scholarly journals Two new frog species from the Litoria rubella species group from eastern Australia

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5071 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-41
Author(s):  
J. J. L. ROWLEY ◽  
M. J. MAHONY ◽  
H. B. HINES ◽  
S. MYERS ◽  
L.C. PRICE ◽  
...  

The bleating tree frog (Litoria dentata) is one of the more prominent pelodryadid frogs of eastern Australia by virtue of its extremely loud, piercing, male advertisement call. A member of the Litoria rubella species group, L. dentata has a broad latitudinal distribution and is widespread from coastal and subcoastal lowlands through to montane areas. A recent mitochondrial DNA analysis showed a deep phylogeographic break between populations of L. dentata on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. Here we extended the mitochondrial survey with more geographically comprehensive sampling and tested the systematic implications of our findings with nuclear genome wide single-nucleotide polymorphism, morphological and male advertisement call datasets. While similar in appearance and in male advertisement call, our integrative analysis demonstrates the presence of three species which replace each other in a north-south series. We redescribe Litoria dentata, which is restricted to coastal north-eastern New South Wales, and formally describe Litoria balatus sp. nov., from south-eastern Queensland, and Litoria quiritatus sp. nov., from the mid-coast of New South Wales to north-eastern Victoria.  

1969 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 665 ◽  
Author(s):  
PD Dwyer

In south-eastern Australia banding of M. schreibersii has been concentrated in four areas: north-eastern New South Wales, south-eastern New South Wales, south-eastern Victoria, and south-western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia. The present paper analyses 2083 reported movements. Only 17 of these are from one of the four areas to another with the longest movement being 810 miles. Biologically and geographically separate populations of M. schreibersii are recognized in both north-eastern and south-eastern New South Wales. Each population has its basis in dependence upon a specific nursery site which is used annually by nearly all adult females in that population. Boundaries of population ranges in New South Wales are considered to be prominent features of physiography (i.e. divides). Bats move between population ranges less often than they move within population ranges. This cannot be explained solely in terms of the distances separating roosts. Available movement records from Victoria and South Australia are consistent with the pattern described for New South Wales. Two biologically recognizable populations (i.e, different birth periods) occur in south-western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia but these may have overlapping ranges. Only one nursery colony of M. schreibersii is known from south-eastern Victoria. On present evidence it remains possible that the apparent integrity of the population associated with this nursery is merely a consequence of distance from other areas of banding activity. Detailed analyses of movements in bats may provide direct evidence as to the kinds of cues by which a given species navigates. Thus the physiographic basis described for population ranges in New South Wales is consistent with the view that M. schreibersii may orientate to waterways or divides or both. The probability that there are area differences in the subtlety or nature of navigational cues is implied by the different physiographic circumstances of south-western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia. It is suggested that knowledge of population range boundaries may aid planning of meaningful homing experiments.


1972 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 789 ◽  
Author(s):  
RG Rees

The perennial A. scabrum var. plurinerve is an important graminaceous host for P. graminis f. sp. tritici in north-eastern Australia. Rust uredosori were present on the grass in at least some localities during a 3-year period. The grass is of particular significance in the oversummering of P. grarninis f. sp. tritici, supplementing survival on volunteer cereals. Two distinct forms of the variety plurinerve have been identified. One is largely confined to the heavy black clay soils of the Darling Downs and parts of northern New South Wales and is of particular importance in the epidemiology of P. graminis. P. graminis f. sp. tritici, P. graminis f. sp. secalis, and a range of intermediate types occur on the grass, which is apparently a convenient site for somatic hybridization between different formae speciales and strains of P. graminis. P. graminis f. sp. tritici is particularly prevalent on the grass during the summer while the wheat-avirulent intermediate types normally predominate during the balance of the year. The occasional isolation of older strains of P. graminis f. sp. tritici from A. scabrum var. plurinerve suggests that development on the grass acts to some extent as a gene reservoir for the rust population.


1998 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 243 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Sharpe ◽  
R. L. Goldingay

The diet of the squirrel glider (Petaurus norfolcensis) was described by qualitative observations of feeding behaviour at a floristically rich site on the north coast of New South Wales. Twelve gliders from six groups were examined over a 10-month period. Flowering and bark-shedding data were also collected. Nectar and pollen were the most important food resources and accounted for 59% of all observations. Banksia integrifolia was the most important source of these foods, but eucalypts were used heavily when in flower and several other genera were also visited. Feeding on arthropods constituted 26% of all feeding observations. Arthropods were harvested in all months of the study from a variety of substrates. Feeding on arthropods was relatively unimportant in May and June when pollen ingestion was presumed to be high. Honeydew was used but was absent from the diet during winter. Acacia gum was obtained from two species in autumn and one, Acacia irrorata, was incised to promote gum production. Corymbia intermedia and Angophora woodsiana were incised for sap in autumn and winter. Sap flows resulting from insect (borer) damage on other species were also used. Fruit, Acacia seeds and arils, and lichens were consumed on a few occasions. The squirrel glider displayed seasonal trends in feeding behaviour that, in part, accorded with observed phenological patterns. The foods used by the squirrel glider during this study were similar to those previously reported for the genus. However, few studies have documented such a diversity of dietary items at one site. Management of the squirrel glider appears to require the maintenance of floristic diversity, and particularly the persistence of midstorey species.


1960 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 318 ◽  
Author(s):  
RD Hoogland

This first series of studies in the Cunoniaceae offers revisions of the genera Ceratopetalum Sm., Gillbeea F. Muell., Aistopetalum Schltr., and Calycomis D. Don. Full synonymy, bibliography, descriptions, and critical notes are given for the genera and species, and keys to the species are included. The genus Cemtopetalum comprises five species in eastern Australia and New Guinea. C. tetrapterum Mattf., described from New Guinea, is reduced in synonymy under C. succirubrum C. T. White, previously known only from northeastern Queensland. The genus Gillbeea comprises two species, one in north-eastern Queensland and one in New Guinea. The genus Aistopetalum comprises two species in New Guinea; one species is widespread in the northern parts of the island, the other is known only from the type collection. A. tetramerum Kan. et Hat. is reduced in synonymy under A. viticoides. The genus Calycomis is monotypic; its only species, C. australis (A. Cunn.) Hoogl. comb. nov. (Weinmannia australis A. Cunn.) is found in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales and is currently known as Acrophyllum verticillatum or A. venosum.


2008 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 137 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. Glen

The spotted-tailed quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) is an endangered marsupial carnivore endemic to eastern Australia. A paucity of information on the dynamics of wild populations has hindered conservation of the species. The population dynamics of spotted-tailed quolls were investigated in an area of unusually high abundance in north-eastern New South Wales, where density is conservatively estimated at 0.3 km−2. Sixty individual quolls were captured on 331 occasions over 22 months. Apparent survival, timing and rate of reproduction, and morphometric data were compared with those of quolls from other areas. Population models were employed to investigate patterns in the behaviour and apparent survival of quolls in the study area. The high abundance of D. maculatus identifies the study area as vital to the conservation of quolls on mainland Australia, and to the future study of the species.


1970 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 229-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Binns ◽  
I. McBryde

Petrological and chemical analyses of stone, bronze and iron implements are playing an increasingly important role in the study of prehistoric economies. Their contributions, long familiar to students of European prehistory, were recently discussed in a paper which also reviewed the evidence from Polynesia, Melanesia and Australia (Clark, 1965). Apart from some studies limited to stone artefacts from individual archaeological sites, these techniques have not previously been applied to material from Australian prehistory (Gutsche in McBryde, 1966; Branagan and Megaw, 1969). In this brief communication we present some of the results of a petrological analysis of ground-edge artefacts from north-eastern New South Wales.The widespread dispersal of stone for axe-making based on organized exploitation of definite quarry sites is well documented in the historical and anthropological literature for eastern Australia at the time of European settlement. Unfortunately few of these historical records are sufficiently detailed, so even for the recent past as well as for prehistory, techniques of petrological analysis may make vital contributions to our knowledge both of quarry sites in eastern Australia and of the distribution of their products. Our preliminary discussion here is based on an investigation of some 200 axes mainly taken from the archaeological collections in the History Department of the University of New England and various local museum and private collections, but also including axes from northern New South Wales in the Australian collections of the British Museum, the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and the Anthropological Museum of Aberdeen University.


Zootaxa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2130 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER K. TAYLOR ◽  
GLENN S. HUNT

Neopantopsalis n. gen. represents a previously unrecognised radiation of Opiliones from Queensland and northern New South Wales. Neopantopsalis quasimodo n. sp. is described from specimens examined but never published by the late G. S. Hunt. N. pentheter n. sp., N. psile n. sp. and N. thaumatopoios n. sp. are also described, while Pantopsalis continentalis and Spinicrus camelus are recombined as N. continentalis n. comb. and N. camelus n. comb., respectively. Neopantopsalis is distinguished from other genera of Monoscutidae by humps on the dorsal prosomal plate, lengthened spine rows on leg I, reduced bristle groups on the penis, and a long, dorsoventrally flattened glans. Male dimorphism is postulated for N. quasimodo, N. pentheter and N. psile, with rarer minor males that are considerably smaller and have less developed secondary sexual characteristics than the more common major males. A new terminology is introduced to facilitate descriptions of the propeltidium of Megalopsalidinae.


2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Ross L. Goldingay ◽  
Jonathan Parkyn ◽  
David A. Newell

Describing the population trends of threatened species over time is central to their management and conservation. The green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea) is a formerly common species of south-eastern Australia that has declined to ~40 populations in New South Wales, and experienced a substantial contraction of its geographic range. We aimed to determine whether an unmanaged population at the northern end of its range had declined across a 17-year period. We estimated population size at the beginning and end of this period, using several population models to fully characterise this population. Different modelling approaches gave different population estimates. Based on a similar number of survey occasions the adult male segment of the population was estimated using the Popan model at 112.0 (±13.5, s.e.; 95% CI: 85.5–138.8) in 1998/99 and 95.2 (±17.6; 60.8–129.7) in 2015/16. With the inclusion of maturing subadults following the practice of earlier studies, the population was estimated at 163.6 (±25.9; 112.8–214.5) males in 2015/16. These estimates represent an index of a larger population because the largest wetland was subsampled. Our data provide no evidence of a declining population. Our study highlights the need to understand the implications of using different population models and two age-classes to estimate population parameters.


1983 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 517 ◽  
Author(s):  
LL Short ◽  
R Schodde ◽  
RA Noske ◽  
J.F.M. Horne

Hybridization between the sittellas Daphoenositta chrysoptera leucocephala and D.c. chrysoptera is analysed and defined from 59 recently obtained specimens of the two forms and their hybrids in south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales, and from older museum specimens from those areas and adjacent regions. Characteristics of age and sexual variation are identified and taken into account in the analysis. A character index for crown colour plus supplemental traits affected by hybridization shows that a true, 250-km-wide hybrid zone connects chrysoptera and leucocephala, and that there is a graded shift in the features of sittellas across the Lone. The historical factors likely to have affected the distributional history and hybridization of the two taxa are reviewed.


1970 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
BV Timms

Chemical and zooplankton data for 103 reservoirs and lakes on the northern tablelands and the central and north coast regions of New South Wales are presented and discussed. Twenty-three of the localities are natural, occur in five distinct regions, and are variable in their modes of origin. All the waters are fresh, and most have less than 200 p.p.m. total dissolved solids. In general, waters on the coastal plain are dominated by sodium and chloride ions, while those on the highlands are dominated by bicarbonate and sodium, magnesium, or calcium. A total of 43 species of Entomostraca inhabit the lentic environments of the area, though many of these cannot be considered to be eulimnetic species. Only a few species (2.2 copepods and 1.1 cladocerans, on the average) occur in any one locality, this number being influenced by site size and age. The distribution pattern of the major species are depicted and discussed in terms of four factors. Altitudinal-related factors are important for many species, particularly calanoid copepods; water chemistry influences the distribution of at least two species-Boeckella triarticulata (Thomson) and Calamoecia tasmanica (Smith); turbidity has a subsidiary effect on the occurrence of species in the genera Daphnia and Ceriodaphnia; and the locality age is important for most species. The relative dispersal powers of the more common species are assessed from their tendency to be present or absent in new reservoirs.


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