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N E W S L E T T E R Entomological Society of Victoria N e w s l e t t e r No. 2 June 2014 INDEX Australian Stick Insect Goes Global Australian Stick Insect From the President Goes Global…..…...…1 See the movie, read the book, watch the video. The Lord Howe Island Stick Notices………………..3 Insect (Dryococelus australis), sometimes considered the rarest insect on the planet, has been the subject of wide attention for some time, appearing in ESV Council………….3 media around the world such as the New York Times, the UK’s Daily Mail and Germany’s Deutsche Vella, as well as featuring on T-shirts, baseball caps, ESV upcoming stubbie holders, mints, and even Melbourne trams. Not to mention attracting the events…………………3 attention of luminaries including Sir David Attenborough and Dame Jane Goodall. Articles of interest……4 Now the humble stick insect features in a film and a book, both originating in rural Victoria. The film ‘Sticky’ by Castlemaine Director Jilli Rose and Producer Upcoming Katrina Mazurek is taking the film festival world by storm, screening so far at 21 conferences….……….5 different festivals in Canada, USA, England, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, South Korea, Scotland, Spain, Greece and Austria. Prominent entomologists………...6 Last month ‘Sticky’ won Best Documentary at the St Kilda Film Festival and Best Short at the San Francisco Green Film Festival, as well as Best Short at the Around the South by South West Films for the Forest (SXSW) in Texas, USA, all Oscar- Societies………………7 accredited festivals. IAPPS conference…...8 This year has also seen it officially selected at Cinequest (Silicon Valley), the International Wildlife Film Festival (Montana), Mountainfilm (Colorado), and in From the archives……9 the next couple of months will screen at the Columbia Gorge International Film Festival and Port Townsend Film Festival in the USA. And the video is on permanent display at the CSIRO Discovery Centre in Canberra. On the book front, later this month sees the launch of ‘Return of the Phasmid: Australia’s Rarest Insect Fights Back from the Brink of Extinction’ by Rick Wilkinson, seasoned author of 13 books with a more recent bent towards natural history. The book covers the natural history of the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect and the island, with a detailed narrative of the project to protect the species through captive breeding. The Australian conservation movement in general lags behind Europe, the UK and the US, particularly in insect conservation. But the publication of both a book and film about a single 1 insect species is unprecedented worldwide, and is a significant feather in the cap of the burgeoning insect conservation movement in Australia. A number of books have been published on the ‘Tasmanian Tiger’ – The video also has more than 90,000 views on coincidentally, until its rediscovery in 2001, the youtube, where it sits alongside a clip of Lord Howe Island Stick Insect was known by Australia’s highest-rating breakfast radio some as the Thylacine of the insect world. presenter Ross Stevenson taking a behind-the- scenes tour of the stick insect and its breeding Don Merton’s book, programme. ‘The Black Robin’, outlined the recovery At this stage the species is on public display only of this species from at Melbourne Zoo and in a small enclosure on the Chatham Islands Lord Howe Island, but plans are afoot to take the off New Zealand, and stick insect itself to the rest of the world. was used as a handbook for single Not bad for a humble Australian bug. species (or flagship) _______________________________________ conservation projects. The ‘Return of the ‘Sticky’ can be purchased at Phasmid’ now sits http://bespokeanimation.bigcartel.com/ proudly alongside it, and the LHISI also ‘Return of the Phasmid can be purchased at features in other https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Return-of- conservation-based books from overseas, such as the-Phasmid/619151198178258?fref=ts Jane Goodall’s ‘Hope for Animals and their World’, and Scott Leslie’s ‘100 Video of the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect Under 100’. The latter hatching can be viewed at volume categorises http://vimeo.com/14413689 species from around the world that are Goodall, J., Maynard, T. & Hudson, G., 2009, thought to have less Hope for Animals and their World: How than 100 specimens Endangered Species are being Rescued from the left in the wild. Brink, Grand Central Publishing, USA, 416pp In addition to these Leslie, S., 2012, 100 Under 100: The Race to official publications, a Save the World’s Rarest Living Things, video of a Lord Howe HarperCollins Publishers, USA, 311pp Island Stick Insect Rohan Cleave, Manager of the Lord Howe Island hatching filmed by Rohan Cleave at Stick Insect breeding programme, will be the Melbourne Zoo has had 1.6 million views on guest speaker at the Entomological Society of Vimeo and refeatured on many other websites, Victoria’s August meeting. See Bulletin for further such as National Public Radio in the US. details. Patrick Honan President Entomological Society of Victoria. 2 3 Notices Victorian Butterflies From Gary Sankowski, Butterflies and Other Following April’s Invertebrates Club (BOIC) member presentation by Ross Field on his new book, I am looking for images of the following: several members Skippers: any of the Flats wanted to purchase Skipper species occurring from Brisbane south copies but Swordgrass browns - especially showing the unfortunately we ran upper side of the wings out on the night. Ogyris species Hairstreaks Fortunately, the Jalmenus species, including larvae with ants. publisher (Melbourne Additionally, I need eggs or small larvae of Museum) has offered Vanessa kershawi (Australian Painted Lady) and further copies at the Vanessa itea (Australian Admiral) to complete a August meeting at the series of life history images. Both these species discounted price of are not very common in the north. I will $25 (and without the exorbitant cost of postage. compensate for postage and suggest if anyone has access to these to contact me first, either by email [email protected] or by phone ESV Council: 07 4095 4469.” President Patrick Honan From the Australian Entomological Society Vice President & Excursion Secretary Peter Carwardine We are trying to hunt down Australian Hon Secretary Vacant Entomological Society Foundation members who Hon Treasurer Joshua Grubb are still living. (Generally entomologists seem to Hon Editor Linda Rogan be long lived!) Immediate Past President Peter Marriott We have a number of people who, in 1991 at Webmaster and Facebook Steve Curle least, were in Victoria, and for whom we no Vivienne Curle Councillors Peter Lillywhite longer have any contact address or phone Maik Fiedel number. I wonder if your Victorian society has Steve Curle contact with any of them or has any idea who might know of their whereabouts? ESV upcoming events They are: Shepherd, R.C.H. Meetings are held at the Melbourne Museum Shelden, G.P. Discovery Centre Seminar Room, at 7.45pm. Ozols, J. Neumann, F.G. Members and guests are welcome to join us at Morris, D.S. Michelinos Trattoria Restaurant in Carlton at 6pm. Kelly, P.G. 17 June 2014 Edwards, B.A.B. Members’ presentations We would be grateful for any help you can give! 19 August 2014 With best wishes The Lord Howe Island Stick Insect – Rohan Cleave Alice Wells (on behalf of the Organising Committee of the 2014 AES Conference) 21 October 2014 [email protected] Members’ presentations 9 December 2014 Excursion 4 Articles of interest New research led by Newcastle University, UK, has tested the insect-specific Hv1a/GNA fusion Zombies in the Garden, protein bio-pesticide -- a combination of a natural Killing Themselves Slowly toxin from the venom of an Australian funnel web From: New York Times, Science spider and snowdrop lectin. April 2014 Feeding acute and chronic doses to honeybees -- Scientists say they have identified a protein that beyond the levels they would ever experience in causes zombielike behavior in plants. the field -- the team found it had only a very slight effect on the bees' survival and no Certain crops are vulnerable to parasites that take measurable effect at all on their learning and control of their hosts’ behavior, forcing them to memory. act in the intruder’s interest. (The same is true in some animal species: Spiders in Costa Rica Publishing their findings today in the academic infected by a parasitic wasp, for example, will journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the abandon their own web and build one better authors say the insect-specific compound has suited to the wasp.) huge potential as an environmentally-benign, 'bee-safe' bio-pesticide and an alternative to the The phenomenon occurs in flowering plants that chemical neonicotinoid pesticides which have have been infected by a pathogen transmitted by been linked to declines in pollinator populations. the tiny insects called leafhoppers. Rather than grow petals or stamens, infected plants will Honeybees perform sophisticated behaviors while produce green, leaflike structures. This benefits foraging that require them to learn and remember the leafhoppers, which can eat the leaflike floral traits associated with food. growths, but it prevents the plants from reproducing. Disruption to this important function has profound implications for honeybee colony survival, “It is like a living death for the plant,” said Saskia because bees that cannot learn will not be able to A. Hogenhout, a biologist at the John Innes find food and return to their hives. Center in England and an author of the study, which appears in the journal PLOS Biology. By pollinating some key crop species, honeybees Affected crops can include grapes, coconuts and make a vital contribution to food security. The rapeseed. decline of these insects raises significant concerns about our ability to feed a growing population.
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