AUSTRALIAN NATURAL HISTORY

MARCH 15, 1967

Registered at the General Post Office, Sydnoy, [or transmissoon by po;t as a periodical VoL. 15, No. 9

PRICE, THIRTY CENTS CONTENTS

PAGE

THE STORY OF THE ROTH ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTION-Karh/een Pope and David R. Moore 273

THE SHORE REEFS OF DARWIN-Eii:::abeth C. Pope 278

REVIEW 284

WATER-A D OuR THIRSTY EARTH-R. J. Griffin 285

YE oMous SEA URCHI IN SYD EY HARBOUR-Eii:::aberh C. Pope 289

AUSTRALIA SEALS-B. J. Marlo1r 290

RING-TAILED POSSUMS-Michae/ Marsh 294

LARGE ALP! E STONEFLY 298

AUTHOR'S COMMENT 0 BOOK REVIEW 298

WEBWORM. ( SECT PEST OF THE WHEATLANDS-L. £. Koch 299

THE TASMANIA �MUSEUM-W. Bryden 303

e FRONT COVER: Aboriginal ceremonial regalia on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula, near Mapoon Mission. The carved heads represent crocodiles. There is obvious inHuence from Torres Strait in this type of mask. The photo was taken by W. E. Roth, who was Protector of Aboriginals in orthern Queensland in the late 1890's and the early years of this century. An article on his work and his remarkable collection of Aboriginal artefacts from northern Queensland appears on the opposite page.

VoL. 15, o. 9 MARCH 15, 1967 AUS IAN NATUR ISTORY

Published Quarterly by the Australian Museum College Street, Sydney

Editor: F. H. Talbot, M.Sc., Ph.D. Annual Subscription, Posted, $1 .40

VoL. 15, o. 9 MARCH 15, 1967

THE STORY OF THE ROTH ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTION

By KATHLEE POPE, Museum Assistant, and DAVID R. MOORE, Curator of Anthropology, Australian Museum

1906 the Australian Museum acquired South Australian School of Mines and I one of the most complete and well lndu trie , and assistant master at Sydney documented collections of ethnographic Grammar S:hool. In 1890 he returned to material ever assembled from a particular England to further his study of medicine. region. This was the Roth collection of Roth came back to Australia in 1894 with Aboriginal artefacts from north Queensland. the qualifications M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. The tory of how this remarkable collection and wa appointed surgeon to Boulia, wa gathered and how it came to the Cloncurry. and ormanton ho pitals in Australian Museum is a fascinating one and Queen land. During the four years he held it brings to life vividly the unhappy situation the e appointment he developed a very real of the Aborigines in north Queensland at and intense interest in the Aborigines of the the turn of the century. region. and this resulted in the publication in 1897 of his Ethnological Studies Among Dr Roth and the north Queensland Aborigine the North- West Central Queensland Waiter Edmund Roth was the youngest Aborigines. This remarkably detailed and of six sons of an English surgeon, and two of well illustrated monograph established him hi elder brothers, Henry Ling and Reuter as an ethnographer of note and resulted in Emerich, who preceded him to Australia, his appointment in the fo llowing year a were re pectively an ethnologist and a Protector of Aboriginals in orthern Queen - phy ician. Having graduated from Oxford land. with an honours degree in biology, In explaining the duties of this new W. E. Roth first came to Australia in 1884 appointment, the Queensland Commissioner and was successively an assistant master at of Police (under whose jurisdiction Roth Brisbane Grammar School, Director of the then came) wrote:

March, 1967 Page 273 Directly you have proper and sufficient equipment you should proceed to Cookto" n, make all possible inquiry conce rning local aboriginals, numbers, disease, present condition, measuremen!s, phot o­ gr aphs. etc. Collect all information re their "walkabouts" and trade routes so as to learn the boundaries of their territories, gather all particu lars concerning fr iendly and hostile neighbours, making from time to timt" such local collection of ethno­ logical and anthropological interest as is possible ... He also mentioned that the appointrr.ent was "largely owing to the fa ct that tl:e enthusiastic intere t in the welfare of the blacks you have di played, gives great promise of the proper performance of the humanitarian work implied ..." Roth immediately moved to Cooktown and began to travel by pack-hor e over the vast area of hi responsibility, which took in the whole of Cape York Peninsula a fa r as the southern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria and included the channel country on the west ; on the ea t coast it extended a fa r south as Rockhampton. (See map.) He was horrified at the callous exploitation of Aboriginal labour which he found to be the norm almost everywhere. Among other The main centre in W. E. Roth's huge area of early recommendations, he advi ed the responsibility as Prot ector of Aboriginals in Commissioner of Police that no permits ort hern Queensland. [Map by Kathleen Pope should be issued to publicans for the employ­ and Elvie Brown.] ment of Aborigine , because they were paid in liquor and their women were kept a Museum. These collections include not prostitutes to decoy men being paid-off only every po sible type of Aboriginal from boats. In the beche-de-mer trade he weapon, tool, plaitwork, basketry, and found that Aborigine were being atrociously suchlike, but at o specimens at various exploited and windled out of their wage . stages of manufacture. together with full He was also appalled at the trade in opium accounts of how the objects were made; and cheap liquor with the Aboriginal people also included are extensive skeletal material of the coast. and documentation on food . language, aturally Roth quickly made bitter sign language, ceremonies, legend , posture, enemies among the exploiters. Early in his physique, di ea e , and even uch esoteric term of office he wrote of the Aborigines matters as attitudes towards birth, marriage, around Cook town : "At present none of death and so on. them will come near me, some malicious The firstthr ee of Roth's North Queensland reports having been circulated that I have Ethnography Bulletins were publi heel by come here to drive them from their homes the Queensland Government in 1901 and the .. and destroy them. However, he was a big succeeding five between 1902 and 1906. man, in both phy ique and temperament, Roth's relationship with the Aborigines and was not ea ily intimidated. During (one that wa virtually unique at that time) the following ix years he covered an is well shown in a letter written to him in enonnous area in great detail and made their own language by a group of young close personal friends of hundred of Aboriginal girl at Cape Bedford (later Aboriginal people. Yarrabah Mis ion), near Cairns. in May, It was in this way that he was able to 1898: gather the huge collections of more than Dauun antanun Mr Roth, 2,000 specimen , with elaborate docu­ Antan nila nanu kapan balkal. Antan mentation, now held by the Au tralian karbunmanuti nu ndu antanungal kataigu gura

Australian Na111ral History Three little Aboriginal girls at Yarrabah Mission, near Cairns. These may well have been the children who taught Or Roth string games and wrote the letter to him which is included in this article. The photo was taken by Or Roth himself.

nundu antanun dauun tjir natctchi. Gura ditchullchir ninggai gura kokodir ngangoigo antanun dawangati. Oauunbutongo nundu antanun ninggal. Namongu antan dirlen nanu gari milka ngandaya gura nina milkan nama. Oiral nanu galmba gari milka ngandaya. Oauun antan nu nu merelil wangar yendu antan ) imidir natelmilgo dauunt jirbutongo kataiga gura nundu antanungal botur kundo barbiga, gur a nundu antanun ngutongu merelinga. Oirlcn galmba antan nanu kapan mangulbego merelin. amo nanu thanks gural. undu garko gurabuto katanu bera go namo ngaba nundu koko antanun nama. Oauun nanu, etc. A literal translation of this reads: Friend of us, Mr Roth, We now to you letter make. We glad were you us-amongst came and you us as friend looked at. You smiled and soon called on us to talk with you. Friend real you to us are. Therefore we in return do not forget and of you think. Wife yours also we do not forget. Friend of us, to you we say, White man another we similar to you do not knm•. Truly friendly you came and us-amongst nights (days) three stayed, and you to us games showed. In return also we to you ··eat's cradle"' on hands showed. Therefore to you thanks we say. You by -and-by again will come certainly. By that time perhap� you language-of-ours will speak. Your friends, etc.

Hostility from employers The more the Aboriginal people loved and trusted Roth, the more the hard core of exploiters schemed to put a stop to this interloper who was putting stupid ideas about fa ir play and fair wages into the thick W. E. Roth with the tallest Aboriginal woman heads of the blacks. Matters reached a he ever met (over 6 feet). The photo was taken climax at a meeting held at Cooktown on near the Mitchell River Mission.

March, 1967 Page 275 lOth July, 1905, which resulted in a pet1t1on I came to know from my conversations with the for Dr Roth's dismissal from office on the Police Magistrate, the Clerk of Petty Sessions, the following grounds: Subcollector of Customs, and others, that there is a strong element in Cooktown fav ourable to Or Roth The officewas unnece sary, and the cost of and his work, and that I had encountered the whole it hould be saved. strength of the antagonistic opinion. That Dr Roth was instrumental in over­ ruling the local administration of the Acts Roth himself was quoted in the ame by the Sergeant of Police, and in causing document a saying: uneven enforcement of the law. I am well aware that the gen eral opposition to my administration and to myself personally is That Dr Roth was instrumental m mainly due to my interference with what has for preventing needed alteration of the law. many years past been considued a� a vested interest That Dr Roth did not place himself in in the nesh and blood of the native. As a matter of contact with the Aborigines, or treat them fact, the opposition exhibited on these grou nds i medically. one of the greatest compliments that could ha' e been paid to me, and my happie t satisfaction lie However, the resulting Parliamentary in the knowledge that I have invariably treated all investigation carried out by the Under em ployers of aboriginals· labour alike, without Secretary fo r Public Lands found : fear or favour.

Examples of north Queensland artefacts in the Roth collection: Flake knife \\ith sheath of paperbark, Barclay Downs; ceremonial head-dress of coc katoo feather , Bloomfield Ri,er; waist belt, made from the soft down of possums and worn by males, Mackinlay, northwest Queensland, and (below) necklace of ground piec es of autilus shell, Cape Grafton. [Photo: C. V. Turner.]

Page 276 Australian Natural History These speci mens show Roth's interest in manufacturing proces es: a partly made and a completed typical north Queensland bicornual­ typ e basket, fro m Atherton. [Photo: C. V. Turner.]

In 1905 Roth was appointed Royal Re my specimens bei ng laid out in vour new c Commissioner to inquire into the condition premises fo r public view-how I long to ome and have a look at them again! I have a proposition of the Aborigines of Western Australia. to make to you, and upon your advice, would then . Presumably it was during this period that he wnte to :(OU officially. it is this, if my specimens are exhtblted and handed down to all time as the decided to leave Queensland and applied for ! and received appointment as Government Ro th co lection of North Queensland Ethnography, etc., I wtll make your Museum a donation of all the Medical Officer, Stipendiary Magistrate, and Australian literature [in my possession.] Protector of Indians in the Pomeroon Di trict of what was then British Guiana. Etheridge was not very sympathetic to thi quite under tandable wi h. There, in later years, he also carried out On the relevant notable ethnographic and humanitarian work. file, he noted : "Or Roth is labouring under a very eriou mi apprehension : hi pecimen are not laid out a a 'Roth The subsequent fate of the Roth collections Collection', and such was never intended to be the case.. . '' Before he left Au tralia to take up his new po t, Roth deposited part of his Many Roth specimens have been viewed l:OIIection at the Queensland Museum, but by the public at variou time among the the bulk of it was purchased by the Australian regular Aboriginal exhibits. but the bulk of Museum, which al o published the remaining the collection has remained in the Museum's collection cabinets, seen only by experts and ten Nonh Queensland Ethnography Bulletins. student . Now, more than half a century He wrote to the then Curator of the later, Roth's wish is to be fulfilled, for the �u�tralian M��eum, Robert Et heridge, whole collection is being reassembled and JUntor, from Bnll h Guiana in 1910: recatalogued.

March, 1967 Page 277 The mud zone of the eulittoral area at Dudley Point, Darwin. Brain coral s dominate the scene, alternating with muddy shallow pool s in which are many interesting animals. This reef is about half a mile wide. [Photo: Author.)

The Shore Reefs of Darwin

By ELIZABETH C. POPE

Curator of Worms and F.chinoderms, Australian Museum

Australia, when coral is mentioned, one would seem to offer little to attract a I thinks immediately of Queensland's Great zoologist. How wrong such an impression Barrier Reef, but there are other parts of our can be was fo und during a field trip made tropical north where well-developed beds of in October, 1965. corals and associated organisms may be In the vicinity of Darwin both air and sea found, either as a fringe to the intertidal temperatures are equable, as one would zone or as offshore patch reefs. Such a expect in latitude 12° 26' S, the sea coast is fo und near Darwin in the orthern temperature rarely going below 70° F, even Territory, where the 26-foot fall of the low in winter. There are a "wet" and a "dry" spring tides uncovers large expan es of season rather than a summer and winter, the rather muddy shore which may stretch, in former beginning in late October or places, out to sea for half a mile or more. November and lasting through till approxi­ This drably coloured intertidal zone looks mately March or April. far from inviting to the would-be naturali t, whether he is viewing one of the dark rocky reefs, an expanse of battered-looking dead Shore zonation on the rocks coral boulders, or the wide flats of muddy As on most shores, the plants and animals sand. Also the vast expanses of shore at Darwin show a horizontal banding into fringed by mangroves, with their attendant zones, with the species best able to withstand sandflies, mud and possibility of crocodiles longer periods of exposure to high

Page 278 Australian Narural Hisrory temperature and de iccation living nearer odilirtorina pyra·nidalis, the flecked high-water mark. This has resulted in the A!elarapha scabra and the pale nerite erira e tablishment of a regular pattern of zonation srriara. Their colouring- make them un­ in which the highe t part of the rock , known obtru ive and their habit of sheltering. tucked a the lilloral fringe because it is only away in holes or crevices or under ubmerged occasionally during the high overhanging ledge , makes them ea y to pring tides. i populated by animals or overlook. Also in this area i a mall, plants which pend more time in the air brown-coloured barnacle. with a latey-blue than they do under water. Below this fringe bloom over it hell. Chthama/us 1rirhersi. i the true eulillol([/ ::one. which twice daily i lt i found sporadically, wherever a suitable drained of. and flooded by, the sea-water. ro::k urface o::curs with the right a pect The inhabitant here have evolved all sort for the b:nnacle . Several hundred may be of structures or behavioural patterns to enable found in a patch and no more for quite a them to with tand the rigours of their distance along the rocks until another patch changeable environment. Finally there is an of suitable habitat offers-ge nerally in a area which i uncovered only occasionally, shaded place. during the lowest of spring tide . lt As one moves about on these rock , agile inhabitants more properly belong to the i opod crustacean (a pecies of Ligia) can community of organisms that live often be een scuttering about. Looking permanently submerged, in the sublitroral rather like leggy ver ions of the common ::one. later or wood louse, they retreat warily as Some of the most prominent of the e one approaches and dive for shelter into a animal (the so-called zone marking species) crevice or a crack in a boulder. are hown in the full-page diagram, which Jepict them vertically above the section of Toward the base of the cliffs, and al o on the shore rocks where they are mo t likely ome of the highest boulders on the beach, to occur. lt mu t, however, be realized the hore i darkened by a furry vegetable that the drawing represents somewhat growth (probably a lichen or a blue-green idealized conditions and that the tremendous alga or a mixture of both}. This black zone width of the eulittoral zone made it necessary is a fe ature of the intertidal zone throughout to leave a section of the reef out of the the world and it is interesting to find that the diagram in order to fit it into a page. Some orthern Territory's tropical reefs are no of the mobile animals also range widely exception. Well-known writer, Rachel within their shore zone, especially over the Carson, has said : "Wherever rocks meet the wide flat of the eulittoral area, and thi ea, the microplants have written their dark could not be shown. in cription, a message only partially legible, although it seems in some ways to be The mo t obviou animals on the high concerned with the universality of the tides rocky shore are a band of oysters, Crassostrea and oceans". It is best seen at Darwin in amasa, and, at a slightly lower level, the place like Fannie Bay or Dudley Point by inch-high, grey barnacle Tetraclita squamosa, going down hore from the cliffs for a few whose rough hells are reminiscent of tiny yard , and then looking back at the cliffs. volcanoes. Both the e species are found in Thi dark zone marks the boundary between great numbers on suitable substrata, but the littoral fringe zone and the eulittoral area they are limited in their distribution to of the reefs and it is shown as a dark patch rock situated fairly near the top of the true at the base of the cliffin the diagram. Above littoral zone. it the commonest creatures found in the fringe are shown (numbered 1-5). Inhabitants of the littoral fringe Other animals are, however, present above The eulittoral area the oy ter and barnacles just mentioned, but they are mostly small and less obvious Thi part of the shore occupies a specie and are only revealed when a careful tremendou area near Darwin because of the search i made along the backshore rocks. rather gentle slope of mo t of the shore The littoral fringe dwellers include small reefs. lt is generally sharply subdivided mollu cs, like the knobby littorinid into two-:m upper area that is comparatively

Marclr. 1967 Page 279 FRINGE ? EULITTORAL ZONE SUBLITTORAL N ZONE 00 --- -mud zone 0 "' ' ��: , I . -� .. ·�:.: : ...... ��-:;,<":."' - _ ·� . � I 33 7 I

22

. ": 8 : :' . 3 � · . · f:f: - <.. · : _�·- :: · · 18.:· . . �4 ®9 5® w . .. �:�. , 24)Jf {!.' (Jj) I �11 27 !� � 36 20 31 �1 � . . c; 21 � w � ::; � ::t , <:;· r:::::::::::::�:::::::::::::::::::::::;:;:::::::::::;::::::::::::::::::;:;:::::::::;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:::::::::::::::5::::�:::: . - -:. -:- •: --....::::::::;:;::::::::: ;:;:;:;:;:::::::::�::::::::::::::�::::::::::.;.;.;.!•.•.. :;:::::::::;:;. .;:;:;:;:; .. ..;: ;::::::::::: X X � : : : : . . : � free or ilt and mud (this is colonized by found-a medium-sized one with a pale oyster . barnacle , limpets, and chitons, shell and ten distinct ribs, Terrae/ita cosrara, numbered 6-12 in the diagram) and a wide and a third specie of the genu Clrrhamalus lower part over which fine brown silt or a (C. caudarus), which is not included in the rather gluey con istency carpet almost diagram. everything to a depth of from a quarter to Two distinct pecies of chitons, the very half an inch, whether it be the rocks and spiky Acanrhopleura spinosa and Acanrfto­ sand of the substratum or the living animals ::osrera genrma1a, live on the rocks at a and plants. One might expect that the slightly lower level than the oysters but they silt would greatly inhibit life in this mud do not venture down into the mud-coated zone. On the contrary, the whole area area below. which will now be described in supports tremendou number of animals of more detail. a great variety of genera, ranging in types through the fo llowing groups: brain corals, sponge , alcyonarian , ascidian , ophiuroids. Adaptations of some mud-zone animals cru tacea, trepang (beches-de-mer), anemones Many mud-zone dweller are well adapted and fi h, to mention only the more prominent to their habitat and eem actually to turn inhabitants, and only a few of the more the mud to advantage, either by using it a distinctive of these can be represented in the a fo od source (it is rich in organic matter) diagram (numbered 1 3-32). or by di guising themselve in a coating of The clean rocks of the inshore part of the the thickest brown "goo''. lt is suspected eulittoral, as mentioned above, generally that ome species may even be using the carry broad band of the oyster, Crassosrrea mud coating a a protection against harmful amasa, and below the oysters is another band rays of sunlight or from de iccation during where the tough-shelled Terrae/ita squamosa low tides. barnacles reign supreme. Careful searching Among this la t group are certain sponges of any rock surface not occupied by oysters of the higher hore, such as the orange will generally di clo e ribbed limpets, "fibreglass" sponge, the common reddish Parelloida paropsis. or patche of squat, ponge and the green fluted Pseudaxyinyssa grey-coloured barnacles, Chrhamalus which are shaped like delicate vases. Many malayensis, while under ledges two further or the brain stone corals (belonging to the specie of barnacles may sometimes be genera Coeloria, Goniasrrea and Symphyllia,

OPPO ITE

Identification chart for some common animals of the Darwin reefs , with their distributions on the rocky shore (shown in the shaded section below). The brea k X< >X represents about 200 yards of reef omitted from the chart. Littoral fringe animals include: I, Iso pod crustacean (Ligia); 2. sq uat-shaped juvenile periwinkles (Melaraplw scabra); 3, the pale nerite ( erira srriara): 4, the noddiwink ( odiliuorina pyramidalis): 5, Wither · barnacle (Chrlwmalus wirhersi). All of these live above the zone blackened by plant grO\\lhs. In the truly intertidal or eulittoral zone arc: 6, the Malayan Cluhamalus (C. malayensis): 7, the ribbed limpet (Parelloida paropsis); 8, masses of oyster (Crassosrrea omasa); 9, the \Oicano-shaped barnacle (Terraclira squamosa); I 0, the ten-ribbed ba rnacle (Terraclira cosrara); I I, the short-s pined chiton (Acaml10=osrera gemmara); 12, the spiky chiton (Acamhopleura spinosa). All these are found just above the very muddy part of the eulittoral zone. In the muddy sub-z one arc: 13, the hairy crab (Pilumnus ''esperrilio); 14, the striped snake star (Ophioplocus imhricarus): 15, a cidian seasq uirts, (left) the pale­ green compound ascidian (Leproclinum mol/e) and (right) the simple brown squirt (Microcosmus ausrralis): 16. the black cotton pinner beche-dc-mcr (Holorl111ria leucospilora): 17, black sponge (lorrochora baculifera); 18. red sponge (Spirasrrella ragabunda): 19, worm-snail (Siliquaria ponderosa): 20 , leathery alcyonarian (Sarcophyron g/aucum): 21, orange fibreglass sponge; 22. mud slug (Onchidium); 23, brain corals of t\\0 kinds; 24, green va e ponge (Pseudaxyinyssa species); 25, long-armed brittle star (Macroplriorhrix longipeda or Macrophiorltrix belli): 26, rough-shelled Lunella (L. squamosa): 27, salmon fibreglass sponge: 28. staghorn coral (Arropora): 29. long-armed octopus; 30, Turbinaria coral: 31. microatoll of Porires coral; 32, the blue-nippered swimming crab (T/ wlamira species). Cons picious species in the much le muddy sublittoral zone are: 33, prickly bechc-de-mer (Srichopus species); 34. tube of zig-zag \\Orm (Eunice rubrfex). to which cling green zoa nthid anemones (Zoaml111s ausrraliae):

35, canoe corals (a species of either Herpolirha or Polyphyllia); 36, purple and pink neshy alcyonarians: 37, large disc anemone (Sroic/racris) and its pair of clown fish (Amplriprion); 38, yellow-ochre gorgonid (? fa mily, Plexauridae). [Chart drawn by Elizabeth C. Sm ith.)

March, 1967 Page 281 to mention some of the commoner types), be feeding on organic matter in suspension are often capped by mud, which may cake are the red, black and green sponges, the .. and crack during a prolonged period of orange "fibreglass sponge, the large. some­ emersion and thus form a protective coating. what leathery sea squirts (the simple ascidian As these brain corals may occur in thousands, Microcosmus australis), which hang under as shown in the general view of Dudley ledge or in shaded crevices, and several of Reef, they add to the impression of extreme the species of brittle stars-especially the muddiness. lt is only when sea-water once ones with extremely long arms such as more submerges these colonies and washes Macrophiothrix /ongipeda and M. belli, or away the mud so that the daisy-like polyps the shorter armed spiny Ophiothrix can stretch out to feed, that one realizes the spongicola, which lives curled up in hollows colour that can occur here. The once inside sponges during low tides. During muddy looking tones become transformed high water. the arms of the e brittle stars into massed bunches of delicate green or are extended and wave about in the water. mauve "Aowers". They secrete a copious Aow of mucus and can thus trap and hold passing food particles Ct:rtain of the black trepangs or cotton which are later conveyed to the star's mouth. spinners, Holothuria leucospilota, when left Perhaps the very length of the spiny arms high and dry by retreating tides, surround increases their efficiency as food catchers. themselves with a mucus coat to which silt A smooth-armed brittle star, with arms of a adheres, and this may protect them from more conventional length, Ophiop/ocus desiccation or cut down the incidence of imbricatus, which is also very common, harmful rays in the sunlight. They lie fe eds in the normal manner, moving actively around in this protective coat in the blazing over the reef, mouth downwards sieving sun, but, when returning water washes over food from the bottom deposits. them. they slough off their low-tide sun suit and crawl out of it, as shown in the centre lt was not till towards the end of our left photo on the accompanying plate. The collecting that we recognized colonies of the hairy crab Pilumnus l'erspertilio is, except red organ-pipe alcyonarian coral under a for its under side and the inner side of the coating of silt in the muddy area of the reef nipper limbs, covered by a dense hairy but they were small and a little stunted tomentum which holds a thick coating of compared with those of the Queensland mud. Only when it moves in a typically coast. crab-like manner is it detected. When On the whole, gastropod snails were not approached, the crab usually "freezes" still common in this muddy intertidal zone. One and its camouAage is so good that it looks species, however, the worm-snail, Si/iquaria like a pebble covered by muddy seaweed. ponderosa, whose hells are somewhat 1 n colour transparencies only the tracks reminiscent of the serpulid tube-worms, has left by its walking enable one to trace the evolved a novel feed ing adaptation, which crab on the mud. helps it to survive in the muddy conditions. Its shell is fa stened to the substratum or Animals which swallow mud as a source of embedded in a particular kind of sponge food include the black holothurians with wickedly sharp, needle-like spicules. Holothuria leucospilota and Holothuria atra, Towards the apex, its shell is normally many species of annelid worms and two coiled, as in all snails, but as growth proceeds species of sea slugs (Onchidium species). lt the coiling becomes looser and the shape is is also probable that fine particles of mud in more like that of a large corkscrew. The suspension are taken into the food canals of free end of the tube is fairly straight and many of the colonial animals like the brain from this the animal can protrude its gills to corals, some alcyonarians, and the small strain food particles from the water, in a greeny-grey, oval compound ascidians manner rather similar to that used by the Leptoclinum mol/e, which are so common in tube-worms that they superficially resemble. pools on this part of the shore. Many of them are to be seen in a number of the Space will not permit even a brief mention photographs as small, white-bordered, ovoid of all the more important members of the blobs of Aesh on the rocks. Other animals fauna of this mud zone, but it is in this Aourishing in the mud zone which may also area in permanent pools that one sees

Page 282 Ausiralian Nawral Hisiory Animals fro m the muddy area of Darwin·s intertidal zone. Top left: Leathery alcyonarians at East Point, with the ele phant"s fo ot species (Sarcoplryton glaucum) in the fo reground. Top right: Common black (/otroclwta baculifera) and brick-red (Spirastrella ragabunda) sponges at Fannie Bay growing at, or just be low, the level of low-water neap tides. Cemre left: With the return of the tidal waters, the beche-de-mer (Holotlwria leucospilora) sloughs off its low-tide suit of mucus and silt. The scattered light-coloured blobs are compound ascidians (Leptoclinum mol/e). Centre right: At left are two ro unded orange .. fibreglass .. sponges (Cinacltyra australiensis), coated with mud. One has been cut open to show its structure. Bottom left: A typical poo l, co ntai ning branched coral (Acropora species) (top left), a colony of astreid coral (centre), a patch of brown ..cork .. sponge ( Xestospongia exigua) (right), and many light-coloured compound ascidians. The white sections of the astreid coral are above wate r and therefore have their polyps retrac ted. Bollom right: One of the common species of brain corals from Dudley Poi nt. [Photos: Author.]

March, 1967 Paf!e 283 thousands of crustaceans. Chief of these, in turbid as they had been inshore. Jt is a size and numbers visible, are the dark realm dominated by coelenterate organisms squillid mantis shrimps, the swift and (corals, alcyonarians, anemones, stinging pugnacious swimming crab (Thalami/a hydroids) and sponges, with many fascinating spinimana) with vivid blue markings on its crustaceans, molluscs, fish and the peculiar nippers, the strangely shaped porcellanid eunicid worms, which build zig-zag tubes of crabs and the alpheid pistol prawns. Large a parchment-like consistency. There are anemones with attendant clown fish are comparatively few seaweeds. numerous too, and here and there patches of So many interesting animals and plants Porites coral form little microatolls. Various inhabit this sublittoral zone that it would kinds of corals, apart from the many "brain" need pages to do justice to them and varieties, are also found in the deeper pools exigencies of space will not allow them to be of the mud zone. They include species of included here. Some of the more common Acropora, the "staghorn" coral of the locals, of the zoning animals found in the sublittoral and the va e-like Turbinaria colonies with are indicated and named in the diagram their delicate colouring of pink and green or ( os 33 to 38). yellow and brown. There are al o many Much more remain to be discovered on bivalved molluscs, such as the hammer these fascinating Darwin reefs and local oysters and the toothed pearl shell which naturalists should realize how lucky they live jammed in crevices. are to have such exciting marine collecting In the deeper intertidal pools which are so close at hand. generally fringed by corals, alcyonarians of a rather fleshy, leathery type (Sarcophyton glaucum) and sponges, one occasionally comes across groups of mushroom corals (Fungia) lying openly on the bottom or aggregations of large anemones, like the REVIEW greyish-coloured Physobranchia or the ftat­ Checklist to the MA THEWS OR ITHOLOGICAL disked Discosoma, which may be seen with COLLECTION of the National Library of Australia. their attendant clown fishes (Amphiprion As po inted out by Dr D. L. Serventy in his pecies). Very common is Xestospongia introductio n, much of Gregory Mathews· work has exigua, called by us the "cork" sponge, been criticized and allacked, but modern ornitho­ because of its brittle consistency and its logists would have an even greater job trying lO gel general corky appearance. In these pools together information on Australian birds without the pioneer work of Mathews. Although his ideas on small alert fishes dash for cover at one's scientific names and classificationdo not agree with approach-pipefish, blennies, gobies, our own ideas , his great work, The Birds of Ausrralia, demoiselles, cardinal fish and small reef eels has much u eful information and the plates, can all be seen and caught if one is swift including the co lours of the soft pans, can rarely be fa ulted. If he and Tom lredale had been able enough. Many of these animals (apart to complete the Manual ro rhe Birds of Australia, a from the fish) are represented in the full­ solid fram ework would have been built fo r all the page diagram so that local naturalists can future text books on Australian birds. We should attempt with its help to recognize some of all be grateful that his magnificant collectio n is in the ational Library and that this checklist has Darwin's commoner shore inhabitants. been made available. All future workers will now be able to refer to many of the older works on birds without difficulty. The sublittoral zone This checklist should be held by all libraries and Extra low spring tide , during the third serious workers in ornithology, and the National Library should be thanked fo r producing it. week of the trip, enabled us to invade the area nom1ally visited only by skindivers, H. J. de S. Disney. except during the brief periods of except ionally low pring (king) tides­ LECTURES ON EVOLUTION perhaps three or four times a year. Lectures on evolution are being given by Mr R. Strahan, Director of Taronga Park Zoo, at the The bottom was much cleaner than it had Australian Museum at 8 p.m. every Wed nesday been in the true or eulittoral zone above, from I st March to 3rd May. Admission is 25c although the water bathing it were just as per lcct ure.

Page 284 Ausrralian Natural Hisrory 1111111111

The water cycle.

Water-And Our Thirsty Earth

By R. J. GRIFFIN

enior Geologist, 1 ew South Wai('S Geological Survey

0 vital is water to our everyday living As a vapour, water is diffused through S that man can say water means the all the atmo phere that envelops the earth. difference between economic health or decay: As a liquid or solid, it covers about four­ it governs our standard of living. What he fifths of the earth's surface. ot satisfied should rea lize is that, on this planet. without with pervading the crusta! rocks a soil water there would be no life and without moisture and ground-water, it locks itself up large quantities there would be no civilization in intimate chemical combinations with as we know it. other minerals and forms a substantial part of the olid rock crust and interior of the Water-in rivers, lakes, glaciers or under­ earth. Moreover, all living matter, plant ground-has for millenniums markedly and animal, is largely composed of water. affected the trend of human affairs The earth is in fact unique among planets throughout the world. Most of us don't of the solar system in having a favourable have to look for water. We grew up either balance between the gaseous, liquid and in big cities where there was a public water solid phases of its water-a happy cosmic supply, or in small towns or on farms where accident that makes possible life as we know the water came from wells and bores. it.

March, 1967 Page 285 With water seemingly plentiful all around escapes rapidly at night. . P�rhaps water's us people are just becoming aware that there mo t remarkable property 1 Its action as a is more to the water problem than just solvent. Given enough time, water can and turning on the tap. and that acute shortages does dissolve everything exposed to it. are in the making in many parts of the world.

Water in usable fo rm and a111ount is Where did water come from ? poorly distributed and often is not where At one time the earth apparently was a needed most. For example, about one-fifth molten mass radiating heat into space. It of all the world's fresh surface water is in wa surrounded by gases and vapours which the Great Lakes of North America and yet contained the e sential ingredients of water. only 2,000 miles away i the "Great American As the earth cooled and chemical changes Desert". This unequal distribution of water proceeded, water was eventually fo rmed. is one of its most striking characteristics . Ever since the seas formed, water has been whether considered from a global, working away on the earth, trying to mould continental, or regional viewpoint. Massive it into a perfectly smooth surface. Other accumulations of ice occupy the polar forces within the earth keep raising up new regions, while humid tropics circle the earth mountains and hills which prevent the earth between desert belts to the north and outh. from being covered by one vast shallow Each of the continents has at least one large ocean. desert-the enormous Sahara Desert lies on the same continent with large lakes which contain about one-quarter of all fresh water The water cycle in existence. Regionally, parched deserts Water has no fixed address: it circulates or lie literally in the shadow of snow-clad move from land to the oceans, to the mountains. atmosphere, and back to land again. This continual exchange between the earth and What is water ? the atmosphere i called the water or hydro­ The answer to this question, far from logical cycle. being simple, is quite complicated. Chemi­ Throughout this cycle, some changes take cally it is composed of hydrogen, oxygen, place in the quality of the water. Since the deuterium and tritium-the last two being world began, natural processes have so-called isotopes of hydrogen. The influenced the chemical, physical and bio­ common form ula for water, H20, need not logical characteristics of water. Even rain­ be rejected ; the important point to remember water contains small amount of dis olved is that water is not a single, simple compound minerals, called salts, which have been and that it has many unu ual properties. transported by winds blowing across the lt is the only substance on earth that appears ocean or land surface. atural quality of in three distinct forms of matter within the water varie from place to place, with the normal range of climatic conditions. lt can � season, with the climate and with the kind appear as a solid, a gas, or a liquid. When of rocks and soils the water moves through. frozen it expand . therefore ice is lighter Water quality is altered by wind- or stream­ than water and lakes and streams freeze transported sediments, water temperature, from the top down. This is fo rtunate soil bacteria, and evaporation. Living because, if ice were heavier than liquid organisms exercise natural quality controls water, freezing would be from the bottom on both fresh water and sea water. up and this would have a disastrous effect on fish and water plants. Another remarkable fact i that water's heat capacity What is happening to water ? is the highest of all substances in nature When populations were small and widely except ammonia. This enables the oceans scattered, water was not a serious problem to be high reservoirs of solar warmth and to except in arid climates. In ancient times the keep our weather from going to great productivity of arid regions wa based extreme of either hot or cold. In desert largely on a meticulous adjustment to area the blanket of water vapour is very annually replenished water supplies. For thin so that the burning rays of the sun example, the lands just east of the pour through in the daytime and warmth Mediterranean. once known as the Fertile

Page 286 Australian Natural History Crescent, supported at the time ofthe Roman wastes were dumped untreated into any and Byzantine empires a substantially larger convenient watercourse. The Romans had population than they do today. The ancient a horror of river water and did not hesitate, peoples had ingeniously developed the lands in order to water their cities, to build by the intelligent use of meagre water aqueducts which enabled them to carry the resources. Their technique was mainly water from faraway sources. efficient storage of water in cisterns and in Today most of the rivers of Europe and open reservoirs, supplemented by well­ America are dangerously polluted-the planned irrigation, terracing and tree planting. Rhine is often referred to as the " ewer of Today few major areas have no water Europe". At first the flows of these rivers problem and some places are in serious diluted the wastes, but the natural or self­ trouble. Man's current concern over water purifying ability of the running water was reflects a serious world-wide shortage in the over-taxed, so that the rivers became turbid midst of plenty. Water supplies have been and sunlight could not penetrate deep into so used, misused and abused and the the water. The residual dissolved oxygen environment has been so widely polluted that became inadequate and the result was many rivers can be used only fo r transporting odoriferous streams, fish kills and health wastes to the sea. They have become open hazards. It is a long time since English sewers. Parliamentarians could fish for salmon in the Thames during recess; and in 1965 a There isn't less water than there used to Presidential decree ordered that the Potomac be, but there is more of everything else­ (Washington, D.C.) be made clean enough more people, more use for water, more to swim in. industry. more pollution-and by the year 2000, just over 30 years from now, water The transport of wastes from the home, needs will have reached crisis proportions. factory, or fa rms to the sea is a beneficial Unlike any other mineral resource, the use of water, but when such waste disposal amount of water on our planet remains the practices are abused we find that we are same; man, not nature, has upset the confronted by an abundance of debris and balance. Man must have water but he an insidious dilution of harmful anci must realize the consequences of water poisonous substances of all sorts. development in order to get the greatest Realistically, the waste water problem benefit from his use of water. consists of learning how to handle wastes. We must not fo rget that the population of not how to stop waste disposal. the world is increasing daily by hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. and by the Some waste water problems year 2000 it will be double the present estimate of 3,000 million. Also, industry ewspapers and magazines currently and agriculture (irrigation) need water in cont:Jin many items about water pollution fa ntastic quantities and the demand is and problem caused by wastes discharged skyrocketing. r ndustrial demand in the into waterways, primarily by industry. It U.S.A. has increa ed tenfold since 1900, is true that technological advance have although the population has little more than introduced many new types of waste into doubled. Industries are reported to use the earth's environment and no end is in 700 gallons per person per day, whilst an sight. In many cases the position is individual in his home uses 50 to 60 gallons undeniably grave, but what about the per day. Use of water from public-supply wholesale use of insecticides, pesticides, system in a moderncity is 150 to 300 gallons weed-killers and similar products on gardens, per person per day. After u e this water is fa rmlands, bowling green , and golf links? usually polluted. What chemicals are used in our fo rests and insect-breeding areas? Many of these organic compounds are complex in chemical Water pollution structure and do not break down in water It was the rise of civilization and the and disappear. Many people believe that grouping of people in towns and cities that long-term effects on man may be extremely brought problems of water pollution. Man's serious-but no one is quite sure.

March, 1967 Page 287 Water re ource VISIT! G KEEPER Of the total world suppl� of 326,000,000 cubic mile , 97 per cent 1 fo und in the ocean and only 2i per cent is locked up in ice cap and glacier . This leaves less than I per cent of the total world upply available to man, on, above or below the land. Au tralia, the largest island in the world, i about the a me ize a the U.S.A. ; both countrie have about 80 per cent of their population in the cities and major towns. The big difference i that the U.S.A. has a population of about 200 million and fa ntastic water re ources, whereas Australia has a population of about 12 million and is considered to be the driest continent in the world. Our rainfall i erratic, but it is accepted that over 50 per cent of Au tralia receive more than 15 inches of rain per annum, and about 15 per cent receive more than 30 inche . We can do a lot with this amount of water. The economic of water utilization are continually a ource of controver y, but people hould realize that no area can be populated. let alone industrialized or Dr J. P. Harding, Keeper of Zoology at the irrigated, without a water upply. Therefore British Museum ( atural History), visited the we, a inhabitant of the driest continent on Australian Museum last September after allending the IIth Pacific Science Congress in Tokyo. earth, hould be thinking in term of our Or Harding is a world authority on mall freshwater ba ic mineral re ource-water. cntomostracan crustaceans, uch a water-fleas and fairy shrimp . and is shown above examining the important collection of these animals from ew South Wale macle by Miss Marguerite Henry in the early 1920's. LO T HOMING PIGEO 'S As well as taking an active inte' est in research The Di' ision of Wildlife Research, C.S.I. R.O., on similar animals being carried out at the Uni,crsity seeks the co-operation of Australian ·awral Hi11ory of S)dnc), Or Harding was able to visit and collect readers in its study of the fa te of lost homing pigeons, crustaceans from Warragamba and other major as part of an ill\estigation of the biology of pigeons. water suppl) dams of the S)dne) area with Or Hiliar) Joll), biologi�t "ith the Metropolitan The Di' i�ion states: .. During long-distance race Water Board. Or Joll) has worked extensi,cly on man) pigeons fail to return home. Some become freshwater Crustacea and other animal� in Australia e'hausted becau c of bad weather. others meet '' ith and cw Zealand, and ga'e an account of the an accident or are taken b) predators. When one biology of Warragamba Dam in Au

Page 288 Australian 'arural History One can re adily appreciate why observers of live To xopneusres pi/eo/us sea urchins, which are venomous. liken their expanded pedicellariae to beds of flowers and remark how the short spines on the upper surface are almost obscured. This side view also shows the long, fine, sucker-tipped tube fe et (especially clear to the right of the photo). Each expanded flower-like pedicellaria has a deep blood-red central spot and a distinct white rim, and the space in between is a pale flesh-colour. The spines are light green with white tips, which reinforces the general impression of looking at a bed of minute flowers. [Photo: C. V. Turner.]

VE1V OMO US SEA URCHIN IN SYDJVEY HARBO[TR

By ELIZABETH C. POPE

During a di'e at Camp Co'e in Sydney Harbour This sea urchin had ne,er been recorded from in the winter of 1966, Mr C. Lawler and his Austr alian hores prior to 1961, when its finding as ociates of the Undrrwater Research Group the previou year in Moreton Bay, southern noticed a ea urchin which was new to them, having it� shorti h spines almost obscured by gre atly Queensland, was announced by Dr R. Endean in expanded, rounded pedice llariae which they described a short note in The Medical Journal of Ausrrolia. as looking like a bed of tiny flowers. orm ally The present find extends its range •ome 450 miles pedicellariae look like minute pi ncers, mounted on further southward, into temperate sea . lt is fle xible waving stalks. Only a single urchin was interesting to note that it was found in pract ically the seen but, fortunately, it was brought alive to the Australian Museum where it was at once recognized identi cal habitat where its relative, the white and as Toxopneusres pi/eo/us, a species known to be mauve sea urchin, Pseudoboleria indiona, was . capable of inflicting severe ·· tings . by introducing recently found in Sydney. Toxopneusres pi/eo/us venom into its 'ictim by means of sm all curved ranges widely through the Indian and west Pacific teeth on the flower-like pedice llariae. The species is believed to have caused the deaths of several Oceans, so its occurrence in Aust ralia was to be Japanese divers. expected.

March, 1967 Page 289 -

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An adult male Au tralian fur seal, Arcrocephalus doriferus, on Montagu Island, specie is being studied in Victoria.

Australian Seals

By B. J. MARLOW

Curator of 1ammals, Australian 1\luscum

LTHOUG H eal are obviously clo ely lowly on land by hitching themselve� along A related to the large order of Carnivora on their brea t bone and pelvis in a or 11e h-eating mammals. they are so distinctly caterpillar-like manner. recognizable from all the terrestrial carnivores In contra t, the cared seal and walru e that many mammalogist now consider that can rotate the hind flippers fo rward when they hould be eparated in an order of their u e them to a considerable own. This order i the Pinnipedia and i on land and the fore­ divided into three fa milie . the Otariidae or degree in walking. Thus with eared eal ; the Odobenidae or walruse , and quarters upported on the fo re flippers and the Phocidae or true eals. hindquarter upported by the forwardly­ The eared seals and walruses are fa irly directed hind flippers. the eared eal are clo ely related to each other and are quite able to break into an ungainly gallop, which distinct from the true seals. In the latter can attain speed imilar to tho e of a man group, the hind flipper remain outstretched running. A the name would indicate, the behind the body when the animal is on land, eared seal po es small external ears which and play no part in locomotion ''hi le are lacking- in both the walruses and true ashore. Becau e of thi , the true seals move eal .

Page 290 Ausrralian arural HisiOI'J' The relationships of the Pinnipedia The Au tralian ea-lion or hair seal, Certain details in the anatomy of the skull N. cinerea, is a large animal, in which the indicate that eared eal and walruses are adult males may grow up to a length of closely related, while, at the ame time, true about 10 feet. It is easily recognizable by eals are only distantly related to the former the patch of white hair on the crown and group . The presence of the variou nape of the neck of the adult male . The tructural modifications for swimming are throat and belly of the females are of a due more to convergence than a close dirty yellow colour. evolutionary relation hip. lt has been The fur seals are considerably smaller ugge ted with ome ju tification that the than the sea-lion , since the adult males pinniped have had a double origin, the normally only mea ure about 7 fe et in total true seal having arisen from some wea cl-like length. or rather otter-like ance tor, while the eared The northern fur eal, Callorhinus ursinus, seals and walruses originated from some which breeds on islands in the north Pacific common ance tor which also gave rise to the bears. In general, pinnipeds are confined to the temperate and polar regions of the world and are poorly repre ented in the tropics. The walru es are found only in Arctic waters and will not be considered further here.

Eared eal The cared seals or otariids are known popularly as sea-lions and fur eals. and are probably the most fa miliar members of the order. There are fo ur genera of sea-lion and two genera of fur seals; of these genera, two sea-lions and one fur seal are found in the orthern and Southern Hemispheres respec­ tively. The northern sea-lions comprise Steller' sea-lion, Eumeropias jubara, and the Californian ea-lion, Zalophus ca/ifornianus. The latter species is the well-known animal which is often seen performing in circuses. The Australian hair eal, Neopltoca cinerea, Its ability to climb ladders while balancing showing the characteristic white cap of the adult a ball on it no e indicates the superior male. A colony of the e animal exi t on the locomotion on land of the eared eal , south coast of Kangaroo Island, South Australia. ince it would be quite impossible for one where this photo was taken. of the true seals to perform this fe at. The southern sea-lions comprise the genera Ocean, is the basi for a considerable industry Oraria and Neophoca. Oraria hyronia in ealskin which is operated by the United occurs in large number off the coa t of State in the Pribilof Islands. Unlike the South America and the Falkland I land , ea-lion , fur eal retain a den e layer of while Neophoca cinerea i fo und on the west woolly under-fur below the longer tiff guard and outh coa ts of Au tralia from Geraldton hair on the pelt. When these guard hairs to Adelaide. The related species, Neophoca arc stripped out mechanically the remaining hookeri. i found in the ub-Antarctic i lands wool fibres fo rm the sealskin of commerce. of ew Zealand. particularly the Auckland The hair of adult ea-lions con i t only of group. Thi latter pecies is placed in guard hair , and i thus of no value a a a separate genu Phocarcros by ome fur, although good-quality leather may be systematists. made from the kin.

March, 1967 Page 291 The fur seal populations on the Pribilofs the Australian fur seals represent a single were seriously depleted by over-exploitation, species, until unequivocal evidence to the but in 1911 an intensive study of the biology contrary can be produced. of the species was undertaken. The There are thus two species of cared seals protection of the breeding stock, coupled which are resident on Australian coasts, with controlled taking of 3-year-old bachelor the Australian hair seal or sea-lion, Neophoca bulls, has enabled the population to maintain cinerea, and the Australian fur seal. itself at a satisfactory figure of about I! Arctocepha/us dori.ferus. million animals. A total annual kill of about 60,000 bachelor males and 30.000 surplus female is made, which is worth True seals about $1,000,000 to the United States one of the true seals exist as resident Government. animals in Au tralia today, although The southern fur seals are all included in stragglers may occasionally come a hore the genus Arctocepha/us, of which there are on our beache . The fa mily Phocidae, which about six specie . The most northerly contains all the true seal , is divided into species is the rare A. philippi, of California three sub-families. One of these, the and Chile, while A. ga::ella is widely dis­ Phocinae, is essentially northern in its tributed around the sub-Antarctic i lands of distribution and contains such animal as the the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Off the harbour cal, Phoca 1•itulina, and the grey coast of South America, A. australis extends seal, Halichoerus grypus. The second ub­ from the Falkland Islands and South Georgia fa mily, the Monachinae, is mainly southern to the Galapagos I lands. The fur seal of in its distribution and include the monk South Africa, A. pusillus, is probably the seals of Hawaii, the Caribbean and the best known species in the genus, since its Mediterranean. The most characteristic biology has been e tensively tudied in members of this sub-family are the typical connection with the fisheries industry of that seals of the Antarctic, such as the Weddell country. seal, crab-eater seal, Ro eal, and ea­ leopard. The Ro s eal, Ommatophoca rossi. In the Australasian region there are two is extremely rare and is known from less than species of fur seal : A . .forsteri i found off fifty specimens. There are no records of it New Zealand and its neighbouring sub­ from Au tralian beaches. The Weddell seal, Antarctic island , while the Australian fur Leptonychotes weddel/i, is plentiful clo e eal, A. dori.ferus, occurs around the southern inshore around the Antarctic continent. It coasts of Australia-around Recherche does not appear to migrate very fa r north Archipelago in We tern Australia and from and i rarely fo und in the pack ice. There is Kangaroo Island, South Australia, to Seal a ingle record of a specimen coming ashore Rocks, near Port Stephen in ew South in South Au tralia. By far the most Wales. lt also occur around Ta mania. numerous seal in the Antarctic i the crab­ The systematics of fur eals in Australian eater seal, Lobodon carcinophagus, in which waters are in a confused state, since some the teeth are remarkably adapted for a diet workers maintain that those animals around of krill, Euphausia superba, the small shrimp­ Kangaroo Island in South Australia are like crustaceans on which the whalebone A. dori.ferus, while tho e in southern Victoria, whales al o feed. The teeth have com­ ew South Wale and Tasmania warrant plicated crenellated cu p which form a very eparation a a di tinct species. A. tasmanicus. efficient sieve when the upper and lower rows The only difference between the e populations are interlocked. Several beachings of crab­ is the relatively larger size of the ea tern eater seal have been recorded in Australia, animals. Certain cranial characters have included among which are Sydney, Portland been suggested a being diagnostic of these (Victoria) and Tasmania. two forms, and yet animals which show both these features have been found living together Ti1e leopard eal, Hydrurga leptonyx, is a in the same breeding population. Further solitary seal which live mainly in the pack work is nece ary on the taxonomy of ice of the Antarctic where it feeds on other Australian fur seals, but at the present time marine vertebrate , such as fish, penguins, it would be better to retain the view that all and other seal . Some specimens have been

Page 292 Australian arural History The leopard seal or sea-leopard, Hydrurga lep lo11_vx, is the species of true seal which comes ashore most frequently on Australian coasts. lt feeds mainly on marine vertebrates, especially penguins, fish, and other seals.

examined in which the stomach was full of Both the resident populations of fur krill. During the spring, July to September, seals and elephant seals were subjected to some of these seals migrate north to sub­ exploitation by sealers for skins and oil Antarctic islands such as Heard and during the early nineteenth century, to such Macquarie, and at the same time some an extent that the elephant seals were com­ stragglers appear on Australian beaches. pletely exterminated and the fur seals These are normally young animals in their reduced to a very low population level. At first and second year. or all the true seals, the present time, fur seals are completely the leopard seal is the species which appears protected and it would appear that their most freq uently on Australian beaches and numbers are increasing. An intensive study has been recorded from New South Wales, of the biology of the Australian fur seal is Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania. at present being undertaken by the Fisheries The third sub-family of the true seals, the and Wildlife Department of Victoria. Cystophorinae, contains only two genera, Unfortunately little accurate data are Cystophora, the hooded seal of the Arctic, available on the natural history of this and Mirounga, the elephant seals of species, and many individuals are killed California and the sub-Antarctic. illegally by fishermen either for crayfish bait or because of their supposed competition In former times, the southern elephant ea I, for fish of commercial value. It is to be Mirounga leonina, occurred in large numbers hoped that the research mentioned above on King Island and Tasmania, but these will produce valuable infonnation which colonies have now disappeared and only may be used fo r the successful conservation occasional stragglers appear in these areas. of the fur seal. Once its numbers have Large breeding populations of elephant seals increased to a satisfactory level it may be still exist on Macquarie and Heard Jslands. possible to use these animals as the basis of a scientifically controlled sealskin industry which would provide a lucrative natural Conservation resource. The value of controlled utilization The only pinnipeds which are at present of fur seal colonies may be seen in the United resident in Australia are the two species States where the total cost of the purchase of of eared seals, Neophoca cinerea and Alaska from the Russians, $7,000,000, has Arctocephalus doriferus, known popularly as been recouped in sealskins alone in a space hair seals and fur seals respectively. .Isolated of 7 years. stragglers of various species of true seals [The photos in this article are by the occasionally occur. a:-tthor.]

March, 1967 Page 293 A Ring-tailed Possum look at the camera after contemplating a hook {lower left) to be used to shake him from his perch. The tag at the bottom of the possum"s left ear ha a reflective pattern which is u ed to identify the animal "ithout catching it. [Photo: Carina Clark.)

Ring-tailed Possums

By MICHAEL MARSH Lecturer in Biology, School of Biological Sciences, nhersity of Sydney

HE possum fa mily, the Phalangeridae, Contra ted to these insectivorou form T contains a variety of forms which i are the larger herbivorous possums. These rivalled only by the Dasyuridae (the mar- fa ll into two categories according to the upial carnivores) among marsupials. Mem­ structure of their molar teeth. The Brush­ ber of this fa mily range in size from the tailed Pos urn , the cuscuses and related Feather-tailed Glider and Pigmy Pos urn , forms have molar which resemble tho e of weighing in the neighbourhood of 10 grams, the insectivorou fo rm . The fo ur cusps of to the koala, which may weigh well over such molar are convexly rounded on all

10 kilogram . sides. The Greater Glider, the Ring-tailed There are a number of feeding adapta­ Possums and the koala, on the other hand, tions. Most of the smaller po sum are have ere cent- haped cusps, that is, the ex­ "in ectivores" ; they feed on small animal ternal face of each cu p is concave. life, mostly insects. These small po urn The diet of Ring-tails and their allie is also feed on the nectar and pollen of flower . more limited than that of member of the Among the large t po urns which eat Brush-tail group. The koala and the Greater animal food are the Striped Possums of Glider thrive only on the leave of a few ew Guinea and northern Queensland. and pecie of gum tree. Ring-tail have com­ the Yellow-bellied Glider . paratively broader taste , and can live and

Page 294 Australian aruraf Hisrcry reproduce while feeding on the leaves of a near Atherton, in northern Queensland, had variety of native trees and shrubs. In con­ bred in late summer and autumn. The trast to Brush-tailed Possums, however, they nature of the ecological conditions which do not thrive in captivity if fed on foods govern the e varied breeding patterns, and such as cooked vegetable and meats. fre h their con equence with regard to the rates fruit and baked foods. of increase pos ible in the diffe rent popula­ tion , are currently being studied by the All members of the possum fa mily are writer. characterized by the structure of their hind fe et. The econd and third toes are un­ usually lender, and are bound together in Distribution and life history the ame heath of skin, a condition known as syndactyly. The bandicoots and the Ring-tail are fo und in varied kinds of kangaroos al o have syndactylous toes, woodland in south-eastern Australia. They which are used as combs for grooming the occur in moderate to high densities in sclero­ fur. Only the possums, however, have an phyll fo rest, fa vouring those site where the oppo able fir t toe. This makes an effec­ tree are closely spaced, and include water­ tive gra ping tool of the foot. loving, mesophyllic species. They also occur in montane gum forests, in swamp fore t All members of the possum fa mily are of tea-tree and banksia, and at the edges of more or le arboreal, the Bru h-tailed Po - rain fore t . Population densities may be urns and the rock-dwelling Ring-tail being a high a six per acre in mall area , but perhap the mo t terrestrial of the group. are u ually much lower. However, it i a Several members of the fa mily have evolved rare fo rest in ew South Wales or Victoria the ability to glide like Flying Squirrels. which will not reward a spotlighter with a Thi ability apparently ha arisen at lea t view of at lea t one Ring-tail in two or three three time . fo r the Feather-tailed Gliders, hour of observation. the Sugar Glider and the Greater Glider are each more clo ely similar in structure Ring-tails fa vour forests in which the to non-gliding possums than they are to canopy of trees is continuous, for they are one another. adept at climbing from one tree to another. They u e their weight to bring a branch clo e The Ring-tailed Possums are particularly to that of another tree, then grasp the new intere ting members of the fa mily fo r a branch with their front feet while holding number of reasons. In the first place, they to the old branch with their tripod of hind are relatively abundant in most metropolitan leg and prehensile tail. and uburban area of Australia, and they usually make their presence known by There are everal pecies of Ring-tails building a characteristic nest, a ball about a which inhabit very restricted area of Aus­ foot in diameter, of twigs, bracken fern tralia. The Bunya Mountains Ring-tail, a and leave . early all the other possum , trikingly red animal, lives in high-altit ude by contra t. ne t in hollows in tree or in rain fo rest on an isolated mountain range other incon picuou hide-outs. Thus the about 60 mile north-west of Toowoomba, Ring-tail are the ea iest of possums to Queen land. The Rock-dwelling Ring-taiL locate fo r tudy. Pseudocheirus (Perropseudes) dah/i (Collet!), i fo und in parts of Arnhem Land, orthern Ring-tail are al o of interest becau e Territory. A particularly interesting group they are widespread geographically. The of species is fo und east and south of i ngle species, Pseudocheirus peregrinus Atherton, Queensland, in the cool rain Boddaert. extend from south-central Vic­ fo re ts on the plateau. Thi group include toria to the Cape York Peninsula. This a nearly black form, the Herbert River species ha responded to local conditions o Ring-tail, Pseudocheirus herberrensis (Col­ that populations breed at different seasons in let!), a greyish-green form, the Green different parts of the species range. ear Ringtail, P. archeri (Collett), and the lemur­ Sydney, there are two breeding seasons per like Ring-tail, Hemibelideus lemuroides (Col­ year, in May and ovember, while in Vic­ lett), which has a rich-reddish fur and a toria Ring-tail often breed only in the omewhat bushy tail. lt would be of great winter. A ample of females examined intere t to know how the e three specie

March 1967 P.2ge 295 differ in their utilization of the environment, Behaviour for potlighting observations indicate that they are thoroughly intermingled in the rain The juvenile mortality referred to above forest. Many ecologist believe strongly occurs for the most part after the young are that if two or more species with precisely independent of their parents. The majority similar habits occupy the ame area, natural of young seem to survive the first six months selection will eliminate all but one of them. of life quite well, in particular the three and a half months that are spent in the pouch. The maximum life-span of Ring-tailed When the female has a second litter, she Possums i something more than five years, may still permit the older young to associate but few of the animals in the population with her, and, in fact, they may share the attain this age. Studie of populations near same nest for a while. However, the interval Sydney indicate that 45 to 75 per cent of from 6 to 18 months of age may be regarded as the critical period for young possums. It is during this period that they must findtheir own place to live.

Field ob ervation are not yet extensive enough to how whether either sex maintains an exclusive territory which is defended against intruders. In a small population near arrabeen, ew South Wales, females were found to have nearly exclusive territories in each breeding season, �hile the home ranges of males overlapped those of two or more fem ales. In a very dense population which is currently under study, however, there seems to be a great deal of overlap of the range of both sexes. Observation of caged animals reveal that there can be a great deal of aggress­ ion between po sums confined together which may result in the death of one. it is usually the mature animal which initiates such aggression, if confined with a young animal, A male Ring-tailed Possum under observation although young possums will retaliate in a "'behaviour cage··. [Photo: John Johnson.] frantically if they think they are being attacked. This infonnation makes it seem likely that one of the most formidable young possums die before they attain repro­ difficulties fa cing a young possum in a ductive maturity. at the age of 18 months. dense population will be to find a home area Thus, if a population is to replace it losses, which he can occupy in peace, and to defend tho e fe males reaching reproductive maturity himself against other animals while he is must each produce ix to eight young on com paratively small. Obviously, a great deal the average. As the litter size is usually more work needs to be done on the aggressive two, and litters are produced every ix and territorial behaviour of this species. months, this means that the average fe male who attains exual maturity must live about The behaviour of possums towards their three and a half year . mates and their young is proving most Thompson and Owen ( 1962) studied a interesting. Complete courtship sequences population near Melbourne for two years. have not been observed yet, but an apparently They found that there was only one breeding receptive female handled a male's head with sea on in each year, and very few possums her forepaws and appeared to lick the insides had two litters. In January, 1965, on the of his ears. She was obviously ambivalent other hand, many females near Melbourne in her attitude towards him, however, and on had a second litter. There had been unusually several occasions when he approached her heavy rainfall in the previous spring. she struck at him with her forepaws.

Page 296 Australian Natural History Captive females with pouch young are very aggressive, even toward the fa thers of their young, so that the two cannot be main­ tained in the ame cage. However, field observations ugge t that in the wild the pair bond may be maintained throughout the raising of a litter, and the fa ther participate,, in some cases at least. in the care and defence of th� young. On two occasions pair of po ums were frightened from nest , and the male was observed to take the young on hi back a he fled.On one of the e occasions the male kept the young on his back, and later beneath hi belly, for two hours at the top of a tall tree while ob crver worked under­ neath him. Usually it i the fe male who is seen with the young on her back. An experience in the field uggest that both exe respond to alarm call of the young. A possum between 4 and 5 months of age, which had been seen with it mothet on a low branch, was captured, but the mother escaped. The young wa acctdentally rclea ed before it could be examined, and one member of the field team recaptured it on the ground while the other stood nearby. The landing man noticed that a male possum was approaching the pro trate man who held the squealing baby. 1t came to A pouch young being measured. Its head within about 15 feet of him on a branch length is closely correlated with its age, and about 3 feet from the ground. While he estimates of breeding seasons of local populations was watching this po sum, a second possum, arc based on these measurements. [Photo: subsequently judged to be the mother of the Carina Clark.) young animal becau e of her state of lactation. attacked the tanding man without making a sound. by springing on hi head from above. Economically, the Ring-tailed Possum is a She clawed hi face and bit his lip before she nobody, which i a good thing for him, of could be captured. We will undertake future cour e. His flesh is sought neither by research into the re pon es of the parents to port men nor by commercial hunters, and call of young animal and into other aspects hi kin i too thin for the fur to be of value. of vocal communication among possums. Ac thetically, he is of considerable value. Field ob ervation have shown that the A mentioned earlier, Ring-tail build con- young can give a partly ultrasonic "lo t call" picuous nests o that their haunts are ea ily at an age of about 2 months, over a month recognized. Thu , they make good study before they are due to emerge from the object fo r naturalists. They do not, with pouch. lt will be extremely intere ting to a few exceptions, make a nui ance of them- study the development of the behaviour of elve by living in the roofs of house . the fe male with regard to this call. Other Scientificallj, they can be of considerable studie of maternal behaviour have shown importance in providing information con­ that the progre ive changes in the behaviour cerning the general applicability of theories and needs of offspring as they grow older are concerning the ecology and behaviou1 of matched by changes in the patterns of animal , perhaps as well a timulating the respon e of their mother . form ulation of new theories.

March, 1967 Page 297 LA RGE ALPINE STONEFL Y

Thaumatoperla alpina, the largest-bodied stonefly in Australia, is shown here on a leaf of Silky Daisy, Celmisia sericophylla, at an altitude of 5,500 feet on the Bogong High Plains, eastern Victoria. This recently discovered, primitive plecopteran is about I� inches long, with a wing span of about 2 inches. The head is black, the thorax is light reddish-brown with a distinctive black patch, and the wings are black with dark-blue iridescence over a yellowish-grey abdomen. Stoneflies are insects with aquatic free-l iving larvae most freq uently found in running streams clinging to the undersides of stones. The largest and most primitive Australian species are found in the south-east of the continent and in Tasmania. [Photo: A. eboiss, National Museum of Victoria.]

AUTH.OR'S COMMENT ON BOOK REVIEW

In his somewhat immoderate review of my book One gladly accepts the reproach of a "tendency Furred Animals of Australia (8th edition) in the towards sentimentality about certain animals", June, 1966, issue of Australian NMural History, presumably marsupials! The book indeed formed Mr B. J. Marlow laboured under a misapprehension the basis of a prolonged personal campaign in the as to the popular scope and purpose of the book. cause of marsupial conservation. F.ventually, foundation of the Wildlife Research Oivision of the As with preceding books in this series ( Whm C.S.I. R.O. ( 1949), initiated by a recommendation Bird is Th at, by M. W. Caley, and What Bullerfly is of the Biological Survey Commillee of A. .Z.A.A.S. That, by G. A. Waterhouse). the publisher's basic (of which the author was honorary secretary), requirement was the recording and figuring of every marked a turning point in biological control and known species. Inclusion of material of university conservation in Australia. text-book standard was not acceptable. Finally, the review praises the popular science merit of the book by stating that "past editions The reviewer regrets that biological keys are have rendered sterling service in stimulating the lacking. Practising biologists. however, have intere t and curiosity of the average Australian" agreed that synoptic keys would be incomprehensible in our remarkable animal-. But the scientific to the •·average Australian", and in a popular work validity of the book rests more equitably with the superfluous to a competent mammalogist. lt is original review in the Australian Museum Maga=ine also stated that "lack of adequate heading� makes it ( 1942) by Professor E. A. Briggs, and in the extremely difficult to locate precise details of American Journal of Mammalogy ( 1943). And information easily"'. But, like the bird and bullerny more recently by the selection of the book by the books in ihe series, there is a detailed "Explanation late Professor R. A. Stirton as ··required reading'' of Plates", and a more comprehensive "Contems", for his senior cl as in palaeontology in the University plus an index of eight pages. of California-£1/is Troughton.

Page 298 Australian Natural History WEB WORM, INSECT PEST OF THE WHEA TLA NDS

By L. E. KOCII

Curator of Entomology, Western Australian Museum, Perth

the wheat-belt areas of Western Australia taxonomist have classified them mainly I and South Australia many a fanner under the generic names Talis or Hednota. walking through his fields in autumn pays Their specific names are panteucha. little heed to the swarms of small drab moth /ongipalpella, pedionoma, and crypsichroa; that ri e in short erratic flight from the dry panteucha seems to be the mo t numerous, gra in his path. He does not see the and the most destructive. creamy, pinhead- ized eggs that the moths The moths are browni h, and have a lay, or the minute caterpillars that hatch wing- pan of about I inch. They can be from the egg . Even when the caterpillars di tinguished from others very like them by have grown larger, he may not realize how their colour, size, and narrow elongated many millions of them inhabit his farm. forewing ; also, they have a beak-like And yet these caterpillars, which originally projection in front of the head. The wing fed on native grasses, are one of the worst are clo ely folded around the body while in ect courge of Australian wheatlands, the moths rest upright on grass stem among and have damaged thou ands of acre of which they congregate during dry weather. wheat, barley, and rye crops, and pastures of introduced grasses, particularly barley Adults of the four species can be readily gras . di tingui hed from each other by the special marking on their forewings. The caterpillar are known as webworm becau e they use silken material to make The eggs are laid on the ground, mainly camouflaged tubes above the ground among in April. They hatch after about a fortnight their food-plants, and to line burrows in the into the caterpillars, whose depredations soil. They eat the young plants during soon become obvious. The caterpillars are winter, leaving large patches of bare ground. greenish-brown with dark heads; they moult ix or seven times before reaching their fu ll length of a half to three-quarters of an Identity and life-cycle inch. Each caterpillar cuts off one blade Four closely related pecies of moth. in of gra s at a time and drags it imo it tube the ubfamily Crambinae, are involved ; or burrow. After denuding an area of an

Severe webworm infes­ tation (the large dark patches on the ground) at Katanning, Western Australia, in late 1952. The uninfcsted area had been sprayed with D DT in the autumn of 1951. [Photo: M. M. H. Wallace.)

March, 1967 Page 299 �

� � � � / � panteucha

A webworm moth of 1 he longipalpella species and the forewings of the other three web­ worm species. 10 show difference in markings. [Drawing by the author.]

inch or so, the caterpillar builds a new tube hot conditions bccau e it contain a large or burrow further on, and resumes fe eding. re erve of body-fat. The sealed chambers. Webworm caterpillar are much maller under a cover of dead plant , are at much than other pasture caterpillar , such a the lower temperatures and much higher stout-bodied armyworm and cutworm, which humidities than the ground urfa ce, where grow up to 2 inches long. Moreover, those webwonn would perish during the hot caterpillar do not feed within silken tube . summer. In early pring the full-grown webworm caterpillar cease making silken tube , and Defence by the fa rmer dig final burrows about 3 inches deep among plants. They make silken caps over The farmer turn over hi pa ture gra , the entrances to the burrows, and remain and sows his cereal crops, when moths, eggs, underground through the hot. dry, ummer and young larvae are abundant. The crops months. During this resting stage the sprout and are attacked, and the farmer caterpillars are creamy-yellow, and their quickly eek advice and may apply number are hard to a ess becau e they in ecticide to the infested paddock . DDT cannot be seen without carefully digging is effective at the rate of half a pound of away the hard oil surrounding their burrows. active ingredient per acre, or at a slightly lower rate if Malathion i included. But Toward the end of March, the caterpillar much in ecticide i wasted because the metamorphose within the burrows into farmer usually ha to resort to blanket brown pupae, each a half-inch long. After praying, even though hi field ha only some three week the pupae change into patches of infestation. moths, which fty away from the burrows. After mating, each newly emerged fe male Although webworm in cereal crops causes moth may lay as many a 550 egg . The con ternation, the fa rmer u ually tolerates eggs hatch in about a fortnight, and a new the pest in his pa tures. He rarely treats generation of caterpillar i on the way at area of pasture grass with insecticide the time of the opening rain at the break of because the damage may be hidden by the the ea on. Hence, webworm completes growth of other plants such as clover or one cycle every 12 months. capeweed. In mo t areas, treatment is Webworm serves as a good illustration uneconomical in terms of increa ed profit of the way in which a pecies adapts to it from heep and wool sales. environment. The caterpillars of each Many an enlightened farmer, in an effon pecie have to survive without food through to control the pe t , resorts to fa llowing: the long ummer. They do so by he turn the soil and grass in September and deepening their burrows, while the oil i leave it to lie over the dry months until it still moist during Augu tor September, and is time to seed at the break of ea on. This remaining in them for everal month in a procedure has its drawbacks: it reduces tate of suspended development known as both the dry feed available and the nutrient diapause. The full-grown caterpillar stage value of the topsoil. Late fa llow, in is the one most suitable fo r enduring the February, is less u eful in reducing webworm.

Page 300 Australian Natural History I I living �food- - plants - dead ,____. plants ::� ·:; : •.;. , .

;."".:: silken cap

�'��-u��------��.n�t,n�11 --�- ...• • .. • • )! .. . <( • • • • :. " " )I " " If .11 " • jll • 101 • • 11 •• " " )I " 1< o • a 11. " If X • 1t .. . .. • • • • • • ••• lt ,. .. Ill .. " . • • •• " • .. " • • .. " .. 11 ...... " . . " . "' " ...... " .. lt • lr •• " ...... " • X lr 11: liC ...... " " " " ...... >I • " ••• . " . . • • lt •• • • • • • .. .. • • , •••lt • ...... ,.. " ...... <( • . w . • •• 11 • ...... " ...... " ...... " . " . " . " " . . " ...... " ...... " " ...... •• " • 11 " • • • ,. • 11 .. ... • • • , • • " •••" • • • ...... " " " • � ,oil • " ...... " ...... ". " . . . • • • • .. " • " • • Ill If " • • •.. • • • • 11 • Ill ...... • .. lit •• . . . • lil ••• ...... " . . : : : : . .. . : ::: : : . � :: " : . • • 11 • ,. :::: . : : :: :: ::::::: ::: : ...... ::: . . . . : . : . " : • : : .... : . " . . . . : . �. ... • '11 " ...... : ...... · ...... " "' ...... 11 " •••• . . .." ...... " ...... " " ...... " . 11 X 11 lll liC " . " ...... " . . .. " ...... " " ...... " ...... " .. • lo. • • " .. " . . " ...... Ill ••• . . . " • 10 •• " ...... • • " 111 • . .... • Ill .... " . . • • • • 11 ...... 11 " • • " ...... • • lt •• • • ll • • • • • ,...... The e illustrations show (above) a webworm ...... • • • • Ill lt " 11 • caterpillar feeding in the winter in a silken tube • Ill • • • • •••• X lil X IC lil ll lil ll lil lil lil among the plants and in a burrow in the soil lil IC 1C lil 1o. Jl 11 111 •• ll '11 • • ..." • and (right) resting over the summer in a deep I< lil Xlil X I lil '11 ll lil X 11 •• ll • • • "' •• burrow. [Drawings by the author.) " ll • • • � • • " • • lil lil Jl lllll X X lil X Ill Jl ,. ••• ...... " . " " )f • X 11 11 ,; X "' . 11 In autumn, cultivation reduces the fre h " . . . . " . " . • . Ill " " " " " " " I< )( lt " . " " " " . " .. grass available to young caterpillar�. and a .. • 10 " .. • " " " 11 !! " X X 11 11 " " 11 • " " " " If 11 " If " • . . .. delay of a fortnight or more between " .. " . " " " ...... " . " " . " ". " Ill If "" • " • " ploughing and seeding enforces their star­ . . . .." .. " . " I< • " • I< • " " • vation. • • 11 k • • " • • • ...... " " Thus, by chemical and agricultural " ,. • • " " • • • 11 method , the farmer tries to control ....- webworm. Sometimes. this may not be " I< 11 " • " " . • • I< " " . " " " . . . " .. 'Ill ••" • nece sary : infestations rapidly decrease I< • " •• . "" . " because of a change in weather conditions. • • 10 " ••"' " " • .. • • • • • I< ,. " lC " .... . " "' . " and a crop may recover naturally witho11t . . " " " .. . the fa rmer applying insecticide. Becau e of the agricultural hazard of atural control webworm. and the apparent irregularity of Webworm has been recognized as a pest its attack , entomologist have recently in Western Australia for 45 year ; there was investigated the ways in which the numbers much damage to cereal crops in 1920, 1949. of these insects are maintained in nature. 1950, 1955 to 1959, and 1962. There has it is hoped that these studies may enable the been le s infestation in South Australia pred iction of imminent outbreaks. where fa llowing is more common, but in Sampling by the author has revealed that r

March, 1967 Page 301 numbers. But the frequency of seriou outbreaks is greatly influenced by weather, which affects webworm urvival not only in relation to fungal attack but also throughout the life cycle of the in ect. A dry spell, when eggs and young caterpillars are present, greatly reduces webworm number ; heavy rain during winter may drown caterpillars in low-lying areas; extremely hot summers kill diapausing larvae, e pecially those beneath bare ground and those in shallow burrows. Man, by fa rming, has provided abundant food for the increase of webwonn-now he must solve the problem that he has created, using the knowledge he has gained from A light-trap (above) at Koojan, Western re earch on the natural hi tory of the pe t. Australia, and field-cages (below), u ed by the author to catch webworm moths to estimate their numbers. Moths are attracted to the light­ trap at night. Those emerging from pupae in the soil beneath the cages are trapped in OVERSEAS VISIT them. (Photos: Author.] M r R. 0. Chalmers, Curator of Minerals at the Australian Museum, was overseas from mid-July to the end of ovember, 1966. He visited a number of leading museums and other institutions in the United Kingdom, the U.S.A., Europe and Asia where there are important meteorite and tektite collections and where research in these fields is carried out. Because of the generous co-operation extended by the National Museum and the Charles University in Prague and the Depanmem of Mineral Resources in Bangkok, he was able to make two short field trips in southern Bohemia and north-east Thailand to study tcktite occurrences. constituting a great and hidden threat to He attended the general meeting of the International Mineralogical Association at Cambridge, England, crops that may later be planted there. and the International Gemmological Congress in In the winter of 1959 the author discovered Barcelona, Spain. At the congress he made a short contribution on Australian gemstones and that a white fungus, Beauveria bassiana ornamental stones Bals. (Vuill.), envelops and kills webworm . caterpillars. Fungi generally grow and STUDY OF INSECT multiply fastest when the weather i moist Dr E. L. Mockford . of the ormal University, and warm, and B. bassiana kills most Normal, Illinois, U.S.A., paid a 10-day visit to webworm under these condition , when the Sydney to study specimens of Psocoptera. The full-grown caterpillars have made their final Australian Museum·s collection of these little­ studied insects is one of the biggest in existence, burrows for resting over the ummer. The containing extensive series of African and Australian fungus is widespread where webwonn lives, species not available elsewhere. and in some year kills large numbers of webwonn. ORNITHOLOGICAL CONGRESS The Curator of Birds at the Australian Museum, It is well known that man can use Mr H. J. de S. Disney, was overseas on tudy leave pathogenic fungi to kill insects; therefore, from July to October, 1966. He attended the the possibility of controlling webworm by 14th International Ornithological Congress at culturing the fungus and liberating its spores Oxford and read a short paper on honeyeaters. hould not be overlooked. Laboratory trials He al o visited several museums and research centres in England and America, discussing field on a small scale could test the practicability taxonomic problems and examining overseas of this method of biological control. collections of Australian birds. The trip was very successful and much useful information was The development of new fam1ing areas obtained on recording data and methods of could result in an increa e in wcbwonn determining age and sex in birds.

Po2e 302 Ausrralian Narural Hisrory The Tasmanian Museum and An Gallery. The old main entrance (on the left of the photo) and the small block immediately to the left of it are the original building, opened in 1863. The wing fa rther to the left was built in 1901. The wing at the right of the old main entrance was built in 1889 and was the first extension to the original building. The extension at the extreme right was opened in January, 1965. [Photo: Don Stephens.]

THE TA SMA NIAN MUSEUM

By W. BRYDEN Director, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart

OBART was founded late in 1803 when being and considerable rivalry developed, H Lt Bowen, R.N., with the ships Afbion but in 1843 the then Lieutenant-Governor and Lady Nelson, formed a ettlement at of the Colony, Sir Eardley Eardley-Wilmot, Risdon on the River Derwent. Early the called all three bodies together and it was fo llowing year it was decided to change the agreed that a merger should take place, to location decided on by the first group of cater for the interest of all three, by the settlers, and the present site of Hobart city formation of the Royal Society of Tas­ was the one selected. mania-perhaps the first Royal Society to be lt is interesting to note that, even in the established outside Britain. fir t ten years of settlement here, there were The Society took over the museum collectors-plants, animals, shells, insects, acquisitions, which were added to by further rocks and minerals all came under the eagle collections, gifts, exchanges, etc., and within eyes of the interested and many specimens a few years a finethough small museum was were ent back to Britain, where some may established. still be found in the British Museum. The Royal Society had no permanent home In 1828 a small group of people, some with at that time and had to depend, to a large more specialized training, formed themselves extent, on the generosity of Government into a scientific society and started their own Departments for adequate space. The museum. Two other ocieties came into Papers and Proceeding of the Royal Society

March, 1967 Page 303 of Tasmania became an integral part of the Additions to the building were made in Society's function, and Volume I appeared I 889 and in 190 I, but it was not until in 1849 (Volume 100 was printed in 1966). January, 1965, that a much needed wing, to Lectures were given, usually related to provide further exhibition space and adequate material in the Museum. laboratory rooms for staff, became a reality. So the Museum development went on : atural history collections are directed the Society leased rooms in a fine old free­ mainly to the Tasmanian fa una. This has stone building (demolished in August, 1965) become a deliberate policy based partly on and in January, 1863, moved into its own finance and the size of the Museum, but also building on ground donated by the Govern­ because, being the only truly isolated­ ment, the ground on which the present boundary State in the Commonwealth, much Museum stands. The initial building, in of the fa una has quite an individual signifi­ freestone, was of two storeys with two large cance. To date not a very great deal has rooms on each floor. One room housed the been done by way of biological surveys in Royal Society Library and office, while the Tasmania. The need is urgent and the other three rooms became display areas for Museum and other bodies interested in the Museum collection. fauna preservation are deeply conscious of The organization flourished but costs the need for complete biological surveys. lt mounted and, by I 884, with funds at a low is pleasing to note that a start has been made ebb, the Council of the Royal Society of in this work. Also, because of many factors, Tasmania decided it could no longer carry mainly lack of both finance and staff, the burden. Accordingly, the building and relatively little research work on the native contents were offered to the Government animals and problems related to their under the widest of terms. The gift was ecology has been carried out over the years. accepted and from the beginning of I 885 the The need here is pressing and now that the Museum became a State instrumentality and Museum has better storage facilities, has continued in that way ever since, with the additional staff and some extra funds at its Royal Society having two of the seven disposal, the research activity side mu t members on the Board of Trustees. develop. It is interesting to note, in looking back over the records of the Mu eum, that lt is interesting to look back over the in the early I 920 s on one occasion the records, to see what acquisitions were made " Museum was offered a number of thylacines in the early years. Interestingly enough, in for research purpose . A decision was made the first half of last century there was quite a not to take the specimens as there were then band of Fellows of the Royal Society of plenty available and there was no need for London in Tasmania and they proved urgency in such work ! Would that we invaluable in assessing the worth of Museum could get some now! This, I hope, will be specimens and in arranging for field parties a lesson to us, for, although other native to add to the collections. Art had its share animals seem to be in no immediate danger of interest in the colony, too, and in the days of extinction, it is wise to get on with the job before photography and in the early years with as little delay as possible. of photographic development most educated people were taught to draw. The first art lt is true to say that, like other Museums exhibition in Australia was held in Hobart ; in the Commonwealth, the Tasmanian art schools were established, the result being Museum and Art Gallery has become aware that the Mu eum became the storehou e for of the great educational and scientific value many of the works produced. of such an institution in the community­ Through such acquisitions, some a pects functions which the public is now rapidly appreciating and, as a re ult, a new approach of the history of the State have been pre­ served ; the work of the individual artists to the Museum image has developed. and many historically interesting scenes, some With these developments, which have no longer in existence, have been preserved progressed over the years sometimes slowly, in this way. A start has been made to add at other times more rapidly, the Tasmanian to the historical records relating to artists Museum is now at the stage where a much and their work, and this field is providing a fuller and wider research programme may very rich area of study for the art taff. be envisaged.

Page 304 Au�tralian Natural HiJrory THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM

HYDE PARK, SYDNEY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

PRESIDENT:

EML:RITUS PROFFSSOR A. 1'. l LKIN. C.M.G .. M.A., Ph.D.

CHOWN THUSTEE:

EMI-RITUS PROFFSSOR A. P. I:LKIN. C.M.G., M.A .. Ph.D.

OFFICIAL THUSTEES:

TilE HON. TilE CHIEF JUSTICE. THE 110:\'. THE PRESIDENT OF TilE LECLSLATIVE COUNCIL. TilE liON. TilE CHIEF SECHETARY. TilE 110:-1. TilE ATTOilNEY-CENERAL. TilE liON. THE TREASURER. THE HON. TilE MINISTER FOH PUBLIC WORKS. THE liON. TI-lE l\IINISTER FOR EDUCATION. THE AUDITOR-GENERAL. THE PRESIDENT OF THE NEW SOUTH WALES MEDICAL BOARD. THE SUIWEYOH-CENERAL A:\'0 CHIEF SURVEYOR. THE CROWN SOLICITOR.

ELECTI VE TRUSTEES : F. l\IcDOWELL. C. H. SLADE. B.Sc. R. NOBLE, C.B.E., B.Sc.Agr., M.Sc., Ph.D. J. PHOFESSOH L. C. BIRCII, D.Sc. E. j. KENNY, 1\I.Aust.I.M.M. PHOFESSOR D. P. l\IELLOH, D.Sc., F.H.A.C.t. G. A. JOHNSON, M.B.E. PHOFESSOR J. H. A. Mcl\IILLAN, M.S., PROFESSOR H. N. BARBER, F.I�.S. D.Sc.Agr. R. C. RICHARD. S. JIAVI LAND, C.B.E. W. H. MAZE, M.Sc.

DIRECTOH:

F. 11. TALBOT. M.Sc.. Ph.D.

DEPUTY DJRECTOR:

D. F. l\lc�IICIIAEL. M.A .. Ph.D.

SCIENTIFIC STAFF: Birds: H. J. de S. DISNEY, lii.A., Curator. Reptiles and Amphibians: 11. C. COCCEH, M.Sc., Curator. l\Iammals: B. J. MARLO\V, B.Sc., Curator. Fishes: Vacant. Insects and Arachnids: C. N. SMITIIEHS, M.Sc., Curator; D. K. l\lcALPINE, l\I.Sc., Assistant Curator. Molluscs: 0. F. McMICHAEL, M.A., Ph.D., Curator. Crustacea and Coelent<•ratl's : J. C. YALDWYN , M.Sc., Ph.D., Curator; D. j. C. CRIFFI:'\', lii.Sc., Assistant Curator. Worms and Echinodem1<: ELIZABETII C. POPE, ;\I.Sc., Curator. Minerals and Rocks: R. 0. CHALMERS. A.S.T.C., Curator. Fossils: Vacant.

Anthropology: D. R. MOORE, M .A., Dip.Anthrop .. Curator.

EOITOIHAL ASSlSTANT AND PUBLIC EDUCATION OFFICER: RELATIONS OFFICER: I'ATHICIA l\1. McDONALD, B.Sc., l\I.Ed. PETER COLLIS.

EXHIBITION DEPARTMENT, ART AND DESIGN SECTION: F. J. BEEl\IA'·

LIBRARIAN: PHOTOGRAPHER AND VISUAL AIDS OFFICER: MARY DA VIES, B.Sc., L.A.A. H. HUCHES. A.R.P.S. The Australian MuseUm

The Museum is open free, daily, at the following times: Tuesday to Saturday, and public holidays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Mondays, 12 noon to 5 p.m. (during school holidays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.); Sundays, 2 to 5 p.m. It is closed on Good Friday and Christmas Day.

To teachers and pupils of schools and other educational organiza· tions special facilities for study will be afforded if the Director is previously advised of intended visits. A trained teacher is available for advice and assistance.

Gifts of even the commonest specimens of natural history (if in good condition) and specimens of minerals, fossils and native handiwork are always welcome.

The office is open from 9.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 4.30 p.m. (Monday to Friday), and visitors applying for information there will receive every attention from Museum officials.

College St., Hyde Park, Sydney

\Vholly set up and printed in Australia for the proprietors, The Trustees of the Australian �fuseum, by V. C. N. Blight, Government Printer. Sydney, .S.W.