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The Australian Museum Lord Howe Island Expedition 2017—Coleoptera

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The Australian Museum Lord Howe Island Expedition 2017—Coleoptera The Australian Museum Lord Howe Island Expedition 2017 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... P. Flemons 1 Marine invertebrates ................................................................... A. Reid, S. Ahyong, S. Keable, E. Kupriyanova, K. Layton & A. Miller 9 Drosophilidae (Diptera) ................................................................................................... S. McEvey 19 Birds and mammals ................................. M. Eldridge, A. Divljan, G. Frankham, S. Ingleby, R. Johnson, A. King, R. Major, H. Parnaby, & L. Tsang 25 Land Snails ...................................................................................................... F. Köhler & I. Hyman 45 Beetles .................................................................................. C. Reid, J. Jenkins Shaw & A. Jensen 53 Freshwater Fishes ............................................................. S. Reader, A. Hay & M. McGrouther 69 Phasmids .......... P. Flemons, V. Wills, D. Gray, K. Pearce, Z. Priebbenow, P. Priebbenow, B. Mattick, K. Bell, F. Köhler, H. Bower, I. Hutton, T. Bannigan & R. Stephens 77 © The Authors, 2018. Journal compilation © Australian Museum, Sydney, 2018 Technical Reports of the Australian Museum, Online (2018) No. 26, pp. 53–67. ISSN 1835-4211 (online) https://doi.org/10.3853/j.1835-4211.26.2018.1706 Chris A. M. Reid orcid.org/0000-0003-1899-9839 Josh Jenkins Shaw orcid.org/0000-0001-8585-2226 Arn R. Jensen orcid.org/0000-0002-3056-7273 The Australian Museum Lord Howe Island Expedition 2017—Coleoptera Chris A. M. Reid1*, Josh Jenkins Shaw2 and Arn R. Jensen2 1 Entomology, Australian Museum Research Institute, 1 William Street, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia 2 Zoological Museum, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark Abstract. A survey of Lord Howe Island Coleoptera was conducted by a team from the Australian Museum and the Natural History Museum of Denmark (University of Copenhagen), in February 2017. The primary purpose of the survey was to assess the status of larger species, with the assumption that these are more vulnerable to predation by the introduced rodent Rattus rattus. Critical size was arbitrarily designated 1 cm or more in length. The 32 large species collected are listed here with comments on both their status on the islands and their taxonomy. Nine of these species are newly recorded from the island. The small number of large beetle species collected by a second Australian Museum group working on Balls Pyramid, 22 km from the main island, is also included here. The cerambycid Oricopis insulana (Olliff, 1889) is recorded for the first time since its original collection in the early 1880s. Keywords: Lord Howe Island; Coleoptera Reid, Chris A. M., Josh Jenkins Shaw, and Arn R. Jensen. 2018. The Australian Museum Lord Howe Island Expedition 2017—Coleoptera. Technical Reports of the Australian Museum, Online 26: 53–67. https://doi.org/10.3853/j.1835-4211.26.2018.1706 Introduction Large beetles The Coleoptera (beetle) component of the Australian There is some evidence that large terrestrial invertebrates Museum’s 2017 expeditions to Lord Howe had four aims: on Lord Howe have suffered extinction or greatly reduced (a) to search for large beetles, large enough to be threatened populations in the last 100 years (snails, Köhler & Hyman, by predation by Rattus rattus; (b) to collect fern-feeding flea 2018; phasmids, Priddel et al., 2003). The status of the larger beetles; (c) to survey the beetles of Balls Pyramid; and (d) beetles is less well documented, although Hybomorphus to find as many species as possible besides the above. The melanosomus Saunders & Jekel, 1855, is listed under New large beetles are discussed here. The fern feeding flea beetles South Wales legislation as an extinct species, as it has not will be treated elsewhere. The survey of Balls Pyramid been collected alive since the 1860s, coincident with the produced very few specimens as the conditions were so dry. arrival of house mice (Musca domestica) (Ollifff, 1889; Most specimens collected on Balls Pyramid were large, so Hutton et al., 2007). Much of the loss immediately postdates these are included in the discussion below. The bulk of the the inadvertent introduction of Black Rats Rattus rattus in Coleoptera collected remains to be studied. Approximately 1918 (Hutton et al., 2007). The diet of Black Rat is primarily 3000 specimens of 270 species were collected. plant material, especially seeds, but R. rattus is an omnivore * author for correspondence published online only 17 May 2018 54 Technical Reports of the Australian Museum, Online (2018) No. 26 Figure 1. Josh Jenkins Shaw, one of the three coleopterists on the Australian Museum Lord Howe Island Expedition 2017. Photo by Arn Jensen. and will eat what is easily accessible (Banks & Hughes, 2012). The typical impact of Black Rats on an island fauna and flora is rapid loss of easily eaten fauna followed by gradual loss of plants with edible seeds (Banks & Hughes, 2012). Remarkably little is known of the diet of Black Rat Figure 2. Arn Jensen, one of the three coleopterists on the Australian in Australian lowland forest, however, it is unlikely to differ Museum Lord Howe Island Expedition 2017. Photo by Josh from studies elsewhere. Most such studies have focussed on Jenkins Shaw. impacts on island endemics, particularly offshore islands of New Zealand (St Clair, 2011). Several New Zealand studies have shown that Black Rat invasions have led to Island, either published or in collections. About 20 of these loss or decline of larger terrestrial invertebrates, including species are flightless and therefore, unless well protected Lepidoptera, Orthoptera and Coleoptera (St Clair, 2011). The chemically, must be considered particularly vulnerable to beetles involved included a 9–17 mm weevil (Kuschel & extinction by rats. Worthy, 1996) and a 16–44 mm stag beetle (Holloway, 2007). The Australian Museum expedition endeavoured to The Lord Howe beetle fauna has been explored since find as many of the “large” (i.e. 10 mm or more in length) the 1850s. From the 1880s most of this work has been Coleoptera as possible, especially the flightless species. done by Australian Museum expeditions, however there Altogether 32 large species were found including 9 not have been significant surveys by Arthur Lea (1916, in previously recorded from the islands. The collecting the South Australian Museum), Geoff Monteith (1979, in circumstances, island history and taxonomic status of each the Queensland Museum) and the staff of the Australian of these, are discussed below. National Insect Collection (especially 1980s and 1990s). All of this material has been examined by CR. The total beetle fauna of Lord Howe is approximately 530 species but most of these species are very small in size. For assessment of Collecting methods the impact of Black Rat (and its proposed eradication) on Main island of Lord Howe. The three authors spent two beetles we have used the evidence of overseas studies (St weeks on the main island, 12–19 February 2017 (Figs 1–4), Clair, 2011) to somewhat arbitrarily only include species 1 based at Stevens Reserve in the centre of the lowlands. Our cm of more in length. This restricted sample happily has the collecting techniques included: Malaise and pitfall traps, added bonus of mostly including described and relatively Winkler bags (Figs 5–10), sweeping, beating and hand well-sampled species. There are approximately 70 species picking (including at night). Light traps were not used. of beetle 1 cm or more in length known from Lord Howe On arrival it was immediately apparent that the island was Reid et al.: Lord Howe Island Expedition—Beetles 55 Figure 3. Chris Reid, one of the three coleopterists on the Australian Museum Lord Howe Island Expedition 2017—writing up the collection of Rhantus suturalis from a pothole. Photo by Arn Jensen. 56 Technical Reports of the Australian Museum, Online (2018) No. 26 Figure 4. Arn Jensen and Chris Reid setting out to climb Mount Gower, in distance, with Mount Lidgbird to the left. Photo by Josh Jenkins Shaw. Figure 5. Chris Reid and Josh Jenkins Shaw at Malaise trap on the mid-elevation shelf on Mount Lidgbird. Photo by Ian Hutton. Reid et al.: Lord Howe Island Expedition—Beetles 57 affected by a severe drought, especially in the north and lowlands. At the time of the visit, this drought had lasted for almost 3 months (Anonymous, 2018a). Sites such as Stephens Reserve, which had been prolific for foliaceous and leaf litter Coleoptera in 2000–2003, were extremely depauperate. However the two southern mountains were still receiving some rain and cloud cover, providing damp conditions. We therefore decided to concentrate our collecting efforts on sites from Intermediate Hill southwards. We also made a day visit to Blackburn Island at the edge of the lagoon, which is rat-free. Balls Pyramid. None of the authors visited Balls Pyramid. Instead, because of the nature of the terrain, a climbing expedition was organised which stayed on Balls Pyramid from 21 March 2017 to 26 March 2017. The climbers were given basic training in searching for insects and were accompanied by one of our colleagues from the Australian Museum, the terrestrial gastropod taxonomist Frank Köhler. The climbers took samples of low vegetation for sifting by Köhler and also went spotlighting at night. Balls Pyramid had also suffered from drought and conditions were extremely dry
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