NEWSLETTER ISSN 1834-4259 NO. 148 SEPTEMBER 2013 Proposed listing of Australia’s first endangered land snail community Michael Murphy, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Baradine Area Email: [email protected] Mount Kaputar, near Narrabri in northern inland New South Wales (NSW), is the most significant highland refugial area for land snails on the NSW western slopes, with seven endemic taxa and anoth- er three species occurring there as disjunct isolated populations. In addition to a high number of en- demic charopids, the land snail fauna also includes the only athoracophorid slug and highest rhytidid species diversity found on the western side of the Great Dividing Range. Mount Kaputar is the eroded remains of a continental shield volcano complex which formed between 21 and 17 million years ago. General continental-scale drying and coastward con- traction of mesic ecosystems between 15 and 2 mil- lion years ago as the Australian continent moved north resulted in the isolation of the Mount Kaputar area as a western outpost of the mesic eastern high- lands surrounded by the predominantly xeric eco- systems of the modern western slopes and plains. Many of Mount Kaputar’s land snail species are restricted to moist highland and sub-alpine habi- tats above 1000 m AHD (an area of less than 107 Kaputar pink slug, Triboniophorus aff. graeffei. 2 km ), with some of these also found in a few small Photo: M. Murphy. patches of dry rainforest in sheltered locations at lower elevations. A nomination to list the Mount implementation of recovery actions, support for Kaputar high elevation and dry rainforest land snail scientific research, declaration of critical habitat areas, community as an endangered ecological community consideration in environmental planning decision- under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act making, licensing controls and promotion of public 1995 (TSC Act) was submitted in July 2011. Key awareness. The NSW Scientific Committee pub- threats to the community identified in the nomina- lished a preliminary determination in support of the tion included global anthropogenic climate change proposed listing in May 2013. The current status (which is predicted to further decrease and fragment (August 2013) is for the Scientific Committee to the distribution of the community as average tem- consider public submissions received and consult peratures rise) and habitat disturbance and predation with the NSW Minster for the Environment before by feral pigs (Sus scrofa). Listing under the TSC Act making a final determination to accept or reject the can assist the protection and conservation of spe- nomination. This proposed endangered ecological cies, populations and ecological communities community listing is significant as the first for land through measures such as the identification and snails in Australia. (Continued on page 3) 1 Society information President Rachel Przeslawski Vice President Kirsten Benkendorff Treasurer Don Colgan Victorian Branch Secretary Carmel McDougall Secretary Michael Lyons, 19 Banksia Street, Black- Membership Secretary Lesley Brooker burn, VIC 3130. Phone (03) 9894 1526 or Email: Public Relations Officer Caitlin Woods [email protected]. Meetings at the Journal Editor Winston Ponder Melbourne Camera Club, cnr Dorcas and Farrars Newsletter Editors Mandy Reid Streets, South Melbourne, on the third Monday of Jonathan Parkyn each month. No meeting in January, July or De- Website Administrator Shane Penny cember. Council Members Phuong Au Rosemary Golding Simon Hills Newsletter Jonathan Parkyn Platon Vafiadis Editors: Mandy Reid, Malacology Department, Australian Museum, 6 College St, Sydney, NSW All enquiries and orders should be sent to the 2010. Phone (02) 9320 6412 (W), Email: Secretary, Carmel McDougall, at [email protected] [email protected] Jonathan Parkyn, Email: [email protected] The Society’s Newsletter and the journal Molluscan Deadline for articles for the next issue of Research, published four times a year, are sent to all the Newsletter: 20th December 2013. members. Web Site http://www.malsocaus.org Membership fees 2013 Includes Molluscan Research, the MSA Newsletter and discounted registration at Molluscs 2015. Ordinary members (Aust., Asia, w. Pacific) $A70 This publication is not deemed to be valid for Ordinary members (rest of the world) $A100 taxonomic purposes (See article 8b in International Extra family member $A5 Code of Zoological Nomenclature) Affiliate organisation $A100 Student member/concession $A45 Membership fees are preferably paid via the website www.malsocaus.org. To pay via mail, send to Malacological Society of Australasia, c/o Lesley Brooker, Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering, Locked Bag 4, Maroochydore DC, QLD 4558, Australia. [email protected] 2 (Continued from page 1) The provision for listing of entire land snail assem- (AFP France), CBS News, The Huffington Post, blages as threatened communities is a useful inter- National Geographic, UK Daily Mail and the US mediate scale between the single-species and broad- Sierra Magazine as well as internet traffic measured landscape approaches to biodiversity conservation. in the hundreds of thousands. This proposed listing The media attention given to the proposed listing is a useful contribution to raising public awareness has also provided one of the first examples of an of land snail conservation issues in Australia and will Australian land snail being globally recognised as a hopefully promote efforts to protect the unique land flagship species for conservation. The vividly- snail community at Mount Kaputar. Links to the coloured Kaputar pink slug, Triboniophorus aff. graeffei, preliminary determination and examples of the me- was successfully used as a media icon following the dia coverage it received are provided below: release of the preliminary determination to promote community awareness of the Mount Kaputar land http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/ snail community and the threat to biodiversity posed threatenedspecies/KaputarEECPD.pdf by anthropogenic climate change. A story in the Syd- http://www.smh.com.au/environment/ ney Morning Herald newspaper on 29 May 2013 conservation/one-will-really-amaze-you-the-other- triggered widespread public interest ranging from just-eats-his-mates-20130528-2n9ik.html local Narrabri media to international publications http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/ and newsrooms including Agence France-Presse picturesoftheday/10085812/Pictures-of-the-day-29- May-2013.html?frame=2575564 http://videos.huffingtonpost.com/style/giant-bright -pink-slugs-found-in-australia-517801447 http::// newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/10/ new-hot-pink-slug-found-in-australia/ http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/ giant-pink-slug-mt-kaputar.htm http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0609-hot-pink- slug.html Austrochloritis kaputarensis. Photo: M. Murphy. Annual cash prize for the best early career researcher paper published in Molluscan Research A prize of AU$1000 will be given to the best early* career researcher paper published in each print volume of Molluscan Research (i.e., within each calendar year). Judging will be done by a committee comprising three of the journal’s associate editors. To be eligible an author must be a student or have completed his/her PhD or other main research degree less than five years prior to the submission of the paper. For multiple author pa- pers the early career author must be nominated and there needs to be a clear statement provided that he/she is responsible for the majority of the paper’s content. Authors will need to nominate to be considered for this prize and this should be done at the time their paper is being handled. MSA members are welcome to nominate papers that appear in the journal that they think should be considered for the prize. *There is no age restriction. 3 Facilitation cascade drives host plant selection by the gastropod Phasianotrochus eximius Jacqueline Elizabeth Bell, PhD Candidate, Macquarie University, MSA grant recipient Email: [email protected] There is increasing interest in how facilitation cas- splaying the teeth when the radula is extended. They cades — nested positive indirect interactions involv- are sometimes referred to as ‘brooms’ as they act in a ing at least three species — maintain community sweeping motion to pick up food particles. Urchin structure. This study investigated whether the posi- excrement as a preferred food choice for P. eximius, tive relationship between the kelp Ecklonia radiata fits into the feeding limitations of this species as it is and the gastropod Phasianotrochus eximius is mediated soft and easily digestible for an animal with a radula by a third species, the sea urchin Holopnuestes purpu- of this type. Our study adds to growing evidence rascens via a facilitation cascade. Both the urchin and that facilitation cascades are a common mechanism gastropod are found within a shelter built by the by which community structure is maintained. Studies urchin from the lamina of the common kelp Ecklonia are now needed to assess their sensitivity to environ- radiata, which is also a known food source of the mental change. urchin (Fig. 1). Sampling and experiments carried out both in the laboratory and at four sites within Sydney, Australia revealed that both H. purpurascens and P. eximius were more abundant on kelp than other algal species, and that the gastropod was more abundant on kelp with, rather than without, the urchin. When the presence/absence of H. purpurascens on kelp plants was manipulated experimentally in the field, P. eximius recolonised kelp plants at higher rates when sea urchins were present. Urchins, by contrast, did not differentially respond to kelp with and without the gastropod, indicating that the association be- tween the kelp and urchin is maintained by a unidi- rectional facilitation cascade. In addition, P. eximius on plants inhabited by H. purpurascens were larger than those on plants without the urchin. Fig. 1. Holopneustes purpurascens and Phasianotrochus Survival of tethered P. eximius on kelp plants eximius, wrapped within Ecklonia radiate. Photo: J. Bell.