ground environment. cave have been taken at a nother, forty-two It is into these conditions that the young miles away, after a single night's fli ght, and bats are born, blind and naked, during longer distances of seventy-six and 110 miles December. H ere, too, they spend their first have been covered in less than a month. ten weeks hanging upside down from the Certainly then the Bent-winged Bat is cap- cave roof while they learn to fly and even- able of ranging very widely. H owever, its tually to fend for themselves. By a utumn movements are not haphazard . T he ability they are independent and the maternity to " home" is well developed and banded colonies begin to decrease in numbers. Adult individuals released up to forty-five mi les females are the first to leave a nd return to from their daytime roosts have frequently their o riginal coloni es but finally the young been reta ken there within a few weeks. depart so that by early April no Bent- M ost individuals undertake seasonal move- winged Bats remain. T he young may travel ments between summer and winter roosting individ ua lly or in loose groups of 100 or so places so that some caves which are occupied which pass quite rapidly from cave to cave by a few hundred or thousand bats in the till a suitable lo:::a lity is selected. Conse- summer may be deserted during the colder quently in autumn many small caves usuall y months. T he distances between such sites unoccupied by bats may be temporarily may be as great as thirty or forty miles but coloni zed. These roving juveniles may travel are frequently much less. In coastal areas similar dista nces to the adult females and of northe rn New South Wales Bent-winged by winter they a re generally well dispersed Bats move to lower altitudes in the winter, through the area. Many of the movements perhaps because their insect food is only of juvenilrs and adult females are shown on available there. But, in addition, they eek the accompanying map , which ill ustrates out day-time roosts which are cool and are recoveri e of Bent-wi nged Bats at, or from, therefore suitable for " hibernation". In these the two known breeding caves. bats, hibernation is not a very strict process Not all sp ecies have maternity coloni es and some individuals may be out feeding in volving thousands of indi viduals. Nor do throughout the year. all require the extreme phy ical conditions The most spectacula r movements made of temperature and humidity, for juvenile by Bent-winged Bats are the annual journeys development, that have been found for the of breeding females to and from special Bent-winged Bat. A matern ity colony of the caves where maternity colonies are estab- delicate Pied-wattled Bat (Chalinolobus li shed . ln the spring and summer, females picatus) occupyi ng a n a bandoned dia mond from ma ny localities converge upon these mine has been visited everal times during caves so that by early December there may the last year. The colony was absent from be as many as J 0 ,000 present. Flights of the mine duri ng the winter but re-formed 125 miles. or more. may be made to reach in spring, when it consisted almost entirely the breeding caves. Often the journey is of breeding females. In contrast to mater- made in easy stages, with other caves along nity coloni es of the Bent-winged Bat, only the route bcin,!! used as tempora ry "stop thirteen females were present. These, with over" roosts. The same breeding caves are two adult males a nd the season's young, visited yea r after year a nd during the months born in mid- ovembc r, brought the entire when la rge numbe r of bat arc p resent cave colony size up to only thirty-seven! The temperature increases from about 60oF to females and young were ma sed as a cluster as much as 80°F. This temperature increase in a small indentation of the ceiling. Mine is caused by the bats' activity in the cave. temperature was only slightly above 60oF High temperatures are the rule for mater- and the humidity wa compa ratively low. nity coloni es of this species and appear to The Pied-wattled Bat belongs to a group be necessary for the proper deve lopment of of true temperate bats. whereas the Bent- young. Extremely high humidities and an winged Bat is of tropical origin but has intensely ammoniated atmosphere are also succeeded in colonizing southern latitudes. characteristic. The deep deposits of guano It is probable that the striking differences covering the fl oor a rc infested with mites, in breeding requirement of such species and rats thrive in the consta ntly dark under- reflect this different ancestry.

Page 200 A ustralia11 Natural H istory THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM HYDE PARK, SYDNEY

BOA R D OF TRUSTEES

PRESIDENT: Uvi LRITUS PROFESSOK A. 1' . I LKIN, M .A. , Ph.IJ. CROWN TRUSTEE: F . B. SPENC EK. OFFICIAL TRUSTEES: THE HON. THE C III EF J USTIC E Ill £ liON. l ii E PRESIDENT OF THE LEG ISLAliVE COUNCIL. TH E HON. TH E C HI E F SECRETARY. fHE HON. TH E A l'lORNEY-Gl:!NERAL. THE H ON. THE T REASUR ER. 'I HE H O N. THE M I ' IS'I ER I-O R P UBLI C \VORKS. THE H ON. THE M l ISTER FOR ED UCATIO!'. . TH E AUDITOR-GENERAL. TilE PR ESIDENT OF THE EW SUUIH WALES l\IEDICAL BOARD. THE SURVEYOR-GEl' c.A~ r . R. J . NOBLE, C.ll.E., ll.Sc.Agr., l\I.Sc., Ph .D . S. H AVILA D, C. B.E. E. J . K EN Y, M.Au>L I.M.M. 0. 11. SLADI'. ll.Sc. F. L. S. BELL. M .A ., F.R.A. l. I'ROFI SSOR L. C. BIRC H, D .Sc.

IJUU:CTOJ(: J . W. EVA S, Sc.D. DEPUTY DI RECTOR : H . 0 . FLET CH ER , M .Sc. SCI ENTLFIC STAFF: Birds: H . J. de S. DISNEY. M.A., Curator. l{eptiles and Amphtbian.: 11. G. COGGER , M .Sc. , Curotor. Mammals: B. J . MARLOW. B.Sc .. Curator. Fishes: G . 1' . WHITLEY, F.R.Z .S., Curator. ln>ech and Arachnid>: C . N. SMITHERS. M .Sc .. Curltor: D. !-. . MtALI' I ' 1- . M .Sc .. A'sbtant Curator. Molluscs: D . F . l\lcM IC H AEL, M .A., Ph.D., Curator. Crustacea and Coelenterate>: J . C. YALDWY , M .Sc., Ph .D .. Curator. Worms and Echinoderms: ELIZABETH C. POPE. M .Sc.. Curator. Minerals and Rocks: R. 0. CH ALMERS, A .S.T .C.. Curator. Fossils: H . 0 . FL ETCH E R, M .Sc., Curator. Anthropolog) : I . D . M

Ornithologist. l'h llnl~lls l . K. A. HI DWOOD , C.F.A.O.U .. F .K.Z.S. FRANK W . HILL. The Australian Museum

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