AUSTRALASIAN ARACHNOLOGY Number 51: April 1996 Price Sl ISSN 0811-3696 Australasian Arachnology - Page 2 THE AUSTRALASIAN BACK ISSUES ARACHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY Back issues are available from the Administrator at $1 per issue. The main aim of the society is to foster interest in arachnids in the Australasian LIBRARY region. Members who do not have access to a MEMBERSHIP scientific library can write to our Librarian Information concerning membership may be Jean-Claude Herremans obtained from the Administrator: P.O. Box 291 Manly, New South Wales 2095, Richard J. Faulder Australia Agricultural Institute Yanco, New ·south Wales 2703, He has a large number of reference books, Australia scientific journals and scientific papers Email [email protected] available, either for loan or as photocopies. He also asks our professional members to All membership enquiries (subscriptions, send him a copy of any reprints they might changes of address, etc.) must be directed to have. the Administrator. ARTICLES Membership fees for residents in Australia, $3; in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, Articles should be sent to the editor: $4; other members $5 (surface mail) (airmail rates: $10). Fees for Australian institutions, Mark S. Harvey $4; overseas institutions, $8 (surface mail). Western Australian Museum Cheques should be made payable to "The Francis Street Australasian Arachnological Society", and Perth, Western Australia 6000, should be in Australian dollars. More than Australia one year's subscription may be paid for at a Email [email protected] time. and should be typed or legibly written on Receipts are not issued unless requested. The one side of A4 paper. Submission via email Status box on the mailing label indicates the or on computer disk would vastly simplify number of the last issue for which you have publication. Don't forget to indicate the paid. word-processing language used (e.g. WordPerfect 6.0, Word for Windows, MacWrite). The disk will be returned only upon request. Cover illustration: Nicodamus peregrinus (Walckenaer) by Graham Milledge Australasian Arach11ology - Page 3 XIII INTERNATIONAl CONGRESS venoms and ecology. Barbara York Main OF ARACHNOLOGY was one of the first speakers asking the question are Australian Funnelweb Spider by Cor Vink bites overkill or a result of co-evolution? Department of Entomology, Lincoln Mary Whitehouse was supposed to speak on University, P.O. Box 84, Canterbury, Tuesday but a nasty tummy bug had other New Zealand ideas, so her talk was postponed. Tuesday night was the night of the poster session and 20,000 kilometres is a long way to travel to Donna Rayner's poster was on the effects of get to a conference but the XIII International pesticides on spiders in Queensland mango Congress of Arachnology in Switzerland was orchards; people also got a chance to see my well worth the trip. A dozen Australasians preliminary results on the taxonomy and joined their 190 or so colleagues to become systematics of New Zealand lycosids. part of the largest congress yet. Wednesday we turned up bright and early, I arrived at the airport only being able to say hopped on a few large buses and headed off 'hello', 'thank you' and 'do you speak in to the Pare nature! jurassique. We ftrst English?' in French. After a wee while and stopped at the south-western end of the Lac some help from some friendly English de Joux and spiderised around a patch of speaking Genevites I managed to get to the Swiss native bush and "one of the best Mus6um d'histoire naturelle for registration. preserved natural shore-lines." We then I registered and eventually made my wi..y by travelled to an inn and had a pleasant lunch. bus to the hostel of the University of Geneva After lunch we drove into the middle of the (there arc very few signs or instructions in Pare jurassien vaudois. The thin road and Switzerland, it is just assumed that you know wide bus made for a ride that would rival how everything works). Things kicked off any found in Disneyland. We all clambered with an unofficial welcome in the Museum out of the buses and, wandered through on the first night. H was great to be able to meadows to the gentle clanging of cow bells. catch up with other ANZACs (Australian and Eventually the delegates reached a ridge New Zealand Arachnological Colleagues) where we could see Geneva at the foot of and other people that I hadn't seen for three Lake Geneva; unfortunately Mount Blanc years. was only barely visible through the clouds that day. We then walked down the other Over the entire congress the talks were well side to the waiting buses that took us back to organised (in fact they ran almost as well as the city. a Swiss watch). The talks on Monday were centred around behaviour and physiology. By Thursday Mary Whitehouse had fought We got to hear and see some of the vibratory off the tummy bug and gave her talk on the communications that go on between lycosids behaviour of the kleptoparasite Argyrodes thanks to TorbjOm Kronestedt and Dctlev amipodiana. The morning talks continued Cordes. Daiqin Li presented his work on the ecological theme. Jan Green talked about prey preference behaviours in specialised spiders in Australian citrus ecosystems. The salticids. Monday night was the official afternoon sessions were on palaeontology reception by the City of Geneva; I arrived and systematics. Charles Griswold showed us after the speech making (and food and drink) the latest on the phylogeny of the was fmished. cyatholipids and Robert Raven presented the phylogeny of the Theraphosidina. Tuesday's themes were prey, predators and Australasian Arachnology- Page 4 The congress dinner was held on Thursday NEW RECORDS OF SALT LAKE evening. It was originally to be held at the LYCOSIDS IN AUSTRALIA Musee d'art et d'histoire but a last minute cancellation meant that Volker Mahnert and By Peter Hudson his helpers had to change the venue to the Museum itself. Full credit to Volker and the School of Biological Sciences, Flinders gang as the evening went very smoothly University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, South despite the last minute organisations. Australia 5001, Australia The final day's themes were taxonomy, To date three species of salt lake inhabiting systematics and biogeography. Val Davies wolf spiders have been described; Lycosa presented a paper on a new amaurobiid eyrei (Hickman, 1944), Lycosa alteripa genus from Australia. Glenn Hunt gave a McKay, 1976 and Lycosa salifodina McKay, preliminary look at phylogenetics of 1976. Hudson and Adams (in prep.) have Australian Triacnonychidae along with his conducted an allozyme study of these spiders own version of the song 'Trees'. Mark from southern Australia and several new and Harvey presented the last of the Australasian interesting records have come to light as a talks as he explained the biogeography of result of extensive collecting. Gondwanan pseudoscorpions. L. eyrei, which up until recently was only In a flash it was all over and I was catching known from S.A., was collected by the a 5 am taxi to the airport with Glenn Hunt. author in July 1992 from Lake Tyrrell. This The Congress was full of interesting and is the first record of L. eyrei from Victoria informative papers, however, it would be and the closest known locality is near Port nice not to have to sit through talks Augusta thus representing a considerable consisting of species lists in future range extension. congresses. Geneva is now a memory of countless valuable discussions, being able to In April, 1994 L. sa/ifodina was collected by walk through parks at night in the safest city the author from Wyola Lakes in S.A. This I've ever been in and all the exciting sneak species was previously known only to occur previews of spider phylogenies. Keep your inW.A. eyes peeled for the special edition of Revue suisse de Zoo/ogle early next year. In addition to the above new records the author is currently describing a new species of salt lake wolf spider from the Lake Lefroy region in W.A. Whilst few people tend to spend time on the surface of salt lakes the author would be most interested to see illl.Y spiders, or for that matter any invertebrate that others may happen to find living on salt lakes. The author acknowledges the support of the South Australian Museum and The Western Mining Corporation in enabling collections to be made from the Great Victoria Desert and the Lake lefroy region respectively. The Australasian AracJmology - Page 5 Maralinga Tjarutja Aboriginal Land Trust is to Aname. Main (1982) redescribed the also acknowledged for their pcnnission to species and likewise transferred D. collect from the Wyola Lakes. diversicolor to the genus Aname and designated a neotype in order to preserve References nomenclatural stability. Raven (1981) and Hickman, V.V. (1944). The Simpson Desert Main (1982) explained that neither "Deka expedition, 1939. Scientific Reports No. 1, Station" or "Blackhall" could be traced, and Biology Scorpions and spiders. Main (1982) explained that a "Delta Station" Transactions of the Royal Society of South is located near "Blackall" in western Australia 68: 18-48. Queensland. Raven (1981, p. 338) suggested that "Blackhall" could have been a misnomer McKay, R.I. (1976). The wolf spiders of for "Blackhill" which could have referred to Australia (Araneae: Lycosidae): 8. Two new . several sites in South Australia. Finally, species inhabiting salt lakes of Western Main (1982, p. 26) ventured that the original Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland type locality was "Colona station, Blackhill", Museum 17: 417-423. situated in South Australia. She then designated a neotype male from 26 km NW.