1 ISSUE 16 • April 2020 The official newsletter of the Australian National Insect Collection CSIRO NATIONAL FACILITIES AND COLLECTIONS www.csiro.au INSIDE THIS ISSUE The Drought, Bushfire and Pandemic Issue David Yeates, Director The Drought, Bushfire and Pandemic Issue .................1 As this issue is being prepared, Australia and the world heads into by hailstorms on Black Mountain, burnt Welcome to New Staff ................................................. 2 uncharted waters as they grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. by bushfires in Monga National Park and Dr Adam Ślipiński: Australia’s Top Zoologist................. 3 We have not seen this kind of upheaval in world health systems washed away by local flooding in Budderoo and the global economy since the Second World War. Many of National Park near Robertson. We hope New Beetle Books ........................................................ 3 us are working from home, and all of us are practicing social that this combination of processes does New Moth Book ........................................................... 4 distancing measures when at home and at work. All of our not affect our domestic fieldwork in domestic and international travel for work, including travel future. Keith Bayless and Olivia Evangelista Beetle Explorations 2019–2020 ................................... 5 to the International Congress of Entomology in Finland this conducted much more successful field David Yeates South Island New Zealand Expedition .......................... 6 year, has been cancelled. Our Fullbright scholar working on work in the South Island of New Zealand, grasshoppers, Hojun Song from Texas A&M University, has had uninterrupted by any such disasters. Seasonal Malaise Trapping Update 2019—2020 .......... 7 to return to the USA. All of our affiliates have been invited to This issue also includes articles on a Bush Blitz treehopper work from home, or take a break, until we can get some more Bush Blitz Taxonomy Research Projects 2020—2021 ... 8 (Membracidae) grant to Olivia Evangelista, a report on the clarity on the situation. Australian Native Bee Genomics Synthesis Group, the 14th Nematode Identification & Techniques Workshop ...... 9 However, we do have a lot of content for you in this issue. Nematode Identification & Techniques Workshop held at Australian Native Bee Genomics Synthesis Group ....... 9 Top of the list are three books that have been published since the University of Adelaide in early December 2019, and a ANICdotes #15, Volume Two of Australian Beetles, edited by Pentatomoidea Diagnostics Workshop held at the university of Pentatomoidea Diagnostics Workshop .......................10 Adam Ślipiński and John Lawrence, and Ladybird Beetles of the New South Wales in February 2020. Australo-Pacific Region, by Adam Ślipiński and collaborators Even unto the 4th Generation .....................................10 One of our new staff members highlighted in this issue is Dan Jiahui Li and Hong Pang. Adam Ślipiński was also recognised Dashevsky, who has just joined ANIC as Juanita Rodriguez’s Helen Cameron Visits the ANIC ................................... 11 as Australia’s top-ranked zoologist by The League of Scholars, postdoc working on the pharmacological properties of wasp a talent identification website. Ted Edwards reports on the The Small Ant-blue in the ACT .....................................12 venoms. We also welcome Siwanon Paphatmethin, who works third book published recently, Volume 13 of the Monographs of with Andreas Zwick on the systematics of Lasiocampidae Farewell Peter Macnicol (1930 — 2019) ......................13 Australian Lepidoptera Series, Hawkmoths of Australia, by Max (Lepidoptera) for his Masters degree at ANU. Recent Publications .....................................................14 Moulds, Jim Tuttle and David Lane. We have a bitter-sweet group of articles from the Lepidoptera The beetle posse also reports on field work this summer, group, with Suzi Bond reporting on a rare and threatened ANIC: www.csiro.au/en/Research/Collections/ANIC choosing localities wisely and avoiding having work interrupted butterfly in the ACT, a visit by the descendants of an important ANICdotes for contact and subscriptions: the ANICdotes home page by the bushfires. Keith Bayless and his Diptera colleagues were donor to ANIC, L.H. Mosse-Robinson, and a touching farewell not so lucky with fieldwork, having malaise traps shredded BANNER: Graphium macleayanus image: Biodiversity Heritage Library to long-time volunteer Peter Macnicol. 2 ISSUE 16 • April 2020 Welcome to New Staff Introduction to Daniel Dashevsky and Siwanon Paphatmethin Daniel Dashevsky operating a nuclear reactor, researching rattlesnakes, digging and genetics. He was also a part of the Animal Systematics dinosaurs, and caring for reptiles in a snake-venom production and Molecular Ecology Laboratory at Mahidol University in Daniel was raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, but moved to Portland, facility. Thailand, where he learned the fundamental taxonomy and Oregon, as an undergraduate at Reed College, where he earned population genetics of freshwater leeches, jellyfishes, snails, a B.A. in biology in 2014. His senior thesis investigated the In 2016 Daniel moved to Brisbane for a PhD in Bryan Fry’s lab at sea cucumbers, pileated gibbons and slow lorises. During his virus-like particles in the venoms of figitid wasps that parasitise the University of Queensland. That thesis, recently completed, free time, Siwanon enjoys drawing and outdoor activities, such Drosophila. During and after undergrad Daniel spent time ended up focusing on the molecular evolution and the origin of as bush walking and scuba diving. novel functions in the three-finger toxin family of snake venom proteins. He has now joined ANIC under Juanita Rodriguez to study the venoms of pompilid wasps. This project aims to gather specimens and data to help understand the basic biological function of these venoms, their specific mechanisms and the evolution of aculeate-wasp venoms more broadly using experimental and bioinformatics approaches. These findings may be applied in the future to help develop new medicines, laboratory tools, or pesticides. Siwanon Paphatmethin Siwanon is a student from Thailand who is interested in invertebrate systematics and taxonomy. He received his B.Sc. in Biology at Suranaree University of Technology in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. Currently he is pursuing a Masters degree at the ANU and is being fully supported by a Royal Thai Government Scholarship. In ANIC he will be using an integrative taxonomy approach, including phylogenomics and morphological data, to revise the taxonomically neglected Australian endemic moth genus Symphyta (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae). He is co-supervised by Dr. Andreas Zwick (ANIC) and Dr. Scott Keogh (ANU). Before coming to ANU, Siwanon worked on the systematics of freshwater bivalves of the genera Pilsbryoconcha, Ensidens and Daniel Dashevsky is studying the venom of pompilid wasps Hyriopsis (Bivalvia: Unionidae) in Thailand based on morphology Siwanon Paphatmethin is revising the Australian endemic moth genus Symphyta 3 ISSUE 16 • April 2020 Dr Adam Ślipiński: Australia’s Top Zoologist New Beetle Books David Yeates Adam Ślipiński The League of Scholars (https://www.leagueofscholars.com) AUSTRALIAN BEETLES Vol 2 is a new, web-based tool for identifying research talent and is It took six years to write and produce the second volume of based in Sydney. It uses methods similar to Google plus its own Australian Beetles, which was published in November 2019, proprietary algorithms to rank scholars. Google’s search engine edited by Adam Ślipiński and John F. Lawrence. The 748-page uses the contextual weighted value of backlinks as a proxy for long volume includes chapters on 36 families of Australian quality and relevance. In other words, being mentioned by the beetles written by 23 researchers from Australia, China, Czech BBC or the New York Times is worth more than a link from an Republic, Germany, Poland and the USA. The habitus of almost every genus is depicted in colour, and the generic keys are richly unknown blogger. The League of Scholars’ search algorithm illustrated by black-and-white drawings or photographs. The book uses this same approach to rank scholars around the world includes many iconic and popular families of beetles, including not simply on their citations or H-Index but also by a new Carabidae, Buprestidae, Scarabaeidae and Tenebrionidae, and proprietary ranking that takes into account a range of quality as said by Geoff Monteith in his review of the volume, “it takes and relevance factors such as the impact factor and influence the Australian Coleoptera a giant quantum leap further into of the venue, industry collaboration and public engagement via understanding and accessibility by providing definite accounts high profile media. on many beetle families in Australia.” The volume is dedicated to an amazing person, prolific author Dr Martin Baehr, who co- Late in November 2019 The Australian newspaper announced authored the Carabidae chapter with Kipling Will but, sadly did that The League of Scholars had ranked our very own beetle not live to see it published. researcher, Adam Ślipiński, as Australia’s top-ranked scholar in the field of Zoology. There are many influential zoologists in Australia, so to be ranked the top of the heap is a very significant achievement. We all know Adam is a research powerhouse, having published the second volume of Beetles of Australia