scholarly journals First confirmed record of Chestnut-backed Button-quail Turnix castanotus in Queensland

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 145-150
Author(s):  
Patrick Webster ◽  
◽  
Henry Stoetzel ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  

The Chestnut-backed Button-quail Turnix castanotus is widely distributed in monsoonal tropical woodland but previously known only from the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Here we provide the first verified record in Queensland. We observed at least eight birds during October and November 2020 at Westmoreland Station, which is located in far north-western Queensland. These observations represent a significant (~215 km) easterly range extension and are the first confirmed records of this species for Queensland. Chestnut-backed Button-quail had gone undetected in Queensland likely owing to the difficulty in locating and identifying button-quail generally and the low number of birdwatchers in the region. A potential record made by W.R. McLennan in 1910 may represent a previously unreported record of this species in Queensland. Here we describe our observations in 2020 and the habitat where the species was recorded.

2002 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 565 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. E. Pfeil ◽  
L. A. Craven

Three new taxa of Glycine are described, namely Glycine pullenii B.E.Pfeil, Tindale & Craven and G.�aphyonota B.E.Pfeil from Bungle Bungle-Purnululu National Park, Western Australia, and G. hirticaulis subsp. leptosa B.E.Pfeil from the Top End of the Northern Territory. A key to Glycine Willd. in north-western Australia is provided. A range extension for G. falcata Benth. is noted.


Diversity ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Alan N. Andersen ◽  
François Brassard ◽  
Benjamin D. Hoffmann

We document diversity and its distribution within the hyperdiverse Monomorium nigrius Forel group of the Australian monsoonal tropics, an unrecognized global centre of ant diversity. The group includes a single described species, but several distinct morphotypes each with multiple clearly recognizable taxa are known. Our analysis is based on 401 CO1-sequenced specimens collected from throughout the Australian mainland but primarily in the monsoonal north and particularly from four bioregions: the Top End (northern third) of the Northern Territory (NT), the Sturt Plateau region of central NT, the Kimberley region of far northern Western Australia, and far North Queensland. Clade structure in the CO1 tree is highly congruent with the general morphotypes, although most morphotypes occur in multiple clades and are therefore shown as polyphyletic. We recognize 97 species among our sequenced specimens, and this is generally consistent (if not somewhat conservative) with PTP analyses of CO1 clustering. Species turnover is extremely high both within and among bioregions in monsoonal Australia, and the monsoonal fauna is highly distinct from that in southern Australia. We estimate that the M. nigrius group contains well over 200 species in monsoonal Australia, and 300 species overall. Our study provides further evidence that monsoonal Australia should be recognized as a global centre of ant diversity.


2011 ◽  
Vol 62 (11) ◽  
pp. 1303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Palmer ◽  
Stephen A. Murphy ◽  
Deborah Thiele ◽  
Guido J. Parra ◽  
Kelly M. Robertson ◽  
...  

Conservation management relies on being able to identify and describe species. Recent morphological and molecular analyses of the dolphin genus Orcaella show a species-level disjunction between eastern Australia and South-east Asia. However, because of restricted sampling, the taxonomic affinities of the geographically intermediate populations in the Northern Territory and Western Australia remained uncertain. We sequenced 403 base pairs of the mitochondrial control region from five free-ranging Orcaella individuals sampled from north-western Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Low net nucleotide divergence (0.11–0.67%) among the Australian Orcaella populations show that populations occurring in the Northern Territory and Western Australia belong to the Australian snubfin (O. heinsohni) rather than the Asian Irrawaddy dolphin (O. brevirostris). Clarifying the distribution of Orcaella is an important first step in the conservation and management for both species; however, an understanding of the metapopulation structure and patterns of dispersal among populations is now needed.


2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 185 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. A. Craven ◽  
F. D. Wilson ◽  
P. A. Fryxell

Recent collections have extended significantly the known morphological diversity in Hibiscus sect. Furcaria in north-western Australia. This additional knowledge required a review of the taxonomy, as a result of which several new taxa are described, namely H. aneuthe, H. aphelus, H. bacalusius, H. fallax, H. fryxellii var. mollis, H. inimicus, H. kenneallyi, H. marenitensis, H. petherickii, H. reflexus, H. riceae, H. squarrulosus, H.�stewartii and H. thegaleus. Hibiscus mustiae is included in H. zonatus. An identification key, synoptic treatments and distribution maps are provided for all taxa occurring in the region. In addition, all new taxa are described and all, with the exception of H. thegaleus, are illustrated. An exsiccatae list is provided.


1996 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 307
Author(s):  
MD Tindale ◽  
PG Kodela

Acacia valida, a new species of Acacia subgenus Acacia from the northern parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia is described and illustrated. A lectotype is selected for Acacia pachyphloia and two subspecies are recognised. Acacia pachyphloia subsp. pachyphloia occurs in the Northern Territory and north Western Australia, and A. pachyphloia subsp. brevipirznula subsp. nov. occurs in north Western Australia.


1979 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 135 ◽  
Author(s):  
MJ Tyler ◽  
AA Martin ◽  
M Davies

The new leptodactylid genus Megistolotis and new species Megistolotis lignarius are described from localities in northern Western Australia and the Northern Territory. M. lignarius inhabits scree slopes and escarpments. The male mating call is a single note resembling the striking of timber. The spawn clump is a foam nest anchored to stones at the edge of small, temporary pools, and the tadpoles have intense black bodies and fins, and suctorial mouths. Megistolotis is most closely related to the limnodynastine genera Limnodynastes and Heleioporus.


2001 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Pope ◽  
Daryn Storch ◽  
Mark Adams ◽  
Craig Moritz ◽  
Greg Gordon

Short-nosed bandicoots, Isoodon, have undergone marked range contractions since European colonisation of Australia and are currently divided into many subspecies, the validity of which is debated. Discriminant function analysis of morphology and a phylogeny of Isoodon based on mtDNA control region sequences indicate a clear split between two of the three recognised species, I. macrourus and I. obesulus/auratus. However, while all previously recognised taxa within the I. obesulus/auratus group are morphologically distinct,I. auratus and I. obesulus are not phylogenetically distinct for mtDNA. The genetic divergence between I. obesulus and I. auratus (2.6%) is similar to that found among geographic isolates of the former (I. o. obesulus and I. o. peninsulae: 2.7%). Further, the divergence between geographically close populations of two different species (I. o. obesulus from Western Australia and I. a. barrowensis: 1.2%) is smaller than that among subspecies within I. auratus (I. a. barrowensisand I. auratus from northern Western Australia: 1.7%). A newly discovered population of Isoodon in the Lamb Range, far north Queensland, sympatric with a population ofI. m. torosus, is shown to represent a range extension of I. o. peninsulae (350 km). It seems plausible that what is currently considered as two species, I. obesulus and I. auratus, was once one continuous species now represented by isolated populations that have diverged morphologically as a consequence of adaptation to the diverse environments that occur throughout their range. The taxonomy of these populations is discussed in relation to their morphological distinctiveness and genetic similarity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-106
Author(s):  
George Madani

ABSTRACT The Western Hooded Scaly-foot Pygopus nigriceps is a widespread pygopod concomitant with the sandy arid zone of inland and western Australia. The limited suitable habitat available and inaccessibility of north western New South Wales means that the occurrence of P. nigriceps has long gone undetected in the state. This is despite ecological work and fauna surveys having been conducted within this area. Here I report two records of P. nigriceps from far north western NSW (Sturt National Park and Winnathee Station), which are the only known confirmed records to date. This brings the number of known pygopods in NSW to 12 species.


1986 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 611 ◽  
Author(s):  
RV Southcott

The Australian larvae of the genus Trombella Berlese, 1887 (Acarina : Trombidioidea : Trombellidae) are revised. All six known species are Australian, five new, the larva having been correlated with adult and deutonymphal forms by the earlier rearing to deutonymphs of larvae of Trombella alpha Southcott, 1985 obtained from the field cricket Teleogryllus commodus (Walker) in New South Wales. The five new species of larvae are: T. cucumifera, sp. nov.; T. fusiformis, sp. nov.; T, rugosa, sp. nov.; T. sternutor, sp. nov.; and T. calabyi sp. nov.; they have all been obtained by a systematic survey of the ectoparasitic mites of Australian grasshoppers. T. cucumifera occurs in the northern part of Western Australia, in the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales; T. fusiformls in the northern part of Western Australia, and the northern parts of the Northern Territory and Queensland; T. rugosa and T. sternutor in the south-western part of Western Australia; T. calabyi is recorded from a single specimen in north- western Western Australia. Correlation studies are made on the metric characters of T. cucumifera, T. fusiformis and T. rugosa. In each species there was a significant excess of positive correlations between many of the metric variates used, within and between the groups of variates for scutal, idiosomal setal and leg variates. There appeared to be a tendency for a greater excess of these correlations within character groups than between characters of different groups.


Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2715 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRIAN V. TIMMS

The Australian anostracan fauna is generically depauperate, but species-rich due to radiation within Branchinella and also Parartemia. Most Parartemia, including the six new species, occur in Western Australia, with P. boomeranga sp. nov. in the inner Wheatbelt, P. mouritzi sp. nov. in the eastern Wheatbelt, P. purpurea sp. nov. in the Esperance hinterland, P. veronicae sp. nov. in the Goldfields, P. bicorna sp. nov. in Lake Carey in the northern Goldfields and P. laticaudata sp. nov. in the far north and the Northern Territory. All species use lock and key amplexus meaning that the second antennae of males are highly differentiated and in females the last few thoracomeres are variously modified and the 10th, and especially 11th, thoracopods much reduced. Although many of the new species occur in remote salinas, some are endangered due to anthropogenic salinisation.


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