Northern Territory Naturalist Number 23 December 2011 The Journal of the NT Field Naturalists' Club NORTHERN TERRITORY FIELD NATURALISTS CLUB Inc. Founded 1977 Club officers for 2011/12 President. Tissa Ratnayeke Secretary. Peter Holbery Treasurer: John Rawsthorne Northern Territory Naturalist ed itors Manuscripts: Michael Braby Lynda Prior Chris Tracy Production: Louis Elliott Don Franklin ISSN 0155-4093 © 2011 Northern Territory Field Naturalists Club Inc. The objectives of the Northern Territory Field Naturalists Club are to promote the study and conservation of the flora and fauna of the Northern Territory. The Club holds monthly meetings and field excursions. Meetings are held in room Blue 1.14 at the Charles Darwin University Casuarina Campus, Darwin, at 7:45 pm on the second Wednesday of each month. All members receive the monthly newletter Nature Territory and the journal Northern Territory Naturalist. For information on membership, club activities and publications, please write to: Northern Territory Field Naturalists Club Inc. PO Box 39565, Winnellie, NT 0821 or visit our website: http://ntfieldnaturalists.org.au/ . Guidelines for authors may be downloaded from this website. Front Cover: Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins {Sousa chinensis) engaging in social behaviour in Shoal Bay, Darwin Harbour. (Carol Palmer) Back Cover: During surveys, the Swamp Tiger (Danaus ajjinis) was abundant in Casuarina Coastal Reserve during the dry season. (Tissa Ratnayeke) Northern Territory Naturalist Number 23 December 2011 Contents Review Land snails associated with limestone outcrops in northern Australia - a potential bioindicator group MichaelF. Braby, Richard C. Willan, John C.Z. Woinarski and Vince Kessner 2 Research Articles Butterfly counts at Casuarina Coastal Reserve in the seasonal tropics of northern Australia Donald C. Franklin 18 DNA analysis identifies Solanum from Litchfield National Park as a lineage of S. dioicum Christopher T. Martine, Elizabeth M. I Mvoie, Nicholas P. Tippery, F. Daniel Vogt, and Donald H. Vs 29 Short notes Shallow water foraging using a shoreline boundary by the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin Sousa chinensis in northern Australia Scott D. Whiting 39 New island records of Eucalyptus alba sensu lato for Damar and Romang, Lesser Sundas, Indonesia Colin R. Trainor 45 Short-tailed Shearwater Ardenna tenuirostris in the Northern Territory Peter M. Kyne and Micha V. Jackson 54 Waiting for the wet: out-of-season records for adult Leichhardt's Grasshopper Petasida ephippigera (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae) Peter Holbery 59 Book review Stray Feathers: Reflections on the Structure, Behaviour and Evolution of Birds Lynda Prior 63 Advice to authors inside back cover Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23: 2-17 Land snails associated with limestone outcrops in northern Australia - a potential bioindicator group Michael F. Braby 1,2 , Richard C. Willan 3 , John C.Z. Woinarski 1,4 and Vince Kessner 5 1 Biodiversity Conservation, Department of Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport, PO Box 496, Palmerston NT 0831, Australia. Email: michael.braby@nt.gov.au 2 Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. 3 Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, GPO Box 4646, Darwin, NT 0801, Australia 4 Present address: PO Box 148, Christmas Island, WA, 6798, Australia. 5 162 Haynes Rd, Adelaide River, NT 0846, Australia. Abstract Limestone outcrops and their associated monsoon vine thickets (dry rainforest) comprise a distinctive but poorly-known ecological community in northern Australia. Currently, most outcrops are poorly protected and lack adequate conservation management, the fire-sensitive rainforest vegetation is threatened by increased levels of landscape burning, and many outcrops are in need of restoration. Land snails obligatorily associated with this ecological community are particularly susceptible and have been identified as a potential bioindicator group for monitoring environmental health and for biodiversity conservation. These invertebrates are characterised by high levels of narrow-range endemism and beta-diversity. In the Tindall Limestone Formation at Katherine, NT, at least seven species of camaenid land snails have been recorded, of which five are endemic to the area. We describe a quantitative sampling protocol based on nocturnal counts to assess snail abundance in this formation at locations currently subjected to varying management regimes. Our preliminary observations indicate that snail assemblages in this area may be affected by an unbalanced grass-fire cycle driven by an increase in fire frequency and abundance of Sorghum macrospemum, an annual grass which is endemic to the Katherine region. At one site, for which snail abundance had been reported 30 years previously, it appears that this grass-fire cycle may have led to a dramatic loss of the understorey monsoon vine thicket habitat and the concomitant decline in abundance of a highly localised species of land snail. We conclude that the endemic land snails can be used as bioindicators for developing conservadon management strategies of limestone—monsoon vine thicket associations, and recommend that this ecological community be better managed to minimise the incidence and intensity of fire. Land snails as bioindicators Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 3 Introduction Rocky outcrops have been identified as an important ecosystem for biodiversity' conservation, but they are under increasing threat from several processes and consequendy are in urgent need of ecological management and restoration (Michael et al. 2010). These threatening processes include damage to microhabitats and changes to vegetation structure and composition. In northern Australia, patches of limestone (calcium carbonate) or dolostone (calcium carbonate with magnesium) occur throughout the monsoon tropics, often as scattered tors - loose aggregations of rocks in flat or gendy undulating landscapes. These rocky outcrops, sometimes referred to as limestone karsts, are found mainly in the drier semi-arid areas (Figure 1) and frequendy support pockets of deciduous monsoon vine thicket (i.e. dry' rainforest) amidst a ‘sea’ of savanna woodland in the surrounding landscape (Russell-Smith 1991) . Limestone outcrops have been identified as biodiversity ‘hotspots’ globally - although occupying a very small portion of the land surface, these ecosystems contain exceptionally high levels of species richness and endemism but are under imminent threat, particularly in the tropics of South-East Asia (Clements et al. 2006). They are also important in providing ecosystem services and resources, such as significant reservoirs of aquifer groundwater, guano and lime (Clements et al. 2006). Limestone outcrops, although widespread in the Australian monsoon tropics, are neither as ubiquitous nor as structurally impressive as the more extensive sandstone formations, which support a rich assemblage of endemic plant, invertebrate and vertebrate biota (Woinarski et al. 2006). Nonetheless, limestone outcrops and their associated monsoon vine thickets are significant: some plant and invertebrate species appear to be restricted to this litho-vegetation association, which is among the most threatened ecological communities in northern Australia (Russell-Smith & Bowman 1992) . In the Top End’ of the Northern Territory (NT), most limestone outcrops are poorly protected within reserves and lack focused conservation management, and biological data are frequently deficient on which to make informed decisions on land use and/or to improve biodiversity conservation. The most extensive patches of the limestone outcrop estate in the Top End occur in upper Daly River and Victoria River districts, stretching from the Stuart Highway (between Katherine and Mataranka, NT) to the Great Northern Highway in the eastern Kimberley (between Kununurra and Halls Creek, WA) (Figure 1). However, most of this estate occurs on pastoral stations and very little is formally protected under Australia’s National Reserves System, with only Gregory (Jutpurra) National Park in the NT conserving the most substantial extent of limestone. Keep River National Park, NT, and the World Heritage Purnululu National Park, WA, also preserve significant patches of limestone, but the areas protected are relatively small in comparison and most of the respective patches occur outside the park boundaries (Figure 1). Three very small patches of limestone outcrop are also protected near Katherine at Elsey National Park and Cutta Cutta Caves and Flora River Nature Parks. 4 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Braby et at. The purpose of this review is to highlight the conservation importance of limestone outcrops and their associated monsoon vine thickets in northern Australia, and to summarise the literature on the use of camaenid land snails as potential bioindicators for monitoring environmental health and for biodiversity conservation of this threatened ecological communin'. We also describe a sampling protocol to measure snail abundance based on a pilot survey near Katherine, and provide preliminary data on the possible effects of fire on land snails at two sites with contrasting fire history. On the basis of these observations we report an additional threat to this ecological community - invasion of grasses and the associated grass-fire habitat degradation cycle. Land snails as bioindicators The terrestrial invertebrate fauna of the limestone outcrop—monsoon vine thicket association in northern Australia has generally not been well sampled, but one significant component is the land snails. Studies in northern Queensland (Stanisic 1999 and references therein) and the Kimberley of Western Australia (see Solent 1991; Solem & McKenzie 1991 for reviews) have demonstrated a rich assemblage of land snails. These pulmonate molluscs, particularly the largest group, the family Camaenidae, show high levels of radiation, narrow-range endemism, high [3-diversity and, in a few locations, high a-diversity (Stanisic 1999; Cameron et aL 2005; Kohler 2010a, b). Furthermore, the extended dry season of the Australian monsoon tropics poses special challenges for survival with reduced water availability for many months of the year. Limestone outcrops and associated monsoon vine thickets provide not only protection from desiccation during the protracted dry season but also from landscape tires, which occur frequently in the surrounding matrix of savanna woodland. Limestone outcrops in the Australian monsoon tropics are thus important refugia for land snail survival, containing stable microclimatic conditions, sufficient buffer from variations in temperamre and moisture in both the short-term (i.e. harsh annual dry season) and long-term (i.e. evolutionary time) and protection from landscape tire. They also provide a ready supply of calcium during the short wet season when snails are active. The notion that rock outcrops in the moister areas of Australia serve as important refugia for rainforest fauna was recently reviewed by Coupcr and Hoskin (2008). These authors documented a number of faunal groups and rainforest-associated lineages, including land snails, from eastern Queensland whose occurrence was highly dependent on the persistence of rocky outcrops. It was argued that rocky outcrops in the mesic areas of eastern Australia provide similar microclimatic conditions to rainforest in being cool, moist and largely sheltered from fire. During the Miocene and Pleistocene with the onset of increasing aridity, the geographic ranges of many rainforest-associated animals also contracted, some to isolated pockets such as rocky outcrops where suitable habitat/conditions persisted. The large-scale contraction of rainforest during the late Tertiary had profound effects on the fauna in terms of Land snails as bioindicators Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 5 extinction, distribution, population fragmentation and genetic diversity (Couper & 1 loskin 2008). Thus, in the lower rainfall areas rocky outcrops and associated monsoon vine thickets act as historical refugia for the persistence and evolutionary development of rainforest-associated lineages that were formerly more widespread during wetter times. The land snails of northern Australia have been proposed as a bioindicator group for monitoring environmental health and for biodiversity conservation of the specialised ecological communities in which they live (Stanisic 1999; Cameron et al 2005; Slatyer et al. 2007). Indeed, land snails throughout the world have been used to identify priority areas for conservation based on their patterns of distribution, species richness and endemism (e.g. Bengtsson et al 1995; Emberton 1997; Schilthuizen 2004; Schilthuizen et al 2005; Solymos & Feher 2005; Clements et al 2008; Horsak & Cernohorsky 2008; Wronski & Hausdorf 2008; Rundell 2010). Although the species- level taxonomy of the Australian fauna is far from complete, with many species still undescribed, most species can be readily sampled and identified to morpho-species based on their shell characteristics. In addition, many land snails are habitat specific, often have very small geographical ranges, and total species diversity within sites is not overwhelming. Moreover, many species of land snails in the NT have been listed as threatened and others are of conservation concern (Woinarski et al. 2007). These characteristics make land snails ideal indicators on w-hich to develop better conservation management strategies and site protection, in a similar way in winch some groups of insects have been used based on their patterns of occurrence, species richness and relative abundance (McGeoch 1998). Less is known of the diversity, conservation status and threatening processes of land snails in the Top End of the NT than for northern Queensland and the Kimberley. However, two major threats facing land snails in the Top End have been identified: (1) increased fire frequency (during the dry' season), and (2) increased trampling through high stocking rates of cattle (during the wet season) in critical breeding habitats (Woinarski et al 2007). In addition, Pearson et al (2009) concluded that predation by the invasive Cane Toad Hnfo marinas may be a potential threat in some limestone habitats where the spatial and temporal activity patterns of both snails and toads overlap. A fourth potential threatening process is introduced weeds, especially pastoral grasses. These plants increase the fuel load and alter the fire regime, displace the native cover and organic matter, and increase exposure by reducing shelter/shade provided by understorcv shrubs, and thus are detrimental to the overall feeding ecology and aestivation sites of snails. These extensive threats contrast w r ith those in South-East Asia where mining (i.e. quarrying for cement production) is the primary- threat facing land snails obligatorily associated with limestone karsts (Clements et al. 2006). 6 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Braby et at. Land snails of the Tindall Limestone Formation, Katherine The limestone outcrops in the Top End vary greatly in extent and degree of isolation, with the most extensive formations occurring in the upper Daly River district and Victoria River district, stretching from Katherine and Mataranka south-west to just west of the Western Australian border (Figure 1). Within this region, a substantial patch of limestone outcrop occurs around the town of Katherine, 275 km SSE of Darwin, that supports a number of endemic species of plants and animals (Daniel 2007). The outcrop is a more or less linear but discontinuous strip approximately 50 km long by up to 15 km wide oriented in a north-west to south-east direction around the Smart Highway (Figure 2A). It comprises the largest significant patch of Joseph Bonaparte k Gulf Gregory Nal. Park Keep River Nat. Park «- Purnululu Nat Park Figure 1. Map showing extent of limestone outcrops (grey shading) in the upper Daly River and Victoria River districts of the Top End, NT, and eastern Kimberley, WA. Areas shaded light green indicate areas protected under Australia’s national reserve system. Major highways are indicated together with the towns of Katherine, NT, and Kununurra, WA. Katherine WA NT 50 100 200 ■ Km Land snails as bioindicators Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 7 limestone close to Darwin. Geologists refer to this outcrop as the Tindall Limestone Formation: it comprises sedimentary rock that was laid down millions of years ago by calcium-secreting marine organisms, but which has been subsequently uplifted and eroded (Sweet 1994). Specifically, the Tindall Limestone Formation is of Cambrian (Palaeozoic) age and composed primarily of grey massive, bioclastic, mottled, oncoid and cryptomicrobial limestone (Sweet 1994); in some areas the limestone is overlaid with sandstone, siltstone or claystone, or with sand and/or clayey and loamy soil. Within the outcrop, the limestone is highly fragmented and comprises numerous smaller patches or isolates of rock (Figure 2A). Relief is characteristically low, with most of the outcrop less than 10 m above the general land surface. Systematic collections from the Tindall Limestone Formation at Katherine since 1979 (V. Kcssner, unpublished data) have established that the area supports seven species of camaenid land snails. However, because the Tindall Limestone Formation has not been comprehensively sampled for land snails it is possible that additional species remain to be discovered. These snails represent the genera Xantbomelon Martens, 1860. Setobaudittia Iredale, 1933 and Tomsitracbia Iredale, 1939. The most diverse genus is Tomsitracbia (Figures 3-4) with five species, all of which are narrow-range endemics restricted to the Tindall Limestone Formation (Willan et at. 2009, V. Kessner, unpublished data). Three of these species (T. danvini, T. alenae and T wallacet) occur only in the section north of the Katherine River (Figure 2B) and are considered to be threatened (Willan et al. 2009, V. Kessner, unpublished data), one species (T. cuttacutta) occurs in the southern section at Cutta Cutta Caves Nature Park, while another (T. weaberana species complex) is more widely distributed. The three species known from north of the Katherine River are all allopatric, separated by narrow breaks (< 2 km) in the extent of the rocky outcrop, and have exceedingly small distributional ranges (extent of occurrence varies from 1 km 2 to 20 km 2 ). Given that the Tindall Limestone Formation is patchy in extent, Tomsitracbia may well epitomise the local radiations at small spatial scales among land snails observed elsewhere in the world due to the combined effects of karst patchiness and poor dispersal ability (Schilthuizcn et al. 2005; Clements et al. 2008; Wronski & Hausdorf 2008; Kohler 2010b). Estimates of relative abundance Land snails associated with limestone formations in the Australian monsoon tropics are active only during the short wet season, between about December and March, when they feed and breed. Moreover, these species forage only at night, rendering quantitative assessments of their relative abundance problematic. During the long dry season they aestivate as ‘free sealers’ (i.e. their aperture is sealed with an epiphragm) in the soil under large rocks, in crevices or deep in the soil litter, up to a depth of 0.3 m from the soil surface, where temperature conditions are cooler and stable and humidity is relatively constant. 8 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Braby et at. 5 Kilometers Figure 2. Extent of the Tindall limestone Formation at Katherine: (A) location of study sites (insert map shows location within the Northern Territory, Australia); (B) known spadal distribution of three allopatric species of Torresitracbia land snails north of the Katherine River (part of the western section of Figure 1A). Geological strata are as follows: —Cmt, Tindall Limestone (grey massive, bioclastic, mottled, oncoid and cryptomicrobial limestone, minor grey mudstone and maroon siltstone); Czs, residual soil and sand, clayey and loamy soils; Kl, quartz sandstone and ferruginous sandstone, silty sandstone, siltstone and claystone. Land snails as bioindicators Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 9 To our knowledge there have been no previous attempts to assess the relative abundance of land snails in the Australian monsoon tropics. During the summer monsoon wet season (January 2009) we undertook a preliminary study to test sampling methods of measuring snail abundance using strip transects. Two study sites were chosen north-west of Katherine (Figure 2A). One site was located at the Charles Darwin University' Katherine campus (Site A: -14.3951°, 132.1443°); the second site was located 3 km north-west of Katherine River near the Stuart Highway (Site B: -14.4444°, 132.2377°). Each site supported different assemblages of small (average shell diameter ca. 13 mm) camaenid land snails. Torresitracbia darwitri (Figure 3) occurred at Site A and we have collected this species from eight point sites, five of which are very' close together (Figure 2B). Torresitracbia wallacei occurred at Site B and has been recorded from nine point sites, six of which are contiguous (Figure 2B). The habitat at Site A comprised low deciduous monsoon vine thicket on limestone and was long unburnt (Figure 5). Site B comprised disturbed open woodland on a ridge of limestone boulders and rubble scree in which the understorey was dominated by Katherine Sorghum Sorghum macrospermum (Figures 6-8). This site had been exposed to a frequent and intense fire regime (possibly on an annual basis) as evidenced by extensive fire scars on tree trunks, and dead trees. Four linear transects approximately 25 m in length were selected randomly at each site. Transects were marked with string and luminescent flagging tape. Adult snails (i.e. shell diameter > ca. 10 mm, with thickened outer lip) that were active on the ground and low-lying rocks were counted on either side of the transect at night (between 2020 and 2400 h) by two observers searching in parallel along the transect after rain. A third observer walked behind the two observers and recorded the number and perpendicular distance of snails from the centre of the transect. Each observer wore a headlamp. Juvenile snails (i.e. shell diameter < ca. 10 mm, with a thin outer lip) and dead shells were not counted. Counts were conducted on 25-26 January' 2009 following several days of significant rainfall in the area. Intermittent rain also fell during the period when counts were made. Each transect took approximately 22 minutes to complete (i.e. a total of 90 minutes for each site). The detectability of these small camaenid land snails was first assessed across two 25 m transects (Site A, 24 January) (Figure 9). This assessment showed that snails (// = 42) could be detected up to a perpendicular distance of 2 m on either side of the transect, but detectability tended to decrease sharply beyond 1.2 m. Hence, relative abundance of small-sized snails could be assessed using nocturnal counting techniques, provided that a team of three people working in optimal weather conditions was deployed. Subsequent counts of land snails (26 January) were then made to assess variability within and among sites across a replicated set of four 4 m x 25 m transects. At the site with a history of no recent file (Site A), large numbers of Torresitracbia darwitri were recorded (x = 49.8 ± 34.54 s.d.) although variability was high (coefficient of variation = 0.69). However, at the site with a history of recent fire (Site B), only one live snail of T. wallacei was detected (x = 0.3 ± 0.50 s.d.). Differences 10 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Braby et at. in levels of relative abundance between the two sites were highly significant (Mann-Whitney U-test: z = 2.56, P = 0.016). At Site B, numerous dead shells were noted between and under the rock ledges. Incidental searches made during the daytime (27 January) revealed a few live snails at Site B; however, these snails were found only in small sinkholes with remnant vine thicket elements that were protected from fire. In contrast to Site A, there was a noticeable absence of organic matter on the ground and among the rocks and boulders at Site B. Figures 3-4. Torresitrachia spp.: (3) T. darwinr, (4) T. aittacutta. Both species are narrow-range endemics confined to the Tindall Limestone Formation. Land snails as bioindicators Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 11 Figures 5-8. Habitat of Tormitrachia spp. in the Tindall Limestone Formadon: (5) long unbumt low deciduous monsoon vine thicket on limestone outcrop, habitat of T. darwini at Site A (Charles Darwin University Katherine campus); (6-8) disturbed open woodland on limestone outcrop, habitat of T. walked at Site B (3 km NW of Katherine River) showing seasonal changes in understorey layer, now dominated by Sorghum macrospermum , during the wet season (January 2009) (6), early dry season pre-fire (April 2009) (7), and mid dry season post-fire (July 2010) (8). Arrow indicates the same tree in figures 6-8. Although based on only a single replicated sample for each site, the striking differences in land snail abundance between Sites A and B cannot be explained by differences in species behaviour, geological formation or sampling protocol. Sampling was standardised so that counts were made under the same conditions of observer, date and weather. 1 lowever, we note that the two sites contrasted markedly in ground cover, with a flush of 1 m high annual grass at Site B, which may have reduced detectability of snails at this site. We consider that this contrast contributed only marginally to the observed differences in snail numbers between the two sites, given the intense scrutiny of the ground and ground layer vegetation that characterised the sampling of both sites. 12 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Braby et at. 10 0 - 0.19 0 . 2 - 0.39 04 - 0.59 0 . 6-0 79 0 . 8 - 0.99 1 . 0-1 19 1 . 2 - 1.39 1 . 4 - 1.59 1 . 6 - 1.79 1 . 8-199 Distance (m) Figure 9. Detectability of Torresitrachia dani'ini measured at Site A based on 2 x 25 m transects. Snails ( n — 42) were readily detected up to a distance of 1.2 m from the observer, but were not recorded at distances of greater than 2.0 m. While there may well be differences in relative abundance among closely-related land snails, we consider the most significant factor accounting for the large discrepancy in counts between Site A (with numerous Tomsitracbia dani'ini) and Site B (with only a single T. wallacei) was habitat quality, due to different fire regimes. Site A comprised old growth monsoon vine thicket with a closed canopy and the topsoil comprised a deep cover of organic matter, and there was no evidence of recent fire history. In contrast. Site B comprised woodland with an open canopy and its topsoil was devoid of organic matter and leaf litter. The latter site was also heavily invaded by annual sorghum and showed signs of high fire frequency as evidenced by dead trees and extensive fire scars on tree trunks. The presence of numerous dead shells indicated that snails were formerly abundant at Site B. Indeed, when T. wallacei was first recorded at this exact site 30 years ago, it was noted to be common (V. Kessner, unpublished data). Comparison of the extent of vegetation at Site B, based on aerial photographs taken in 1965 with those in 2010, revealed no detectable change in canopy tree cover. However, when V. Kessner (unpublished data) visited the site in the late 1970s he noted that the ground layer was shrubby and dominated by vine Land snails as bioindicators Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 13 thicket vegetation with little grass. More significantly, Sorghum macrospermurn was absent and there was little evidence of recent fire at that time. Hence, the major change to the habitat at Site B over the past 30 years appears to have been a substantial increase in grass biomass in the ground layer, most notably .S’, macrospermurn, and the concomitant decrease of a monsoon vine thicket shrub-layer. The estimated extent of occurrence of T. wallacei is less dian 5 km 2 (Willan et al. 2009) and our field observations indicated that its entire habitat has been invaded and substantially altered by this grass. Discussion Land snails are sensitive to desiccation, have poor tolerance to high temperatures, low dispersal ability' and have little capacity to escape fire, especially during die dry season when they are aestivating. In theory, land snails should be adapted to the ‘natural’ fire regime, that is, a proportion of snails aestivating should be able to survive the effects of fire, particularly those deep in the soil under rocks. However, if the burning regime is on an annual basis, then snail populations may have litde or no opportunity to recover. Indeed, Stanisic (1999) cautioned that fire poses a serious threat to land snails and other invertebrates associated with monsoon vine thicket in Queensland, and several studies of land snails elsewhere in die world have shown that regimes of frequent and/or intense fires adversely affect species richness and/or abundance (Nekola 2002; Kiss & Magnin 2006; Santos et al. 2009). Moreover, frequent burning reduces the soil’s organic litter layer on which land snails depend, which may take many years to accumulate. In central North America, Nekola (2002) concluded diat fire intervals of more than 15 years were required to maintain the health and diversity' of grassland land snail communities. In the Top End, the fire frequency or interval between fires required for monsoon vine thicket on limestone outcrops to accumulate sufficient organic matter for land snail survival is not known, but is probably of the order of several decades, These habitats were rarely if ever burnt by the indigenous Aborigines and were probably burnt irregularly via natural means such as lightning strikes. Sorghum macrospermurn is a very tall (4 m) native annual grass and is endemic to the Katherine district of the Top End (Lazarides et al. 1991). It is restricted to limestone outcrops, favouring ridges of pavement, boulder and rubble scree landscapes (Daniel 2007). Unlike a set of introduced pasture grasses - including Annual Mission Grass Pennisetum pedicellatum and Perennial Mission Grass Pennisetum polystachlou — it has not been identified as an environmental weed that is posing a major threat to ecosystems in the NT. These exotic invasive pasture grasses can drive serious ecological changes through alteration of the fire regime (Kean & Price 2003) operating in a positive feedback interaction known as the ‘grass-fire cycle’ (D’Antonio & Vitousek 1992; Rossiter et al 2003). In this cycle, invasion of the alien grass increases the fuel load, which increases the fire severity (frequency and/or intensity); the altered fire regime leads to increased disturbance and decreased tree cover, which then facilitates further 14 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Braby et at. weed invasion. The increased intensity and extent of fires may lead to penetration and then diminution of some particularly fire sensitive habitats such as monsoon forest (D'Antonio & Vitousek 1992; Kean & Price 2003). It appears that repeated fires near the Katherine River have created an unbalanced grass-fire cycle for S. macrospermum similar to that reported for many invasive grassy weeds, and that this cycle has led to a dramatic loss of the understorey monsoon vine thicket habitat and the concomitant decline in abundance of Tomsitrachia wallacei, a highly localised species ot land snail. Further replicated sampling is needed to test this hypothesis. However, given the narrow-range endemicity of land snails in the Tindall Limestone Formation, localised species such as T. walked may well be facing imminent extinction unless there is better land management of die limestone outcrops at Katherine through fire suppression. Daniel (2007) identified a number of threats impacting the Tindall Limestone Formation, including alteration of monsoon vine thicket by fire, habitat loss through housing development and weed infestation. More generally, Michael et al, (2010) identified two key threatening processes affecting rocky outcrops; damage to microhabitats (caused by several factors including high-intensity fires and trampling by livestock), and changes to vegetation structure and composition (brought about by several factors including altered fire regimes and invasion by exotic plants). The latter authors recommended that outcrops be protected from processes that cause damage to rock microhabitat and be monitored and managed for changes in vegetation structure. We endorse these proposals. For the Tindall Limestone Formation, we recommend that the endemic land snails be used as bioindicators to monitor changes in vegetation structure and composition by assessing changes in their relative abundance. In terms of management, we recommend that the incidence and intensity of fire in outcrops be minimised (with a burning regime > 15 years) to prevent destruction of the monsoon vine thicket habitat of land snails, and that buffer zones around limestone patches be established to prevent spread of dry season fires from the surrounding savanna woodland into the monsoon vine thicket. In summary, the literature and our preliminary observations at Katherine suggest that camaenid land snails are an excellent bioindicator group for developing conservation management strategies of limestone outcrops and their associated monsoon vine thickets in northern Australia. This ecological community is under increasing threat, particularly from heightened landscape fire. There is an urgent need to survey all limestone patches within the Tindall Limestone Formation at Katherine, and outcrops elsewhere in the Top End (Figure 1), to collect baseline data on land snail composition, species richness, extent of occurrence, abundance and threatening processes. This information can then be used to develop the scientific basis for conservation management and restoration of this ecological community. In addition, because most species of land snails obligatorily associated with limestone outcrops are scientifically undescribed, taxonomic studies are also needed to fully document the fauna (Willan et al. 2009). Land snails as bioindicators Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 15 Acknowledgments We thank Philip Short for identifying the species of Sorghum at Katherine, Damian Milne for access to historical aerial photographs, Brian Heim for site access at Charles Darwin University Katherine campus, Geoffrey Banks for providing the GIS shape file of World Heritage Areas in Western Australia, and Frank Kohler and John Stanisic for critically reviewing the manuscript. This project arose out of funding received from the Natural Resource Management Board (NT) Inc. project number 2007083 under the auspices of die Northern Territory Integrated Natural Resource Management Plan, with additional funds from the Commonwealth Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (now Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities), The Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation, the Australian Biological Resources Study and the Australian Geographic Society. References Bengtsson J., Nilsson S.G. and As S. (1995) Non-random occurrence of threatened land snails on forest islands. Biodiversity letters!, 140-148. Cameron R.A.D., Pokryszko B.M. and Wells F.E. (2005) Alan Solem's work on the diversity of Australasian land snails: an unfinished project of global significance. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement No. 68, 1-10. Clements R., Ng P.K.L., Lu X.X., Ambu S., Schilthuizen M. and Bradshaw C.J.A. (2008) Using biogeographical patterns of endemic land snails to improve conservation planning for limestone karsts. Biological Conservation 141, 2751-2764. Clements R., Sodhi N.S., Schilthuizen M. and Ng P.K.L. (2006) limestone karsts of Southeast Asia: imperiled arks of biodiversity. BioScience 56,733-742. Couper P.J. and Hoskin C.J. (2008) Litho-refugia: the importance of rock landscapes for the long-term persistence of Australian rainforest fauna. Australian Zoologist 34, 554-560. D'Antonio C.M. and Vitousek P.M. (1992) Biological invasions by exotic grasses, the grass/fire cycle, and global change. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 23, 63-87. Daniel M. (2007) The Katherine Sorghum - a big grass with a very small distribution. Australasian Plant Conservation 16, 20-22. Emberton K. (1997) Diversities and distributions of 80 land-snail species in southeastern-most Madagascan rainforests, with a report that lowlands are richer than highlands in endemic and rare species. Biodiversity and Conservation 6, 1137-1154. Horsak M. and Cernohorsky N. (2008) Mollusc diversity patterns in Central European fens: hotspots and conservation priorities .Journal of Biogeography 35, 1215-1225. Kean L. and Price O. (2003) The extent of Mission grasses and Gamba Grass in the Darwin region of Australia's Northern Territory. Pacific Conservation Biology 8, 281-290. Kiss L. and Magnin F. (2006) High resilience of Mediterranean land snail communities to wildfires. Biodiversity and Conservation 15,2925-2944. Kohler F. (2010a) Camaenid land snails in north-western Australia: a model case for the study of speciation and radiation. In: 17th World Congress of Malacology, 18-24 July 2010, Abstract (eds S. Panha, C. Sutcharit and P. Tongkerd) p. 172. Tropical Natural History, Supplement 3, Phuket, Thailand. 16 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Braby et at. Kohler F. (2010b) Uncovering local endemism in the Kimberley, Western Australia: descripdon of new species of the genus Amplirhagada Iredale, 1933 (Pulmonata, Camaenidae). Records of the Australian Museum 62, 217-284. Lazarides M., Hacker J.B. and Andrew M.H. (1991) Taxonomy, cytology and ecology of indigenous Australian Sorghums (Sorghum Moench: Andropogoneae: Poaceac). Australian Systematic Botany 4, 591-635. McGeoch M.A. (1998) The selection, tesdng and application of terrestrial insects as bioindicators. Biological Reviews 73,181-201. Michael D.R., Lindenmayer D.B. and Cunningham R.B. (2010) Managing rock outcrops to improve biodiversity' conservation in Australian agricultural landscapes. Ecological Management and Restoration 11,43-50. Nekola J.C. (2002) Effects of fire management on die richness and abundance of central North American grassland land snail faunas. Animal Biodiversity and Conservation 25, 53-66. Pearson D., Greenlees M., Ward-Fear G. and Shine R. (2009) Predicting the ecological impact of cane toads (fiufo marinus) on threatened camaenid land snails in north-western Australia. Wildlife Research 36, 533-540. Rossiter N.A., Setterfield A.A., Douglas M.M. and Hutlcy L.B. (2003) Testing the grass-fire cycle: alien grass invasion in the tropical savannas of northern Australia. Diversity and Distributions 9,169-176. Rundell R.J. (2010) Diversity' and conservation of the land snail fauna of the western Pacific islands of Belau (Republic of Palau, Oceania). American Ma/acological Bulletin 28, 81 -90. Russell-Smith J. (1991) Classification, species richness, and environmental relations of monsoon rain forest in northern Australia. Journal of \'egetation Science 2, 259-278. Russell-Smith J. and Bowman D.M.J.S. (1992) Conservation of monsoonal vane-forest isolates in the Northern Territory, Australia, Biological Conservation 59, 51-63. Santos X., Bros V. and Mino A. (2009) Recolonization of a burned Mediterranean area by terrestrial gastropods. Biodiversity Conservation 18, 3153-3165. Schilthuizen M. (2004) Land snail conservation in Borneo: limestone outcrops act as arks. Journal of Concbology Special Pub/icaPon 3, 149-154. Schilthuizen M., Liew T.-S., Elahan B.B. and Lackman-Ancrenaz I. (2005) Effects of karst forest degradation on pulmonate and prosobranch land snail communities in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Conservation Biology 19, 949-954. Slatyer C., Ponder W.F., Rosauer D. and Davis L. (2007) Between a rock and a dry place: land snails in arid Australia. In Animals of Arid Australia: out on their own? (eds C. Dickman, D. Lunney and S. Burgin) pp. 30-41. Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Mosman, NSW. Solem A. (1991) Land snails of the Kimberley rainforest patches and bicigcography of all Kimberley land snails. In Kimberley Rainforests of Australia (eds N.L. McKenzie, R.B. Johnston and P.G. Kendrick) pp. 145-246. Surrey Beatty & Sons, Chipping Norton, Sydney. Solem A. and McKenzie N.L. (1991) The composition of land snail assemblages in Kimberley rainforests. In Kimberley Rainforests of Australia (eds N.L. McKenzie, R.B. Johnston and P.G. Kendrick). Surrey Beatty & Sons Pty Limited, Chipping Norton, NSW. Solymos P. and Feher Z. (2005) Conservation prioritization based on distribution of land snails in Hungary'. Conservation Biology 19,1084-1094. Stanisic J. (1999) Land snails and dry vine thickets in Queensland: using museum invertebrate collections in conservation. In The Other 99%. The Conservation and Biodiversity of Invertebrates (eds W. Ponder and D. Lunney) pp. 257-263. Transactions of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales, Mosman, NSW. Land snails as bioindicators Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 17 Sweet I.P. (1994) Katherine (1:250,000 scale geological map). Second Edition. Australian Geological Survey Organisation, Canberra. Willan R.C., Kohler F., Kessner V. and Braby M.F. (2009) Description of four new species of limestone-associated Tomsitrachia snails (Mollusca: Pulmonata: Camaenidae) from the Katherine District of the Northern Territory, with comments on their conservation. The Beagle, Records of the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory 25, 87-102. Woinarski J.C.Z., Hempel C., Cowie I., Brennan K., Kerrigan R., Leach G. and Russell-Smith J. (2006) Distributional pattern of plant species endemic to the Northern Territory, Australia. Australian Journal of Botany 54, 627-640. Woinarski J.C.Z., Pavey C., Kerrigan R., Cowie I. and Ward S. (2007) laostfrom our landscape: Threatened Species of the Northern Territory. Northern Territory Government, Darwin. Wronski T. and Hausdorf B. (2008) Distribution patterns of land snails in Ugandan rain forests support the existence of Pleistocene forest refitgia .Journal of Biogeography 35, 1759-1768. Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23:18-28 Butterfly counts at Casuarina Coastal Reserve in the seasonal tropics of northern Australia Donald C. Franklin Research Institute for the Environment & Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT 0909, Australia. Email: don.franklin@cdu.edu.au Abstract Seasonal rhythms underlie most ecological phenomena, but the seasonality of butterfly assemblages in the monsoonal tropics of the Top End of northern Australia remains unquantified. I counted butterflies along a 2.9-km transect through the Casuarina Coastal Reserve near Darwin in northern Australia on 23 occasions during eight census periods over a 14-month period. Both the number of taxa and number of individuals peaked during the wet season, but the latter peak continued into the early dry season. The dry season troughs in activity' were about 50% by taxa and 35% by number compared with wet season peaks. Eight taxa demonstrated clear seasonal peaks, four in the wet season, two in the late wet — early dry' season and two in the dry season. Much remains to be learnt about the seasonality of butterflies in the Australian monsoon tropics. Introduction In highly seasonal environments, organisms that live for less than a year, such as most butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea, Hesperioidea), may not be able to breed continuously. If they cannot, they must vary their life history among generations, with some stage undergoing diapause - a state of rest or reproductive inactivity. For example, adults of the Common Crow Euploea comma enter reproductive diapause during the tropical dry' season, aggregating in sheltered refugia (Montcith 1982) until new growth is available on their larval food plants (Canzano et al. 2003). In the seasonal tropics, considerable attention has been given to adult diapause as a mechanism for coping with the dry' season (e.g. Jones & Ricnks 1987; Braby 1995a; Pieloor & Seymour 2001; Canzano et al. 2006). However, there is limited literature on egg, larval or pupal diapause in the tropics, even though adults of some species are absent during the dry' season (e.g. Hill 1999; Braby et al. 2010). Common and Waterhouse (1981) report pupal dormancy in Darwin populations of the Fuscous Swallowtail Papilio fuscus that may last for more than two years. Diapause has been documented in each life stage (egg, larvae, pupae, adult) in temperate-zone butterflies (Scott 1981 cited in Ehrlich 1988). Butterfly counts at Casuarina Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 19 More generally, the seasonality of butterfly assemblages has been poorly documented in the seasonal tropics, including monsoonal northern Australia, and no clear general patterns are apparent. In less seasonal tropical areas, butterfly species richness and/or abundance may peak in the dry (Borneo — Hamer et al 2005; north Queensland - Braby 1995b) or wet season (Brazilian Atlantic forest: Ribeiro et al. 2010), whilst in more intensely seasonal environments, there are reports of no seasonal peak (Brazilian cerrado - Pinheiro et al 2002) or a peak in the wet season (Mexican tropical dry forests — Luna-Reyes et al 2008, 2010). In this paper, 1 present count data for butterflies at eight intervals over a 14-month period in the Casuarina Coastal Reserve near the city of Darwin in northern Australia. The Darwin area is warm to hot throughout the year. The mean annual rainfall of 1,700 mm includes an extended dry season in which rainfall is typically negligible for 5—7 months and often zero for 3-5 months (McDonald & McAlpine 1991). Methods Butterflies were censused using a “Pollard walk” (Pollard 1977). This is a fixed-width (line or strip) transect, as also employed extensively for the census of birds (Bibby et al 1992), in which the observer walks at a slow, steady pace along a pre-determined line and counts butterflies within a fixed distance of the line. The method necessarily documents diurnal species and especially those that are active at the time of day the count is conducted and those that fly low, but is excellent for detecting common species even in dosed forest environments (Sparrow et al 1994). In this study, a single transect 2.9 km-long was employed. The transect formed a loop through a range of habitats in the Casuarina Coastal Reserve (12 0 21’S, 130°53’E), Darwin, following either established walking trails or the mown grassy edge to coastal vine-forest. The habitats sampled were: • coastal vine-forest (the group 9, “semi-deciduous rain forests and vine thickets associated with a variety of well to excessively drained coastal and subcoastal landforms” of Russell-Smith (1991)) - 0.4 km; • the ecotone between coastal vine-forest (as above) and mown dune grassland - 1.0 km; • mangroves — 0.3 km; • savanna woodland dominated by Eucalyptus tetrodonta and Terminalia ferdinandiana with a mostly perennial-grass understorey - 0.8 km; and • parkland with mown exotic grasses and forbs and scattered remnant trees — 0.4 km. None of the transect was subject to artificial watering, and the only natural external source of moisture in the dry season is tidal inundation of mangroves. Most of the savanna woodland was burnt in both years of the study. 20 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Franklin Transect counts were conducted during eight periods, hereafter ‘census periods’, over a 14-month period from late July 2008 to late September 2009. Three transect ‘counts’ were undertaken in each census period (2 only in the 4 th census period, Jan. 2009). The median (range) of intervals between census periods (median date of counts) was 57 (49—76) days and between counts within census periods was 7 (2—33) days. Counts were conducted only on days with >50% sunshine during the late morning, no rain and at most a light breeze. I commenced counts between 1000 and 1030 h and they lasted 1.5 - 2 h including stoppage time to identify butterflies located whilst walking — butterflies were not counted if encountered only during stoppage time. With consecutive counts I alternated the direction of walk along the loop. Butterflies within or above a 5 m half circle in front of the observer were counted. At this distance (and without the use of net or optical aid) it was not possible to consistendy identify- all species so where necessary, species were aggregated into genera and morphotaxa, 29 of which were recognised (Appendix). For simplicity of terminology, the species, genus or morphotaxa recognised are hereafter referred to simply as ‘taxa’, names given to morphotaxa being presented in inverted commas. Seasonal patterns were identified graphically after statistical screening. To evaluate the ability of the data to identify seasonal patterns, the number of species, number of butterflies, and number of each taxon present in 5 or more counts were compared across census periods with counts as replicates using non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis tests. Graphical results are presented only where the tests indicated significant differences among census periods with a probability less than 0.05. Variation in assemblage composition among census periods was examined by Non- Metnc Multidimensional Scaling in the software PC-Ord 4.01 (McCune & Mefford 1999). For each census period, I averaged counts of taxa. The six taxa present in only one census period were excluded. Mean counts of the remaining taxa were ln(x+l)- transformed to moderate the influence of a few abundant species. 1 employed the Bray-Curtis distance measure and allowed up to 400 iterations to ensure stable results. Fift\ Monte Carlo runs in each of from 1—6 dimensions were used to generate stress from random data for comparison with stress from ordination results in a scree plot; this provided a quantitative basis for selecting the optimal dimensionality with which to present results. Lan ai food plants were summarised into growth forms (herbaceous - grass, forb, vine; woody - shrub, tree, vine) for each taxon from information in Braby (2000). 3 hese are presented for all taxa in the Appendix and summarised in Table 1. Butterfly counts at Casuarina Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 21 Table 1. Evidence of variation in the number of butterfly taxa, the number of butterflies, and the numbers of individual taxa that were present in more than five counts among eight census periods, along with larval food plant types for taxa. Definitions of morphotaxa are in the Appendix. Food plant types are generalised from the Appendix into the following categories: herbaceous (herb.) - grass, forb, vine; woody - shrub, tree, vine. * indicates P < 0.05; ** P < 0.01. Food No. of counts Kruskal- Response variable plant type present (of 23) Wallis H Probability No. of taxa 23 17.5 0.01 * No. of butterflies 23 15.3 0.03* Hesperiidae "grass-darts" (Hesperiidae part) grass 7 14.7 0.04* Papilionidae Fuscous Swallowtail shrub 6 17.8 0.01 * (Papilio fuscus) Pieridae Lemon Migrant tree 17 15.5 0.03* (Catopsilia pomona) grass-yellows. ( Eurema spp.) forb & woody 20 18.1 0.01 * Small Pearl-white woody vine 23 15.0 0.03* (Elodina waikeri) “gull / albatross” (Pieridae part) woody mixed 21 17.2 0.02* Nymphalidae Orange Ringlet grass 16 10.8 0.15 (Hypocysta adiante) Orange Lacewing woody vine 10 13.7 0.06 (Cethosia penthesilea) Varied Eggfly ( Hypolimnas bolina) forb 8 11.1 0.14 Blue Argus (Junonia orithya) forb 6 13.3 0.07 Meadow Argus (Junonia villida) forb 9 17.2 0.02* Lesser Wanderer ( Danaus petilia) woody vine 7 12.5 0.08 Swamp Tiger ( Danaus affinis) woody vine 18 20.1 0.005 Small Brown Crow woody vine 10 17.2 0.02* (Euploea darchia) Common Crow (Euploea corinna) woody mixed 23 15.8 0.03* Lycaenidae “small shrub lycaenids” woody mixed 22 17.5 0.01 * (Lycaenidae part) 0.006 “small grass lycaenids” herbaceous mixed 16 19.7 (Lycaenidae part) 22 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Franklin Results Both the number of taxa and number of individuals varied significantly over time (Table 1, Figure 1). The number of taxa varied two-fold, peaking during the wet season. The number of butterflies varied three-fold and also peaked in the wet season, though the peak was later than for species richness and continued into the early dry season. A dramatic but variable increase in the number of butterflies in September 2009 was attributable to irruptions of “gull / albatross” (mostly Caper White Beknois java) and “small shrub lycaenids” (believed mostly to be the Purple Cerulean Jamides phased associated with the flowers of Millettiapirmata). Of the 17 taxa present in more than five counts, changes over time were demonstrable in 12 (Table 1), which is markedly more than the 5% that can be attributed to chance. Of these, four taxa peaked during the wet season (“grass-darts”. Fuscous Swallowtail, Meadow Argus, “small grass lycaenids”), two in the dry season (Swamp liger, “small shrub lycaenids”), and two in the mid-wet to early-dry season (grass-yellows, Small Brown Crow). The remaining four species displayed more diffuse patterns with no consistent trend (Lemon Migrant, Small Pearl-white, “gull / albatross”. Common Crow) (Figures 2, 3). Interpretation of butterfly assemblages in a single dimension was the optimal outcome from ordination (Figure 4). Assemblages dichotomised on the basis of the wet and dry season, with a particularly large difference (2.16 ef max. difference of 3.02) between consecutive census periods from 30 September to 20 November 2008. Aug. Oct. Dec. Feb. April June Aug. Figure 1 . Variation over time from July 2008 to Sept. 2009 in: (A) the number of taxa/morphotaxa counted in Casuarina Coastal Reserve; (B) the number of butterflies counted in Casuarina Coastal Reserve; and (C) rainfall recorded during the study period at Darwin Airport. Data points in A and B are medians ± range. gutterfly counts at Casuarina Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 23 80 60 - 40 - 20 - 0 — 500 | 400 r 300 CO I uu K 0 F "gull / albatross" *1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 4 - ; g -,-,-.L-I.CZ],. ,1 l.i—i, r—i Aug. Oct. Dec. Feb. April June Aug. Figure 2. Variation over time in numbers (median ± range) of six butterfly taxa: (A) I lesperiidae; (B) Papilionidae; (C-F) Pieridae at Casuarina Coastal Reserve; and (G) rainfall at Darwin Airport from July 2008 to Sept. 2009. Note varying scales of abundance. 24 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Franklin 75 - 50 - 25 - 0 - E "small shrub lycaenid" <0 tr 500 400 300 200 100 0 ■QnnUU J=L- Aug. Oct. Dec. Feb. April June Aug. Figure 3. Variation over time in numbers (median ± range) of six butterfly taxa (A-D - Nymphalidae; E-F - Lycaenidae) at Casuarina Coastal Reserve, and rainfall at Darwin Airport (G), from July 2008 to Sept. 2009. Note varying scales of abundance. Butterfly counts at Casuarina Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 25 Figure 4. One-dimensional NMDS ordination of eight census periods based on assemblage composition (23 taxa). The median date of each census is shown. Final stress = 14.9, stable to one decimal place after 34 iterations. Discussion As one might anticipate in a highly seasonal environment where seasonality is primarily driven by rainfall, both species richness and the number of butterflies peaked during the wet season. This is expected for butterflies as the larvae of most species are dependent on fresh plant growth. The later peak and decline in the number of individuals compared to species richness may have occurred because populations of muldvoltine species (those that undergo more than one generation per year) may accumulate with prolonged favourable conditions for breeding. Nevertheless, considerable butterfly activity persisted throughout the dry' season. It is beyond the scope of this study to determine the biological basis for this continued activity: in theory, it could include persistence of diapausing adults, the ability' to breed throughout the year (Jones & llienks 1987; Braby 1995a), or migration into the study area (Dingle eta/. 1999). Of note in this study is that taxa whose larvae feed, or mostly feed, on herbaceous plants, peaked in abundance in either the wet season (“grass- darts”, Meadow Argus, “small grass lycaenid”) or the wet-dry' transition (“grass- yellows”). In contrast, all taxa with diffuse seasonal patterns have larvae that feed on shrubs, trees or woody vines, as do the two taxa that peaked during the dry' season (Swamp Tiger, “small shrub lycacnids”). Although most woody plants in the region grow during the wet season, this is far from invariably so (Williams et al. 1997; Bach 2002 ). My surveys are necessarily preliminary in that only a little over one annual cycle was investigated. It would be interesting to know how repeatable these patterns are — mosquito assemblages in the Darwin region exhibit strongly repeated annual cycles (Franklin & Whelan 2009). Further, my data suggests two taxa as prime candidates for 26 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Franklin the investigation of non-aduit diapause, “grass-darts” and Meadow Argus. To these may be added the White Albatross Appias albina (Braby et al. 2010), which is however, uncommon and thus less tractable as a research subject. None of these taxa are known or suspected to be migratory in the region. References Bach C.S. (2002) Phenological patterns in monsoon rainforests in the Northern Territory, Australia. Austral Ecology 27, 477-489. Bibby C.J., Burgess N.D. and Hill D.A. (1992) Bird Census Techniques. Academic Press, London. Braby M.F. (1995a) Reproductive seasonality in tropical satyrine butterflies - strategies for the dry season. Ecological Entomology 20, 5-17. Braby M.F, (1995b) Seasonal changes in relative abundance and spatial distribution of Australian lowland tropical satyrine butterflies. Australian journal of Zoology 43, 209-229. Braby M.F. (2000) Butterflies of Australia. Their Identification, Biolog' and Distribution. CSIRO, Collingwood, Vic. Braby M.F., Lane D.A. and Weir R.P. (2010) Occurrence of Appias albina albina (Boisduval, 1836) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae: Pierinae) in northern Australia: phenotypic variation, life history and biology-, with remarks on its taxonomic status. Entomological Science 13, 258-268. Canzano A.A., Jones R.E. and Seymour J.E. (2003) Diapause termination in two species of tropical butterfly, Euploea core (Cramer) and Eup/oea Sylvester (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). Australian Journal of Entomo/og 42, 352-356. Canzano A.A., Krockenbetger A.A., Jones R.E. and Seymour J.E. (2006) Rates of metabolism in diapausing and reproductively active tropical butterflies, E.uploea core and E.up!oea Sylvester (Lepidoptera : Nymphalidae). Physiological Entomo/og 31, 184-189. Common I.F.B. and VXaterhousc D.F. (1981) Butterflies of Australia. Angus & Robertson, London. Dingle H., Zalucki M.P. and Rochester W.A. (1999) Season-specific directional movement in migratory Australian butterflies. Australian journal of Entomo/og 38, 323-329. Ehrlich P R. (1988) The structure and dynamics of butterfly populations. In Tire Biolog of Butte flies (eds R.l. \ ane-VO right and P.R. Ackery) pp. 25-40. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Franklin D.C. and Whelan P.I. (2009) Tropical mosquito assemblages demonstrate ‘textbook’ annual cycles. PEoS One 4, e8296. Hamer K.C., Hill J.K., Mustaffa N., Benedick S., Sherratt T.N., Chey V.K. and Maryati M. (2005) Temporal variation in abundance and diversity of butterflies in Bornean rain forests: opposite impacts of logging recorded in different seasons. Journal of Tropica! Ecolog 21, 417- Hill C.J. (1999) Communities of butterflies. In Biolog of Australian Butterflies (eds R.L. Kitching, E. Scheermeyer, R.E. Jones and N.E. Pierce) pp. 333-347. CSIRO, Collingwood. Jones R.E. and Rienks J. (1987) Reproductive seasonality in the tropical genus Eurema (Lepidoptera: Pieridae). Biotmpica 19, 7-16. Luna-Reyes M., Uorcnte-Bousquets J. and Luis-Martinez A. (2008) Papilionoidea from Sierra ^ ,“ a ’ Morelos and Puebla, Mexico (Insecta: Lepidoptera). Revista de Biologia Tropical Sn 1 1 "71A ° ‘ Butterfly counts at Casuarina Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 27 Luna-Reyes M.M., Llorente-Bousquets J., Luis-Martinez A. and Vargas-Fernandez I. (2010) Faunistic composition and phenology of butterflies (Rhopalocera: Papilionoidea) at Canon de Lobos, Yautepcc, Morelos, Mexico. Revista Mexicans tie Biodiversidad 81, 315-342. McCune B. and Mefford M.J. (1999) Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data Version 4.01 . MjM Software, Glcneden Beach, Oregon. McDonald N.S. and McAlpine J. (1991) Floods and droughts: the northern climate. In Monsoonal Australia. landscape, Ecology and Man in the Northern lowlands (eds C.D. Haynes, M.G. Ridpath and M.A.J. Williams) pp. 19-29. AABalkema, Rotterdam. Monteith G.B. (1982) Dry season aggregations of insects in Australian monsoon forests. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 20, 533-543. Pieloor M.J. and Seymour J.E. (2001) Factors affecting adult diapause initiation in the tropical butterfly Hypolimnas holina L. (Lepidoptera : Nymphalidae). Australian Journal of Entomology 40, 376-379. Pinheiro F., Diniz I.R., Coelho D. and Bandeira M.P.S. (2002) Seasonal pattern of insect abundance in the Brazilian cerrado. Austral Ecology 27,132-136. Pollard E. (1977) A method for assessing changes in the abundance of butterflies. Biological Conservation 12,115-153. Ribeiro D.B., Prado P.I., Brown Jr. K.S. and Freitas A.V.L. (2010) Temporal diversity patterns and phenology in fruit-feeding butterflies in the Atlantic Forest. Biotropica 42, 710-716. Russell-Smith J. (1991) Classification, species richness, and environmental relations of monsoon rain forest in northern Australia. Journal of [Vegetation Science 2, 259-278. Sparrow H.R., Sisk T.D., Ehrlich P.R. and Murphy D.D. (1994) Techniques and guidelines for monitoring Neotropical butterflies. Conservation Biolog' 8, 800-809. Williams R.]., Myers B.A., Muller W.J., Duff G.A. and Eamus D. (1997) Leaf phenology of woody species in a north Australian tropical savanna. Ecology 78, 2542-2558. Appendix. Taxa/morphotaxa recognised in this study and their attributes. This appendix is available at: http://sites.google.com/site/ntfteldnaturalists/journal. 28 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Franklin Casuarina butterflies (clockwise from above): Lemon Migrant (TR), Greenish Grass-dart (DB), Orange Ringlet (DB), Small Pearl-white (DB) Right: Fuscous Swallowtail (TR). Photographers: DB = Deb Bisa; TR - Tissa Ratnayeke. Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23: 29-38 DNA analysis identifies Solanum from Litchfield National Park as a lineage of S. dioicum Christopher T. Martine 1 , Elizabeth M. Lavoie 12 , Nicholas P. Tippery 34 , F. Daniel Vogt 1 , and Donald H. Les 3 1 Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY, USA. Email: christopher.martine@plattsburgh.edu 2 Present address: Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Stony Brook University, NY, USA. 3 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA 4 Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, Wl, USA. Abstract The uncommon reproductive system of dioecy is somewhat widespread in Solanaceae, being exhibited by members of five genera within this family. These members represent, however, only around 1% of species within the Solanaceae. The highest incidence of dioecy is found in the genus Solanum, where around 15 species have been described as consisting of populations in which individual plants are either “male” (staminate) or “female” (pistillate). Ten of these Solanum species, commonly known as ‘bush tomatoes’, are endemic to the Australian monsoon tropics. During recent fieldwork in the Northern Territory, non-reproductive collections were made of a morphologically distinct population of Solanum ( Solanum sp. Litchfield I.D.Cmvie 1428) from Litchfield National Park. We generated the first DNA sequences of these exceptional plants, amplifying the ITS (nuclear) and tmK-matK (chloroplast) DNA regions. Phylogenetic analysis comparing molecular data of Solanum sp. 1 .itchfield with previously sequenced relatives infers that the taxon is closely allied to .S', dioicum, a widespread species already considered to be morphologically diverse. However, we consider Solanum sp. Litchfield to represent a morphologically and geographically distinct taxon. Although all specimens collected to date lack reproductive features, the phylogenetic placement of Solanum sp. I .itchfield infers that the species is likely to be dioecious, thus broadening our understanding of the distribution and circumscription of dioecious lineages of Solanum in Australia. Introduction Within the plant family Solanaceae, the highest abundance of dioecy (‘male’ and ‘female’ flowers occurring on separate plants) is recorded in the genus Solanum, with 30 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Martine et al. around 15 species using this form of reproduction (Anderson & Symon 1989; Martine et al. 2006; Martine et al. 2009). Most (12) of the known (c. 16) dioecious solan urns ate included in subgenus l^eptostemonum, which is known as the ‘spiny solanums’ (Millet & Diggle 2003; Martine et al. 2009). Ten of these species are found only in northern Australia (Anderson & Symon 1988; Anderson & Symon 1989), where they are known locally as ‘bush tomatoes’. The geographic ranges of these ten species are more or less restricted to two regions: the Kimberley of Western Australia and the central Arnhem Land Plateau of the Northern Territory (Symon 1980; Martine & Anderson 2007; Martine et al. 2009). All occurrences of dioecy in Solarium are exhibited through a ‘cryptic’ form in which populations within a species appear to be androdioecious (having male flowers on some plants and hermaphrodite flowers on others). I lowever, these species have been shown to be functionally dioecious because the pollen produced by morphologically hermaphrodite flowers is inaperturate (i.e. without pores) and incapable of germination, making them unable to contribute to male reproductive function through fertilization (Anderson & Symon 1989; Martine et al 2009; Martine et al. 2010) . Thus, individual dioecious bush tomatoes are either ‘male’ (with clearly staminate flowers bearing only stamens) or ‘cryptically female’ (with conspicuous pistils and stamens producing non-functional pollen). Because of the frequency of dioecy in Australian Solatium, and its occurrence over a restricted geographic region, the bush tomato group has been treated as a model system in which to study the evolution of dioecy, especially because potential transitional reproductive states are also present in the lineage (Anderson & Symon 1989). Current work in Solatium subgenus 7 arptostemonum has also focused on the apparent recent radiation of Old World ‘spiny solanums’ (Levin et al. 2006; Bohs et al. 2007) and it is clear that the evolutionary relationships among most Australian, Asian, and African species of Solatium subgenus 7 jrptostemonum remain difficult to elucidate without a comprehensive sampling of taxa and the use of more informative gene regions than currendy used (Bohs et al 2007). Although recent work by Martine and colleagues (Brennan et al. 2006; Martine et al. 2006; Martine & Anderson 2007; Martine et al. 2009) has built on the outstanding contribution of Symon (1980), the taxonomy and circumscription of dioecious Australian solanums is still in flux. Notably, several distinct populations of dioecious solanums with uncertain taxonomic affinity are known and/or have been collected from the Kimberley, the central Arnhem Plateau and adjacent areas (D. Symon, pers. comm). This includes a population from Litchfield National Park that has long been suspected by botanists at the Northern Territory 1 lerbarium (DNA) to be a distinct taxon based on its slender leaves, limited armature and diminutive size (Figure 1). This has been designated as Solatium sp. Litchfield (l.D.Cowie 1428) (Short et al. 2011) . Collections of non-reproductive material of Solatium sp. Litchfield have been Litchfield Solanum Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 31 made by K.G. Brennan, I.D. Cowie, J.L. Egan, J.O. Westaway and others and accessioned at the Northern Territory Herbarium. In the absence of specimens with flowers and fruit, this study uses DNA sequence data to evaluate the phylogenetic position of Solatium sp. Litchfield and to assess whether it corresponds to a described taxon or represents a previously undescribed taxon. Figure 1. Adult non-reproductive specimen of Solatium sp. Litchfield I.D.Cowie 1428 on sandstone rockpile along east side of Florence Falls Rd., Litchfield National Park. (F.D. Vogt) 32 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Martine et a/. Methods Understanding the phylogenetic placement of Solatium sp. Litchfield requires twq steps: (1) obtaining DNA sequence data, and (2) appending the new DNA sequenced to available data from related species (Table 1). The two DNA regions selected fot- this study were the ITS (nuclear) and tmK-matK (chloroplast) regions, which Martine et al. (2009) used to estimate phylogenetic relationships among about 25 closely-related species of Solatium endemic to Australia. Table 1. Previously sequenced Australian dioecious species of Solatium (Martine et al 2009) used for comparison with new sequences generated for Solatium sp. Litchfield, including an undescribed species from the Kimberley coast (.S', sp. ‘Longmi’). The dataset consists of nine andromonoecious species from Australia included by Martine et al. (2009) in previous phylogenetic studies. Dioecious species Center of distribution GenBank S. asymmetriphyllum Kakadu EU983570 S. carduiforme Kimberley/NT EU983556 S. dioicum (typical) Kimberley EU983553 S. dioicum (Tanami Desert form) Kimberley EU983554 S. leopoldensis Kimberley EU983560 S. petraeum Kimberley EU983559 S. sejunctum Kakadu EU983568 S. tudununggae Kimberley EU983552 S. sp. 'Longini' Kimberley EU983561 Collections Field collections (Table 2) were made in May 2009 in Litchfield National Park, in localities suggested by staff botanists in the Northern Territory Herbarium. Voucher specimens were pressed for herbarium accessioning, while fresh leaf samples were placed in individually labeled envelopes partly filled with silica gel (to quickly preserve leaves to be used for later DNA extractions). DNA isolation and PCR amplifications: DNA was isolated from silica-dried leaf material using a modified standard protocol (Doyle & Doyle 1987). Each gene region was PCR-amplified using primers for the ITS region and tmK-matK region (Table 3) using the protocols described by Martine et al. (2006, 2009). Because of the large size of the tmK-matK target region, primers were used that would create overlapping fragments to be assembled into one large contiguous sequence. Presence of PCR product was confirmed on 1% agarose gel. Litchfield Solarium Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 33 Table 2. Collections of Solarium sp. Litchfield made during the 2009 expedition. All collections were made from within Litchfield National Park. GenBank accession # Collection no. Locality information DNA code ITS trnK-matK CTM 1751 Sandstone rockpiles along east side of Florence Falls Rd, 0.5 km N of junction with Litchfield Park Rd. 13°07.531'S, 130°48.140'E 01A JN098472 JN098476 CTM 1752 Near above 01B JN098473 JN098477 CTM 1753 Sandstone rockpiles in vicinity of The Lost City,’ 150-200 m SE of carpark. 13°13.137'S, 130°44.216’E 04A JN098474 JN098478 CTM 1754 Near above 04B JN098475 JN098479 CTM 1756 Sandstone rockpiles just south of junction of Litchfield Park Rd. and Florence Falls Rd. 13°07.664'S, 130°48.305'E N/A Table 3. Gene regions examined and associated primer sequences. Gene Region Primer Sequence ITS-4 TCCTCCGCTTATTGATATGC ITS-5 GGAAGT AAAAGT CGT AACAAGG 68F T CTTT CAGGAGT AT ATTTAT G 1556R CCTT GAT ACCT AACAT AAT GC Cycle sequencing Each PCR reaction was cleaned by adding 0.5 pL of a 1:5 dilution of ExoSAP-IT® (Affymetrix, Inc., Santa Clara, California, USA) to 1.0 pL of PCR product. Cycle sequencing was performed with the same sets of forward and reverse primers used in the PCR reactions using the method described by Martine et al. (2006). Raw DNA sequences were then recorded using an ABI Prism® 3100 automated sequencer (Applied Biosystcms, Foster City, California, USA). Sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis Editing of raw sequences was performed using 4Peaks software (Griekspoor & Groothuis 2005) for ITS and CodonCode Aligner, version 1.3.1 (CodonCode Corporation, Dedham, Massachusetts, USA) for tmK-matK. The two gene regions 34 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Martine et al. were combined to form a dataset of more than 2600 base pairs. A manual alignment was performed in MacClade (Maddison & Maddison 2005) and then exported into PAUP* (Swofford 2002) for phylogenetic analyses using Maximum Parsimony. Bootstrapping was performed with 500 replicates. Results The four accessions of Solatium sp. Litchfield included in the analysis form a well- supported (93% bootstrap) clade nested within the ‘Kimberley Dioecious’ clade (Martine et al. 2006), a group of several sub-arid and monsoonal dioecious spiny solanums closely allied with S. dioicum that occur throughout the Kimberley and sandstone country of the NT. The distinctness of Solatium sp. Litchfield was apparent even when each gene region was analyzed separately, but we have chosen to present the relationships based on the combined dataset (Figure 2) so as to remain consistent with the expanded treatment of Martine et al. (2009). Although the small range of Solatium sp. Litchfield is geographically close to Kakadu National Park, the taxon does not appear to be closely related to A. sejunctum and S. asymmetriphyllum , the two members of the dioecious ‘Kakadu clade’ as defined by Martine et al. (2006). Discussion Phylogenetic analysis using the ITS and tmK-matK gene regions supports the distinctness of the Solatium population from Litchfield National Park (Figure 2). This conclusion is based on the fact that the DNA sequences extracted from all four collections of Solatium sp. Litchfield are shown to be more similar to one another than any of them are to the related species of Solatium included in the analysis. The phytogeny presented in figure 2 clearly illustrates this, widi moderate level of support provided by bootstrap analysis. Our analysis using these two DNA regions, one nuclear and one chloroplast, provides further evidence that Solatium sp. Litchfield is closely allied to V. dioicum and other taxa from the Kimberley region. Although additional evidence may eventually validate Solatium sp. Litchfield to be a distinct species, the current lack of data regarding its reproductive structures allows only for its provisional recognition as a lineage within .S’. dioicum. Prior to our study, S. dioicum already was considered to include at least two divergent lineages, one of which (Solatium dioicum 1 anami Desert form) is known from the eastern Kimberley and is distinct in having broad, densely white-tomentous leaves and heavily armed stems and calyces. 1 he taxonomic disposition of lineages within .S', dioicum has been difficult to resohe because populations appear to intergrade morphologically (Symon 1980) and because sampling for recent molecular systematic studies has not been broad enough to capture the extent of variation within the complex. A complete taxonomic treatment of .S', dioicum (including Solatium sp. Litchfield) must address the disposition of Solatium dioicum 1 anami Desert form and other unresolved populations in order to maintain a cladistically consistent S. dioicum. Litchfield Solanum Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 35 "Kimberley Dioecious" 55 [ 1 . 00 ] [0.99] 50 89 63 Solanum dioicum Tanami' C044 - Solanum dioicum COM Solanum sp. 'Litchfield' 01A - Solanum sp. 'Litchfield' 04A ^ 93 ■ Solanum sp. Litchfield’ 01B w Solanum sp.'Litchfield'04B —I Solanum sp. ‘Longini' C077 Solanum ludununggae C034 88 c Solanum petraeum AU4 84 Solanum petraeum C007 - Solanum carduiforme C062 Solanum carduiforme AU10 - Solanum carduiforme 6219 "Kakadu n-ooi 100 -[ Solanum leopoldensis C022 U S"p Solanum sejunctum Cl 22 Solanum sejunctum C046 Solanum asymmetriphyllum C098 - Solanum oedipus C142 100 ij- Solar I- r 99 98 • Solanum heteropodium AU76 — Solanum melanospermum AU80 — Solanum clarkiae Cl 35 98 - Solanum chippendalei AU13 - Solanum diversiflorum AU7 - Solanum aculeastrum Cl 10 93 Solanum cinereum AU 14 Solanum stupe factum AU21 Solanum linneanum HER - Solanum hystrix AU 128 -10 changes Figure 2. One of a set of best Maximum Parsimony trees depicting the relationship of Solanum sp. Litchfield (four accessions) to other dioecious and andromonoecious Australian spiny solanums inferred from concatenated ITS and tmK-rnatK DNA regions. Numbers below branches are Bootstrap values (500 replicates). Bracketed support values at three key nodes are Bayesian posterior probabilities generated for the same groupings by Martine et al. (2009). 36 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Martine et at. Field observations of Solatium sp. Litchfield provided additional features that link it with .V. dioicum. The grey and woody stems of Solatium sp. Litchfield are sparsely armed (though more prickly toward the base), whereas the leaves lack armature entirely. The foliage bears a short, rusty-red tomentum and a general coloration that is light green and slightly red- or yellow-tinged. Individual plants reach a height of approximately 40 cm, with the largest stems growing to 4-5 mm in diameter. Prickles are straight, slim, and 2-3 mm long. Like many Australian congeners (Symon 1980), Solatium sp. Litchfield is associated with sandstone rockpiles, growing in low outcrops in sand between the rocks and boulders. Surveys of populations on and around rockpiles led to the observation that most rockpilc populations are at least partly clonal, with ramets connected via underground runners 10-12 cm below the surface. This is a habit common in S. diocum , .S', petraeum , and other similar members of the ‘Kimberley Dioecious’ clade (Symon 1980; Martine, pers. obs.). Much like these species. Solatium sp. Litchfield resprouts from runners following fire, with new post-fire growth being more vigorous and heavily armed in comparison to older growth (Martine & Vogt, pers. obs.). The three localities referenced here for Solatium sp. Litchfield are areas where controlled fires have been periodically set to avoid mass conflagrations, a management scheme that appears to benefit the species. Vigorous growth w-as witnessed where fires had recendy burned (localities near Litchfield Park Road, Table 2), whereas plants appeared to be declining in vigor in unburned sites around The Lost City. The close relationship of a dioecious Solatium from the Northern Territory to a group of species largely restricted to the Kimberley is interesting, but not a unique circumstance. Solatium carduiforme , also a member of the ‘Kimberley Dioecious’ clade (Figure 2), is currendy know-n from four widely disjunct localities running from the eastern Kimberley to western Queensland, including a single population recorded by Vf.R. Barker and C.T. Martine in 2004 at Keep River National Park, NT. A recent flora survey at Bullo River Station in the eastern Kimberley, NT, by staff at the Northern Territory Herbarium resulted in collections of specimens that closely resemble both S. carduiforme and Solatium sp. Litchfield (1. Cowie & ). Westaway, pers. comm.). If confirmed, these would represent significant new locations for each taxon. Although Solatium sp. Litchfield has been provisionally recognised as a distinct taxon by botanists at the Northern Territory Herbarium for some time, its taxonomic affinity and its reproductive biology have not previously been determined. A more complete understanding of Solatium sp. Litchfield and its potential designation as a new species await the collection and examination of adequate specimens, especially those with flowers and fruits. In addition, future work, including scanning electron microscope photography and greenhouse-crossing experiments, are needed to confirm that Solatium sp. Litchfield, like the other dioecious bush tomatoes, is functionally dioecious via the production of inaperturate pollen grains in Litchfield Solanum Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 37 morphologically hermaphrodite flowers. This work necessitates collection of fruits and seeds to be used in culturing the species. The most important work, however, will include a broad morphological and molecular survey of the taxonomically problematic Solanum dioicum species complex, of which Solanum sp. Litchfield is a member. This survey, currently underway, may provide the evidence required to describe Solanum sp. Litchfield as a distinct species. In the meantime, molecular recognition of Solanum sp. Litchfield provides evidence for its affinity to Solanum dioicum , broadens our understanding of the S. dioicum complex, and expands the known range of the 'Kimberley Dioecious' clade. Acknowledgements Thanks to lan Cowie, Donna Lewis, John Westaway and the rest of the staff of the Northern Territory Herbarium for providing advice on localities, access to the collection, arrangement of specimen shipping, and assistance in acquiring permits. For the latter, thanks are also owed to Trish Flores, Parks Australia. Critical field assistance was provided by Bill Figley, Robyn Tyson, and Melanie Dee. Funding was provided through a Presidential Research Grant from die State University of New York College at Plattsburgh awarded to CTM and FDV, as well as a Botanical Society of America Undergraduate Research Grant awarded to EML. Danielle Garneau and two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on the manuscript. References Anderson G.j. and Symon D.E. (1988) Insect foragers on Solanum flowers in Australia. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 75, 842-852. Anderson G.J. and Symon D.E. (1989) Functional dioecy and andromonoecy in Solanum. Evolution 43, 204-219. Bohs L., Martine C.T., Stern S. and Myers N.R. (2007) Phytogeny of the Old World clade of the spiny solanums ( Solanum subg. / jeptostemonum). Abstract. Botany and Plant Biology Joint Congress , Chicago, ILJuly 7-11. Brennan K., Martine C.T. and Symon D.E. (2006) Solanum sejunctum (Solanaceae), a new functionally dioecious species from Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia. The Beagle. Records of the Museums and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory 22,1-7. Doyle J.]. and Doyle J.L. (1987) A rapid DNA isolation procedure for small quantities of fresh leaf tissue. Phytochemical Bulletin 19,11-15. Griekspoor A. and Groothuis T. (2005) 4Peaks version 1.7. Computer program distributed by the authors, website http://mekentosi.com/4peaks . Levin R.A., Myers N.R. and Bohs L. (2006) Phylogenetic relationships among the ‘spiny solanums’ ( Solanum subgenus / jptos/emonum, Solanaceae). American Journal of Botany 93, 157- 169. Maddison D.R. and Maddison W.P. (2005) MacClade 4: Analysis of phylogeny and character evolution. Version 4.08. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts. 38 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Martine et al. Martine C.T., Vanderpool D., Anderson G.J. and Les D.H. (2006) Phylogenetic relationship of andromonoecious and dioecious Australian species of Solarium subgenus I Jptostemonunt section Melongenar. Inferences from ITS sequence data. Systematic Botany 31, 410-420. Martine C.T. and Anderson G.J. (2007) Dioecy, pollination and seed dispersal in Australian spiny Solarium. Acta Horticn/liirae 745, 269-285. Martine C.T., Anderson G.J. and Les D.H. (2009) Gender-bending aubergines: Molecular phylogenetics of cryptically dioecious Solarium in Australia. Australia Systematic Botany 22, 107-120. Martine C.T., Anderson G.J. and Scharf A. (2010) Solarium sejunctum is cryptically dioecious via the production of inaperturate pollen in morphologically hermaphrodite flowers. Abstract. Botany 2010, Providence, RI.Jul 31—Aug 1. Miller J.S. and Diggle P.K. (2003) Diversification of andromonoecy in Solanum section / Msiocarpa (Solanaceae): The roles of phenotypic plasticity and architecture. American Journal of Botany 90, 707-715. Short P.S., Albrecht D.E., Cowie I.D., I-cuts D.L. and Stuckey B.M. (2011) Checklist of the vascular plants of the Northern Territory. Northern Territory Herbarium, Department of Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport, Palmerston. Swofford D.L. (2002) PAUP m . Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (*and Other Methods). Version 4. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Mass. Symon D.E. (1980) A revision of genus Solanum in Australia, journal of the Adelaide Botanic Carden 4, 1-367. Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23: 39-44 Shallow water foraging using a shoreline boundary by the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin Sousa chinensis in northern Australia Scott D. Whiting Marine Biodiversity Group, Department of Natural Resources, Environment, the Arts and Sport, do Arafura Timor Research Facility, Casuarina, NT 0811, Australia. Present Address: Department of Environment and Conservation, 17 Dick Perry Av., Kensington, WA, 6151, Australia. Email: scott.whiting@dec.wa.gov.au Abstract Observations of two specialised feeding behaviours (strand-feeding and repetitive tail¬ slapping) by the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin Sousa chinensis during one feeding event in northern Australia are reported for the first time. These observations provide insights into the type of foraging habitats and niches of this shy coast dwelling species. The feeding behaviours are compared with similar behaviours of other toothed whales and dolphins. Introduction Several species of Odontocetes (toothed whales and dolphins) are known to feed in shallow water using a variety of behaviours (Hoese 1971; Lopez & Lopez 1985; Peddemors & Thompson,1994; Guinet & Bouvier 1995; Wells et al. 1999). For coastal dolphin species, the shoreline boundary' and shallow water can limit prey escape and reduce the need for large hunting groups and fast pursuits (Wells et al. 1999). Given the numerous species of Odontocetes throughout the world, the variety' of prey types and the vast range of shallow water habitats utilised, there is a surprisingly limited range of feeding behaviours described in the literature. This note reports three shallow water foraging behaviours (milling, strand-feeding and modified tail-slapping) (Connor et al. 2000; Mann & Sargeant 2003) used by the Indo-Pacific Humback Dolphin Sousa chinensis during one foraging event in northern Australia. These observations highlight the diversity of foraging behaviours used by this species, which is known to inhabit turbid coastal and estuary waters. 40 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Whiting Observations On 1st May 2007, while standing on the shore of Cape Van Diemen at Melville Island, Northern Territory (11°10’39”S, 130°22’22”E), I observed five Sousa cbinensis close to the western shoreline, a location which is sheltered from prevailing winds. Sighting conditions were good, sea conditions and the sea state was calm (Beaufort 0), and the water was relatively turbid. The observations were recorded one hour after low tide between 1030 h and 1050 h. Initially, all individuals were observed between 5 m and 15 m offshore, in water estimated to range in depth from 0.7 m to 2.0 m and displayed behaviour consistent with common fish chasing milling behaviour (Mann & Sargeant 2003; Para 2006). This behaviour involves individuals taking slow dives, then re-surfacing, followed by short bursts of speed and with all forays beginning and ending in different directions. After approximately five minutes of observation, two individuals on five occasions charged aggressively towards the shoreline, producing bow waves approximately 10 - 20 cm high. The dolphins did not swim together, but swam towards the shore in succession. Just before they reached the shore, they orientated themselves parallel to the shoreline creating a wave to wash up the sandy beach (Figure 1). On two of these occasions the dolphins were left partially stranded with more than half their bodies exposed. On these occasions, the individuals arched their bodies and angled their heads towards the shore presumably to search for beached prey. On the three other occasions the individuals swam into shallow water that restricted their ability to swim away easily. There did not appear to be any fish forced out of the water during any of these episodes. Figure 1. Indo-Pacific Humback Dolphin exhibiting strand-feeding behaviour. I ndo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 41 In contrast, a third dolphin displayed different behaviour; it swam slowly and perpendicular towards the shore and repeatedly raised its tail fluke out of the water and slapped it back on the surface of the water in quick succession, making an audible sound and surface splash (Figure 2). On one occasion five tail slaps were used in succession before the dolphin u-turned away from shore. The dorsal fin remained out of the water between aU five tail-slaps. All dolphins seemed unaware of, or oblivious to, my presence. Figure 2. Indo-Pacific Humback Dolphin tail-slapping behaviour. Discussion The three foraging behaviours reported here include: (1) milling, (2) beach or strand¬ feeding and (3) tail-slapping. Milling behaviour is characterised by irregular surface intervals and individuals continually change direction with each dive and breath (Mann & Sargeant 2003; Para 2006). Beach or strand-feeding and tail-slapping have not previously been reported for this species (Para 2006). The observed strand-feeding behaviour is similar to that described by Mann and Sargeant (2003) where bottlenose dolphins chase fish in shallow water and launch fully or partially out of the water to catch the fish. Strand-feeding has been recorded for Sousa plumbea in Mozambique whereby dolphins cooperatively or individually chase 42 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Whiting fish out of the water, onto mud banks and then beach themselves to capture the prey (Peddemors & Thompson 1994). Interestingly, the geographical ranges of Sousa plumhea and S. chinensis do not overlap and high genetic divergence occurs between the African populations of S. phmbea and the Australian populations of S. chinensis (Frere et al. 2008). This shallow water foraging behaviour has also been recorded for common bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus in Georgia (Hoese 1971) and South Carolina (Rigley 1983) and bottlenose dolphins Tursiops sp. in Western Australia (Sargeanr et al. 2005). However, S. chinensis at Cape Van Diemen did not display the full exposed beaching and capture of beached fish described by Sargeant et al. (2005). It is interesting that similar strand feeding behaviour has been recorded among the genera Orcinus (Guinet & Bouvier 1995), Sousa (Peddemors & Thompson, 1994) and Tursiops (Hoese 1971; Rigley, 1983). The tail-slapping behaviour observed at Cape Van Diemen differed from other tail-slapping behaviours such as the kerplunking behaviour described for botdenose dolphins Tursiops aduncus in Western Australia (Connor et al. 2000; Nowacek 2002). Kerplunking is a specialised behaviour that involves the body being almost vertical with the tail held fully out of the water and then pivoting before the tail is brought down on the surface of the water. During each tail-slap the tail is pushed down and forward into the water producing a cloud of bubbles that possibly aid in scaring or detecting fish in bottom grubbing or played a role a social function (Connor et al. 2000). The tail-slapping behaviour of S. chinensis at Cape Van Diemen is dissimilar to the percussion kerplunking recorded in Western Australia (Conner et al. 2000), but may be used for the same purpose of herding or scaring fish similar to the behaviour used by botdenose dolphins in Florida (Hamilton & Nishimoto 19^7). The sequential surface tail-slapping behaviour recorded at Cape Van Diemen is not listed as one of the foraging behaviours for S. chinensis (Nowacek 2002; Mann & Sargeant 2003; Karczmarski et al 2000; Parra 2006). There was no evidence of fish-whacking to stun prey with the tail fluke that has been observed in bottlenose dolphins and common dolphins (Wells et al 1999; Nowacek 2002; Neumann & Orams 2003). Both strand-feeding and tail-slapping behaviours would be appropriate to herd fish into the shallow water and against the shoreline boundary to increase prey density and catch efficiency as suggested by Heimlich-Boran (1988). These observations provide some insights into the range of foraging behaviours of this shy coastal dolphin. Acknowledgements These observations were made while conducting sea turtle research supported by the Tiwi Land Council and the Marine Biodiversity Group, NRETAS. I would like to acknowledge the contributions in the field by Jack I-ong and Kate Hadden from the Iiwi Land Council and by Anderson Lauder from Coastcare NT. Illustrations were by Jasmine Jan (www.jasminejan.com.au). This manuscript was improved by comments from Andrea VC hiting and those from the reviewers. Inrio-Pacific Humpback Dolphin Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 43 References Connor R.C., Heithaus M.R., Berggren P. and Miksis J.L. (2000) "Kerplunking": surface fluke- splashes during shallow-water bottom foraging by bottlenose dolphins. Marine Mammal Science 16, 646-653. I'rere C.H., Hale P.T., Porter L., Cockcroft V.G. and Dalcbout M.L. (2008) Phylogenetic analysis of mtDNA sequences suggests revision of humpback dolphin ( Sousa spp.) taxonomy is needed. Marine Freshwater Research 59, 259-268. Guinet C. and Bouvier J. (1995) Development of intentional stranding hunting techniques in killer whale ( Orcinns orca) calves at Crozel Archipelago. Canadian Journal of Zoology 73, 27-33. Hamilton P.D. and Nishimoto R.T. (1977) Dolphin predation on mullet. Florida Scientist 251-252. Heimlich-Boran J.R. (1988) Behaviour ecology of killer whales ( Orcinns orca ) in the Pacific northwest. Canadian Journal of Zoology 66, 565-578. Hoese H.D. (1971) Dolphin feeding out of water in a salt marsh. Journal of Mammalogy 52, 222-223. Karczmarski L., Cockcroft V.G. and McLachlin A. (2000) Habitat use and preferences of Indo- Pacific humpback dolphins Sousa chinensis in Algoa Bay, South Africa. Marine Mammal Science 16, 6-79. Lopez J.C. and Lopez D. (1985) Killer whales of Patogonia and their behavior on intentional stranding while hunting near shore. Journal of Mammalogy 66, 181-183. Mann, J. and Sargeant B. (2003) Like mother like calf: the ontongeny of foraging traditions in the wild Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops sp.). In The biology of t raditions: models and evidence (eds D.M. Fragaszy and S. Perry), pp. 237-266. Cambridge, New York. Neumann D.R. and Orams M. (2003) Feeding behaviour of short beaked common dolphins, De/phinus delphis , in New Zealand. Aquatic Mammals 29,137-149. Nowacek D.P. (2002) Sequential foraging behaviour of bottlenose dolphins, Tursops truncatus, in Sarasota Bay, FI. behaviour 139, 1125-1145. Parra G.J. (2006) Resource partitioning in sympatric delphinids: space use and habitat preferences of Australian snubfin and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins. Journal of Animal Ecology 75, 862-874. Peddemors V.M. and Thompson G. (1994) Beaching behaviour during shallow water feeding by humpback dolphins Sousap/umbea. Aquatic Mammals 20, 65-67. Rigley L. (1983) Dolphins feeding in a South Carolina salt marsh. Whalewatcbcr 1, 3-5. Sargeant B. L., Mann J., Berggren P. and Krutzen M. (2005) Specialization and development of beach hunting, a rare foraging behaviour, by wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.). Canadian Journal if Zoology 83,1400-1410. Wells R.S., Boness D.J. and Rathbun G.B. (1999) Behavior. In Biology of Marine Mammals (eds J.E. Reynolds and S.A. Rommel), pp. 324-422. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne. 44 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Whiting -% Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins (Sousa chinensis) in Shoal Bay, Darwin Harbour. Dates: October 2010 (above); October 2011 (below). (Carol Palmer) Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23: 45-53 New island records of Eucalyptus alba sensu lato for Damar and Romang, Lesser Sundas, Indonesia Colin R. Trainor School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0800, Australia. Email: halmahera@hotmail.com Abstract Eucalyptus alba sensu lato is currently distributed through northern Australia and Papua New Guinea, as well as the I-esser Sunda islands of Indonesia and Timor-Leste. In the Lesser Sundas the distribution of E. alba is poorly-known, but it has been recorded from the central islands of Flores, Solor, Adonara, Lembata, Pantar, Alor, Atauro Wetar and Timor. Here, I document the first E. alba records for two remote volcanic Lesser Sunda islands - Damar and Romang. I also note new E. alba records from the less isolated Lesser Sunda islands of Lirang, Leti and Moa. Further study of these populations is needed to clarify the relationships, taxonomic status and dispersal among members of the E. alba species complex. The occurrence of eucalypts growing naturally outside Australia is relatively poorly known. About 15 species grow outside Australia, and four species are known from Wallacea. On Sulawesi, the dominant oceanic island in the Wallacean realm, E. deglupta is a tall forest species. In die Lesser Sundas, three Eucalyptus species are currendy recognised. The Lesser Sundas comprises hundreds of oceanic islands in southern Wallacea (south of Sulawesi and Maluku) but is dominated by Lombok, Sumba and Sumbawa in the west and Flores, Alor, Timor, Wetar and the Tanimbar archipelago in the central and eastern parts (Figure 1). In the hills. Eucalyptus uropbylla occurs locally on Flores through to Wetar and Timor. The Wetar form of E. uropbylla was split into E. wetarensis (Pryor et al. 1995), but recent genetic work includes it within the E. uropbylla complex (Payn et at. 2007). On Timor’s highest peak. Mount Ramelau (2,963 m), E. orvpbila was collected and described as a new species (Pryor et al 1995). The third Lesser Sundas Eucalyptus species is E. alba sensu lato. This is typically a tree of drier lowland habitats where it displays a high degree of variability' in growth form, leaf and fruit morphology. It can grow as a woodland tree of 3-15 m or up to a tree of 50 m tall (Martin & Cossalter 1976). The taxonomy of the E. alba group both in Australia and Lesser Sunda Islands remains unclear and species recognition and identity have changed regularly (Blake 1953; Pryor et al. 1995; Sice et al. 2006). The current taxonomy of this group is largely based on the size of adult leaves, buds and fruit and needs further investigation, particularly by genetic comparison. Slee et al. (2006) note that in 46 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Trainor Australia, E. alba var. alba, E. bigalerita, E. platyphylla and E. tintinnans are all morphologically very similar and may be better treated as one variable taxon. However, they largely avoid discussing extra Australian variation. Interestingly, Indonesian taxonomists refer to Lesser Sunda populations of E. alba as E. platyphylla (Martin & Cossalter 1976). Samples of E. alba sensu lato from Timor with broad, deltoid leaves and large fruit would key out to E. bigalerita or E. platyphylla using Australian taxonomic keys, although they lack the orange bark of at least the former (I. Cowie pers. comm.). Blake (1953) included E. platyphylla and E. tintinnans in his concept of E. alba but recognised E. bigalerita. He gave Timor, Flores, Solor and southern New Guinea as the extra Australian distribution of E. alba based on specimens seen by him, and this is the broad distribution recognised in this note. From his discussion it is likely that the southern New Guinea material seen by him would currendy be placed in E. platyphylla (1. Cowie pers. comm.). The most comprehensive Lesser Sunda review of Eucalyptus was by Martin and Cossalter (1976). They described the distribution of E. alba as “most of the islands which lie between Bali and Wetar”, including Bali, while more recent information suggests that the western limit is the eastern tip of Flores about the active Lewotobi volcano (Trainor & Lesmana 2000). There are no records of Elucalyptus from Komodo, Sumbawa, Sumba or Lombok. Eucalypts are also absent from the continental island of Aru to the direct east of the Lesser Sundas (Hope & Aplin 2004), and from the extensive Tanimbar archipelago to the east of Damar (Monk et al. 1997). Payn et al. (2007) stated that E. alba co-occurs with E. urophylla on Timor, Wetar, Flores, Adonara, Lomblen (Lembata), Pantar and Alor, which is essentially the same set of islands mentioned by Martin and Cossalter (1976) (Figure 1). Martin and Cossalter (1976) stated that “the existence of E. alba is also probable on the islands to the east of Wetar, but as for the delimitation of the natural habitat of E. urophylla one here comes up against the lack of botanical knowledge of the region”. Incidentally, photos of an E. alba woodland on Atauro island (between Timor and Wetar) have been published (Trainor et al. 2007, p. 44) but there has been no specific survey for Eucalyptus in these islands. This article describes the presence of E. alba on Damar and Romang islands. Both are part of the Inner Banda Arc, lying c. 640 km northwest of Darwin, Australia, 195 km and 85 km northeast of Timor, respectively (Figure 1). Geology on both is dominated by recent volcanics, with raised coralline limestone along the coasts and inland. No weather stations exist locally on Damar, but rainfall on Romang Island averages at least 2,518 mm/year. Damar is a relatively high rainfall island, but the coasts are dry' (c. 1200-1600 mm/yr) and rainfall tends to increase with elevation (RePPProT 1989). Approximately 75% (c. 150 km 2 ) of the island retains closed-canopy tropical forests (projective foliage cover >70%: Specht et al. 1974), including dry forest near the coast with many deciduous trees (to 12—20 m tall), grading into semi-evergreen and evergreen forest further inland (to 40 m tall), above c. 60 m elevation (Trainor 2007). New records of Eucalyptus alba Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 47 00 o Figure 1. Location of Lesser Sunda islands mentioned in the text. 48 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Trainor Forest is used for conversion to smallholder agricultural plots, timber collection and moderately intensive hunting of pigs, and birds (Trainor 2007). 1 also briefly mention the occurrence of E. alba for a further six Lesser Sunda islands (Lirang, Kisar, Ix-ti, Moa, Lakor and Sermata: Figure 1). These islands are all less isolated from the potential Eucalyptus source islands of Timor and Wetar, but there has been no previously published information on the status of Fi. alba on them, as far as 1 am aware. I visited Damar Island for about 4 hrs on 19 August 2008 while en-route to Wetar Island from Saumlaki, Tanimbar archipelago. Observations from a small “perintis” ship of a distinctive vegetation formation on ridges behind Wulur village (the main village on the island with about 300 houses) appeared to be of Eucalyptus, so I investigated further and took photos of trees, leaves and fruit. During a previous visit in 2001 (Trainor 2007), I walked about 100 km over 30 days throughout most of Damar except the south coast, visited two offshore islets, but did not observe any Eucalyptus. Romang Island was visited for 14 days during October 2010, primarily to observe birds, with briefer visits to Kisar (9 days), Leti (6 days), Moa (sailed past only in 2001 and 2010), Lakor (docked at harbour twice and sailed past the coast in 2010) and Sermata (8 days) in Octobcr-November 2010. I sailed past Lirang Island, 2.9 km southwest of Wetar, in 2001 and on 9 November 2008. Damar Island On Damar, E. alba grew on ridges direedy behind Wulur village (Figure 2), with trees starting at about 30 m elevation up to at least 300 m on quite steep slopes. The trunk was upright and smooth with a yellow-orange colour, and grew to about 12 m (Figure 3). The leaves appeared small (they were not measured); they were alternate and ovate, the fruit were obconic, disk annular, rims slightly exserted, valves 4, exserted (Figure 4). Within-island variation in E. alba morphology and growth form is substantial (e.g. on Timor: Martin & Cossalter 1976). Compared to closely related species in northern Australia such as E. tintiuans and E. bigalerita the bark appears paler (I. Cowie pers. comm.). The series of about 10 photographs from 2008 of the hills behind Wulur show many small patches — some continuous for hundreds of metres at least - of E. alba up to about 1 ha in extent on ridges and steep slopes. In stark contrast to the landscape patterning of Eucalyptus on neighbouring islands (e.g. Timor, Wetar, Alor, Pantar and Lembata) there appears to be a very indistinct boundary between the E. alba and surrounding vegetation, which appears (from photos) to comprise a tropical dry forest with a dense canopy cover (probably degraded through the high proximity to village). No notes were made of the understorey beneath E. alba, but two photos show several tropical forest shrubs in full leaf during this mid-dry season period. The lack of a distinct £. alba — tropical forest boundary and presence of these shrubs, suggests that the E. alba woodland is being actively invaded by tropical forest Fire regimes are an important factor in maintaining closed forest - Eucalyptus boundaries in tropical New records of Eucalyptus alba Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 49 Figure 2. Location of the readily visible patches of Eucalyptus alba woodland on steep ridges (indicated by arrows) above Wulur village, Damar island. The square shows the approximate location of the tree visited. The view is about 500 m wide and looks towards the southwest. Figure 3. A Eucalyptus alba tree direcdy above Wulur village, Damar Island (about 50 m from the nearest house). Note yellow-orange trunk and the dense understorey of broadleaf shrubs and some weeds. 50 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Trainor and other parts of Australia and may also be important in the Lesser Sundas. The lack of contrast with neighbouring tropical forest and indication that the E. alba woodland is being invaded by tropical forest makes it difficult to identify' or discriminate the E. alba woodland from a distance, and therefore it is likely to be overlooked. Conceivably, there could be many square km of E. alba on Damar, but the photos show an area of at least 5-10 ha over about 1% of the available ridges on the island. The photos show small patches of swidden had been cut and burnt, which appears to have been done in both the tropical forest and also in the E. alba woodland. Apart from the swidden, there was no evidence of fire, though 1 did not enter the middle of E. alba patches. Figure 4. Leaves and fruit of E. alba above Wulur, Damar Island. Romang Island On Romang Island, E. alba grew on volcanic platforms above beach (Figure 5a), on ridges of moderate slopes similar to Damar (Figure 5b), and on inland plateaux in a complex mosaic with regenerating gardens and secondary forest. In this latter situation the small patches of Eucalyptus appeared to have not been converted to swidden agriculture because they occurred on rocky terrain (limestone) with heavy soils that are probably marginal for agriculture. Leaf shape of E.alba on Romang was ovate (Figure 6). Eucalyptus is not listed for Romang Island by one of the few reports on trees covering the Banda Sea islands (Hilderbrand 1951) Other Islands The Outer Arc islands of Kisar, Leti, Moa, Lakor and Sermata are primarily low, dry limestone islands which provide a striking contrast to Damar and Romang. Kisar lies 25 km north of Timor and is dominated by lontar palm Borassus flabellifer savanna but E. alba was absent. On Leti, 38 km east of Timor, E. alba was a dominant tree in the lowlands (Figure 5), though is heavily used for firewood. On Moa, E. alba was visible New records of Eucalyptus alba Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 51 on a photo (slide) taken while sailing past the island in 2001 - but during the recent visit I travelled past the island at night only. The steep and dry' slopes of Lirang Island, of the Inner Banda Arc, were dominated by E. alba with tropical forest in gullies and higher slopes above extensive mangroves (Figure 5d). No Eucalyptus was observed on the flat coralline island of Lakor (directly east of Moa), or on Sermata (a wetter limestone island). Formerly, E. alba in the Lesser Sundas was known from eight islands, with a further five islands added here. Genetic diversity of E. urophylla was shown to decline from east towards the west which gave clues to the colonisation history of that tree Figure 5. Island landscape views of Eucalyptus alba : (a) E. alba (to 10 m tall) in a typically narrow band backed by tropical forest above rocky volcanic cliffs on Romang; (b) Extensive patches of E. alba forest (to 25 m tall) on Romang with a grassy understorey on ridges and slopes, with adjacent slopes and gullies dominated by evergreen tropical forest - note dense canopy cover; (c) E. alba (to 15 m tall) dominates the steeper hills behind a village on Leti, with tropical forest in gullies and higher slopes, but much of the coastal strip has been converted to coconut plantation; (d) Sparse stands of E. alba (to 10 m tall) dominates the steep lower slopes and ridges on Lirang Island, late dry' season. 52 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Trainor in the Lesser Sundas (Payn et al. 2007). For E. urophylla, Payn et al. (2007) suggested that long distance island colonisation events were probably assisted by sea currents. An investigation of the genetics of both remote (Damar and Romang) and less remote island populations of E. alba might also provide interesting insights into the colonisation history and taxonomic status of this eucalypt on islands just off continental Australia. Acknowledgements The visit to Damar, Wetar and Lirang was supported by Jon Walker of Columbidae Conservation, and my Romang visit was given logistical and transport support by P. T. Gemala Borneo Utama. Don Franklin gave helpful guidance and comments during the preparation of this note. Thanks to Ian Cowie for reviewing this article, providing references and additional information on the E. alba complex. Figure 6. The ovate leaf form of E. alba on Romang island, with a White - shouldered Triller \jtlage sueurii (Romang form), a common component of open habitats on the island. New records of Eucalyptus alba Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 53 References Blake, S.T. (1953) Botanical contributions of the Northern Australia Regional Survey. I. Studies on northern Australian species of Eucalyptus. Australian journal of botany 1, 185-352. Hilderbrand, F. H (1951) last of Tree species, collected in the South Alo/ucas. Report of die Forest Research Institute No. 49, Bogor (Buitenzorg). Hope, G. and Aplin, K. (2005) Environmental change in the Aru Islands. In The Archaeology of the Aru Islands, Eastern Indonesia (ed. by S. O’Connor, M. Spriggs & P. Veth), pp. 25-40. ANl! Epress, Canberra. Martin, B. and Cossalter, C. (1976) The Eucalyptuses of the Sunda Isles. New Zealand Forest Service, Wellington, New Zealand. Monk, K.A., De Fretes, Y. and Reksodiharjo-Lilley, G. (1997) The Ecology ofNusa Tenggara and Maluku Periplus Editions, Singapore. Payn, K.G., Dvorak, W.S. and Myburg, A.A. (2007) Chloroplast DNA phylogeography reveals the island colonisation route of E.ucalyptus uropbylla (Myrtaceae). Australian journal of Botany 55, 673-683 Pryor, L.D., Williams, E.R. and Gunn, B.V. (1995) A morphometric analysis of Eucalyptus uropbylla and related taxa with descriptions of two new species. Australian Systematic Botany 8, 57-70. Regional Physical Planning Project for Transmigration [RePPProT|. (1989) Review of Phase 1 Results Maluku andNusa Tenggara. Departemen Transmigrasi, Jakarta. Slee, A. V., Brooker, M.l.H, Duffy, S.M, and West, J.G. (2006). EUCIJD Eucajypts of Australia, Third Edition. CSIRO, Canberra. Specht R.L., Roe E.M. and Broughton V.H.E. (1974). Conservation of major plant communities in Australia and Papua New Guinea. Australian journal of Botany Supplement, 7. Trainor, C.R. (2007) Birds of Damar Island, Banda Sea, Indonesia. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Chib 127, 8-28. Trainor, C., and Lesmana, D. (2000). Exploding volcanoes, unique birds, gigantic rats and elegant ikat: identifying sites of international conservation significance on Flores, East Nusa Tenggara. BirdLife International/PKA/WWF, Bogor, Indonesia. Trainor, C.R., Santana, F., Rudyanto, Xavier, A.F., Pinto, P. and De Oliviera, G.F. (2007) Important Bird Areas in Timor-Leste, key sites for conservation, (ed. by M.J. Crosby). BirdLife International, Oxford. Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23: 54-58 Short-tailed Shearwater Ardenna tenuirostris in the Northern Territory Peter M. Kyne 1 and Micha V. Jackson 2 1 Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0909, Australia. Email: peter.kyne@cdu.edu.au 2 North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0909, Australia. Abstract The Short-tailed Shearwater Ardenna tenuirostris is a trans-equatorial migrant seabird that breeds in the austral summer in southern Australia (principally in Tasmania and Victoria, with smaller numbers breeding in New South Wales, South Australia and southern Western Australia) (Marchant & Higgins 1990). Post-breeding, the species migrates to the north Pacific where non-breeding colonies stay during the months of May—September (Marchant & Higgins 1990). This is Australia’s most abundant seabird, population estimate 13.1—16.5 million breeding pairs (Ross et al. 1996), and can be seen in considerable numbers off eastern and southern Australia during migration and the breeding season. Migrating birds arc regularly recorded from Tasmania to south-eastern Queensland (Marchant & Higgins 1990), but do not generally occur in tropical northern Australian waters. We report the first confirmed record of Short-tailed Shearwater in the Northern Territory, and one of the few tropical Australian records of the species. Between approximately 1820 and 1845 on 14 January 2011, a Short-tailed Shearwater was observed and photographed from Stokes Hill Wharf, Darwin Harbour, Darwin, Northern Territory (12°28T6”S, 130°50’54”E) (Figure 1) by the authors and three other local birdwatchers. The bird was initially sighted on the water, where it remained for the majority' of the observation period. It took flight only once, over a short distance (approximately 20 m). At times the bird was very' close to the wharf and was observed and photographed from above. It stretched its wings once, allowing views of the underwing. The remiges and rectrices were noted to be worn. Towards the end of the observation period it slowly swam/drifted in a south-easterly direction into Darwin Harbour and was out of sight by approximately 1845 h. Visits to the same location on the evenings of 15 and 16 January' 2011 could not relocate the bird. Stokes Hill Wharf consists of an old shipping shed that has been converted into a series of food outlets and outdoor eating areas and is a popular dining location, particularly on weekends. A number of birds, in particular Silver Gulls Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae and Crested Terns Tbalasseus bergii, arc attracted to the wharf, as diners Short-tailed Shearwater Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 55 Figure 1 . Short-tailed Shearwater Ardenna tennirostris , Stokes Mill Wharf, Darwin Harbour, 14 January 2011. Note the darkish legs and feet and the short, rounded tail with the wing projecting beyond the tail in the top photo, and the pale underwing in the bottom photo. (Micha V. Jackson) 56 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Kyne & Jackson often distribute their leftover food (primarily hot potato chips and deep-fried seafood) to birds. The Short-tailed Shearwater was observed on a Friday evening when a large crowd of diners was present, and food was being made available to birds regularly. In addition to Silver Gulls and Crested Terns, two Common Terns Sterna hirundo and six Bridled Terns Onychoprion anaethetus were also present during the observation period; the Short-tailed Shearwater appeared to be actively feeding on the water’s surface amongst these other species. One juvenile Ixsser Frigatebird Fregata arid was also flying low overhead. The bird was identified as a Short-tailed Shearwater by its overall brownish plumage with a paler grey underwing panel and pale chin and throat; short, rounded tail; darkish legs and feet; rounded head profile; and relatively short, stubby bill (Marchant & Higgins 1990; Onley & Scofield 2007; Shirihai 2007) (Figure 1). Features separating it from the Wedge-tailed Shearwater Ardetma paafica include the darkish legs and feet (fleshy-white to pale pink in Wedge-tailed Shearwater), pale grey underwing panel (all dark in Wedge-tailed Shearwater), short, rounded tail (long and wedge-shaped in Wedge-tailed Shearwater), and shorter bill (Marchant & Higgins 1990; Onley & Scofield 2007). Furthermore, on the water, the primary projection extended noticeably beyond the tail (Figure 1). Short-tailed Shearwaters are also bulkier with narrower, straighter wings than Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (Marchant & Higgins 1990; Onley & Scofield 2007). Features separating this bird from the Sooty Shearwater A. grisea include the less extensive and pale greyish underwing panels (typically more extensive silvery-white underwing panels in Sooty Shearwater), the more rounded head and higher forehead (rather than the flat-headed appearance of Sooty Shearwater), and the shorter, stubbier bill (Onley & Scofield 2007; Shirihai 2007). There are few confirmed tropical Australian records of Short-tailed Shearwaters, and none from the Northern Territory (Marchant & Higgins 1990; Barrett et al. 2003). The species is a vagrant to northeast Queensland, with records north to Cairns (16°55’S, 145°46’E) (Baker & Gill 1974; Longmore 1985; Marchant & Higgins 1990), and one record from north of Lockhart River on Cape York Peninsula (~12°40’S, 143°24’E) (Barrett et al. 2003). In northwest Western Australia, there is a single record of a beach-washed bird on Cable Beach in Broome (17°55’S, 122°12’E) (Hassell 1999) and sightings of four birds at sea in Joseph Bonaparte Gulf (C. Hassell, pers. comm,), The Darwin observation represents the first confirmed record of the species for the Northern Territory'. However, Noske and Brennan (2002) reported two probable Short-tailed Shearwaters from Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory' sector of the Gulf of Carpentaria. These birds were located on Six Mile Beach, Groote Eylandt (13°56’S, 136°47’E) on 8 May 1999; one bird was dead but the specimen was not retained, while the other bird was rehabilitated and released on 13 May 1999 (Noske & Brennan 2002). Noske and Brennan (2002) present a photograph of the rehabilitated bird, and comment that ‘... its large size, short tail, dark legs and short, dark bill ...’ suggest Short-tailed Shearwater. Although likely to represent records of Short-tailed Shearwaters, the lack of additional photographs, descriptions Short-tailed Shearwater Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 57 and measurements, and the disposal of the dead specimen, preclude certain identification. The only other all-dark shearwater to have been previously recorded in the Northern Territory is the Wedge-tailed Shearwater, a tropical species that has been documented on several occasions in coastal waters around Darwin during monsoonal storm events in the months of January and February (McKean & Gray 1973; McKean et al. 1975; Thompson 1977). Similarly, many of the records of Short-tailed Shearwater from northern Australia (Baker & Gill 1974; Longmore 1985; Hassell 1999; C. Hassell, pers. comm.; this manuscript) have been associated with intense tropical weather systems. The northwest Australian Short-tailed Shearwater record and sightings coincided with weather associated with tropical cyclones, with die record of the Broome bird in December and the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf sightings in February (Hassell 1999; C. Hassell, pers. comm.). Consistent with these observations, the Darwin Short-tailed Shearwater record occurred during a period of monsoonal storms with strong onshore winds. These conditions had pushed several infrequendy-occurring seabirds into Da ruin Harbour, including large numbers of Lesser Frigatebirds and moderate numbers of Bridled Terns (pers. obs.). These weather conditions commenced on 11 January 2011 and had dissipated by 15 January 2011. Even though the Short-tailed Shearwater is primarily a migratory species of the Pacific Ocean, there has been suggestion of regular movements to the northern Indian Ocean, although diese remain poorly understood (Marchant & Higgins 1990; Hassell 1999). The sighting of the Darwin individual in January, which is outside the usual migration period for the species, suggests that this individual probably was not undertaking a normal seasonal movement to the northern Indian Ocean. Given the abundance of this species and its highly migratory nature, it is not surprising that it should occur, on occasion, outside its normal distribution. Acknowledgements We thank Darryel Binns and Arthur and Sheryl Keates, who first located the bird, for their initial observations, discussions and comments on the manuscript; Mike Carter, Rohan Clarke, Jeff Davies, Daniel Mantle and Paul Walbridge for identification assistance and discussions about dark shearwaters; Daniel Mantle for comments on the manuscript; Adrian Boyle and Chris Hassell for information on the northwest Australian records; and, Tim Dolby for information on north Queensland records. 58 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Kyne & Jackson References Baker G.B. and Gill H.B. (1974) Short-tailed Shearwater from north Queensland. Sunbird 5, 69. Barrett G., Silcocks A., Barry S., Cunningham R. and Poulter R. (2003) The New Atlas of Australian Birds. Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, Hawthorn East. Hassell C. (1999) Short-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus tenuirostris ): new for Broome. Western Australian Bird Notes 91,19. Longmore N.W. (1985) Two new records of the Short-tailed Shearwater from north Queensland. Sunbird 15, 84-85. Marchant S. and Higgins P.J. (eds) (1990) Handbook, of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 1: Ratites to Ducks. Oxford University Press, Melbourne. McKean J.L and Gray D. (1973) Unusual seabird records from the Northern Territory’. Emu 73, 184. McKean J.L., Bartlett M.C. and Perrins C.M. (1975) New records from the Northern Territory. Australian Bird Watcher 6, 45-46. Noske R.A. and Brennan G.P. (2002) The Birds of Groote Eylandt. NTU Press, Darwin. Onley D. and Scofield P. (2007) Albatrosses, Petrels and Shearwaters of the World. Princeton University Press, Princeton. Ross G.J.B., Weaver K. and Greig J.C. (eds) (1996) The Status of Australia's Seabirds: Proceedings of the National Seabird Workshop, Canberra, 1-2 November 1993. Biodiversity Group, Environment Australia, Canberra. Shirihai H. (2007) A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife. The Birds and Marine Mammals of the Antarctic Continent and the Southern Ocean. Second Edition. A & C Black, London. Thompson H.A.P. (1977) Notes on birds in the Darwin and northern areas of the Northern Territory. Sunbird 8, 83-91. Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23: 59-62 Waiting for the wet: out-of-season records for adult Leichhardt's Grasshopper Petasida ephippigera (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae) Peter Holbery GPO Box 929, Darwin NT 0801, Australia. Email: peter.holbery@immi.gov.au Abstract A number of adult Leichhardt's Grasshopper Petasida ephippigera White, 1845, were recorded in July, about two months earlier in the year than they are usually observed. This early adult phenology may have been the result of unusually high rainfall experienced during the preceding wet season. It was also noted that all developmental stages of Leichhardt's Grasshoppers were more often found on less vigorous shrubs of their food plants, Pityrodia spp. Introduction The brightly-coloured Leichhardt's Grasshopper Petasida ephippigera (Figure 1) is a striking insect of the Top End, though few people have actually seen it in the wild. The species occurs in scattered localities north of 16°S in western and northern Arnhem Land and in the eastern Kimberley-western Victoria River District (Calaby & Key 1973; Lowe 1995; Wilson et al. 2003). Leichhardt's Grasshopper usually lives in close association with various species of Pityrodia (Lamiaccac) that comprise its main food plants, but it has also been found in association with Gardenia (Rubiaceae) and Dampiera (Goodeniaceae) (Key 1985). Available information on the life cycle of Leichhardt’s Grasshopper indicates that eggs hatch early in the dry season and adults mature by the onset of the wet season (Key 1985). Juveniles have been recorded from May to November, while adults have been recorded from September to April. Observations During the past three years (2009-2011) intermittent observations were made along the Barrk Walking Track at Nourlangie Rock in Kakadu National Park. Leichhardt's Grasshoppers were found at three sites along this track on the sandstone plateau. At the first site, the only observation was of a single adult female in January 2009, although the site contained an extensive patch of Pityrodiajamesii. 60 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Holbery Figure 1. The brightly-coloured Leichhardt's Grasshopper Petasida ephippigera on its food plant Pi/yrodiajamesii. (M.F. Braby) At the second site, only a single juvenile was sighted, in July 2011. This individual was an early instar nymph that was located on P. jamesii. Only a few of these food plants were present at the second site, and all were small in stature. At the third site, Leichhardt's Grasshoppers were observed on every visit, except for one occasion in June 2009. Nymphs were usually present in the dry season, while adults were recorded mainly in the wet season (Decembcr-April); however, during the ‘build-up’ both juveniles and adults were present. The third site had an abundance of large P. jamesii , but Leichhardt's Grasshoppers were never found on these plants. Instead, they were always found on a smaller and apparently different species of Pityrodia, most likely P. puherula (P. Barrow & D. Franklin, pers. comm.). During june Leichhardt’s Grasshopper Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 61 2009, all the P. puberula plants at this site were withered and appeared dead, although they recovered later in the season. However, a number of juveniles and some adults were present at the third site when I visited the area during the ‘build-up’ in October 2009, indicating remarkable resilience to poor food quality. During a visit to the third site on 31 July 2011, numbers of Leichhardt's Grasshoppers were observed. Most of these grasshoppers comprised early instar nymphs, but surprisingly four adults were present. An adult female and an adult male were on two separate shrubs and a pair was on a third shrub. Each adult was perched on a separate twig of Pityrodia puberula. All individuals were in perfect condition, and absence of missing limbs or wing damage suggested that they had moulted recendy. On 1 August 2011, observations were made at a fourth site in Kakadu National Park, along a road about 3 km from Gubara Pools, to ascertain whether any adult Leichhardt's Grasshoppers were present. This site is some distance from Nourlangie Rock and only P. jamesti was found there. Large numbers of early instar nymphs were present, as well as two individuals that were more developed. Based on the photographs in Rentz et al. (2003), one of the large nymphs appeared to be in the third instar, while the second one appeared to be in the fourth instar. No adults were present at this site. Discussion Leichhardt's Grasshoppers were usually observed on smaller and less healthy-looking specimens of their Pityrodia spp. food plants. Vigorously-growing food plants appeared to be avoided. Wilson et al. (2003) made similar observations of Leichhardt's Grasshopper nymphs at Nitmiluk National Park. These findings parallel my own unpublished observations of another grasshopper in the same family, the Southern Pyrgomorph Monistria concinna in southern coastal New South Wales. This species was usually found on smaller, unhealthy-looking specimens of its food plant, Westringia fruticosa. The Southern Pyrgomorph has been shown to be distasteful to predators (Groeters & Strong 1993). The insects may be deriving something particular from these smaller, unhealthy-looking plants, or these plants may be more palatable to the insects. It would indeed be interesting to investigate this aspect of food plant preference for related Northern Territory species, such as the Torpedo Grasshopper Parastria reticulata , the Painted Pyrgomorph Greyacris picta and the Blistered Pyrgomorph M. pustulifera, as well as for Leichhardt’s Grasshopper. The occurrence of adult Leichhardt's Grasshoppers in July appears to be quite unusual given previous records of the species. The early adult phenology' may have been related to the preceding La Nina-induced wet season, during which rainfall was well above average. Jabiru is the nearest location to Nourlangie Rock for which rainfall figures are readily available. These data give an indication of the magnitude of 62 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Holbery the 2010-2011 wet season in the Top End. The Bureau of Meteorology (2011a) gives a long term annual rainfall average of 1,589.40 mm for jabiru. Rainfall in Jabiru during the most recent wet season (October 2010-April 2011) was 2,422.60 mm (Bureau of Meteorology 2011b). In other words, rainfall during these seven months at Jabiru exceeded die average annual amount by 833.2 mm. Above-average rainfall and the pronounced wet season may have resulted in a longer growing season for Leichhardt’s Grasshopper food plants. This in turn may have resulted in better quality' nutrition for the insects, enabling them to mature earlier than usual. The food plants at the third site were certainly in better condition in July 2011 than they were in June 2009, when the plants were withered and appeared dead. Thus, better food quality’ in 2011 probably allowed adults to mature as early as July, unlike in other years when adults do not normally appear until September or later. Acknowledgements I thank Don Franklin for his encouragement and invaluable assistance, and Piers Barrow for providing information on the food plants. References Bureau of Meteorology (2011a) Climate statistics for Australian locations. Jabiru Airport. http://u-ww.bom.gov.au/climate/av erages/tab les/cw 014198.shtml (accessed 2 August 2011 ). Bureau of Meteorology (2011b) Jabiru, ’Northern T erritory October 2010 to April 2011 Daily Weather Observations, hup://www.bom.gov.au/climate/dwo/201010/html/IDCIDW8022.201010s html (accessed 2 August 2011). Calaby J.H. and Key K.H.L. (1973) Rediscovery of the spectacular Australian grasshopper Petasirla ephippigera White (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae). Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 12, 161-164. Groeters F.R. and Strong K.L. (1993) Observations on distastefulness of Monistria concinna (Walker) (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae). Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 32, 153-154. Key K.H.L. (1985) Monograph of the Monistriini and Petasidini (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae). Australian Journal of Zoology Supplementary Series 107,1-213. Lowe L. (1995) Preliminary investigations of the biology- and management of Leichhardt’s grasshopper, Petasuia ephippigera White. Journal of Orthoptera Research 4, 219-221. Rentz D.C.F., l^ewis R.C., Su Y.N. and Upton M.S. (2003) Guide to Australian Grasshoppers and I /jcusts. Natural History Publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu. Wilson C.G., Barrow P.H. and Michcll C.R. (2003) New Locations and host plants for Leichhardt's Grasshopper Petasida ephippigera White (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae) in the Northern Territory. Australian Entomologist SO, 167-176. Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23: 63-64 Book Review Stray Feathers: Reflections on the Structure, Behaviour and Evolution of Birds By Penny Olsen and Leo Joseph. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood. 2011; 286 pp; paperback. ISBN: 9780643094932. Price A$59.95. Richard Schodde introduces this book by stating that knowledge of the what and the where of Australia’s birdlife abounds, but we know very little about the how. how they move, feed and have evolved their life forms. ‘Stray Feathers’ focuses on the how, and it was this approach that endced me to buy a copy. This book’s genesis is based on illustrations intended for another book that never eventuated. The current authors have opportunistically written short essays to accompany these illustrations and discuss some interesting adaptations of Australia’s bird species. The book is organised by theme, such as Anatomy and Physiology, The Senses, Giving Voice, Plumage, Getting Around, Finding and Handling Food, Using ‘Tools’, Communicating, Courtship, Nests and Parental Care, with about 3-10 short sections in each. Each section is one or two pages long, including beautiful black and white line drawings, and uses one species (or closely related species) to illustrate a behaviour or adaptation. There is no index or even an alphabetical list of the names of the species included in the book. The authors obviously know their subject matter vert' well, and have done a good job of amassing information on a large range of species, including many lesser known ones. It would be almost impossible not to present lots of fascinating information in a book about evolutionary' adaptations in birds, and this is certainly the case for ‘Stray Feathers’. Here is a sample of what I found most interesting: • The complexity of a bird’s jaw and bill, which allows precise manipulations of their food. • Birds process heavy food quickly to minimise weight during flight (e.g. the average passage times in fruit eaters are 15 to 60 minutes). Birds have evolved mechanisms to remove water from food about 10 times faster than mammals on similar diets. • I lave you ever wondered how such small birds can make such loud calls? In birds, sounds are made using nearly all the air passing through the respiratory system, compared with humans, who use only about 2% of inhaled air to speak. • Parrots have relatively simple vocal organs, and their talking ability stems from their versatile spoon-shaped tongue. 64 Northern Territory Naturalist (2011) 23 Prior • Treecreepers climb trees from bottom to top, while sitellas spiral head-first from top to bottom. Both have the anatomical adaptations appropriate to their way of moving. • The wedge-tailed eagle weighs only 3-4 kg, yet its grip is 10 times more powerful than that of the human hand. • Most Territorian naturalists would have heard about black kites using fire to help with their hunting. However, they may not know that kites have also been observed to drop bread scraps into a river to attract fish to the surface. • Boobies don’t have a brood patch (a highly vascularised, bare-skinned patch that transfers heat from parent to egg), but instead curl their large, fleshy feet over their eggs to keep them warm. • Australian swiflet parents often lay a second egg after the first egg is hatched. The first chick incubates this second egg, even developing a brood patch. No other bird is known to use such a strategy, one that seems very sensible to me! The authors say that the book “is intended as a ‘taster’ for bird lovers or students who wish to gain some insight beyond a simple enjoyment of birds”, but the style sits uneasily between the technical and the popular. Thus, while the concept is inherendy appealing to popular audience, the style is often turgid and academic, and full of difficult technical terms that only an expert would understand. For example, the first sentence in the piece ‘Swimming on land: Short-tailed Shearwater’ is: “On the ground most procellariids shuffle along on their tarsi (legs).” A lay reader is just left to assume that the procellariids include shearwaters - but what else? It then says that shearwaters have “backwardly placed legs” - what are these exacdy? It does not explain, and again I was left feeling vaguely unsatisfied. There are numerous instances where an idea is inadequately explained, and the illustrations, while lovely, could do with more detailed captions to help explain the point the text is trying to make. In addition, unless you are very familiar with Australian bird species, you wall probably want to read this book together with your favourite bird ID book, so you can get some more general background about each species - especially simple distribution maps. The lack of an index is a serious drawback if you want to use it as a reference book. Most of all, this book would have greatly benefitted from an editor experienced in communicating science, which would have boosted its appeal to a general audience. Overall, I was a little disappointed in this book. While there is much to commend it, it is not as good as it could be. The wonderful adaptations of birds deserve to be communicated in a more engaging way to the general public. Lynda Prior School of Plant Science, University of Tasmania Email: lynda.prior@utas.edu.au Advice to authors The Northern Territory Naturalist publishes works concerning any aspect of the natural history and ecology of the Northern Territory or adjacent areas of northern Australia. It is a registered, peer-reviewed journal (ISSN 0155-4093) for original research. Contributors include a range of field naturalists and scientists who do not have to be members of the Northern Territory Field Naturalists Club Inc. (NTFNC). Submission of manuscripts Manuscripts are considered on the understanding that the content has not been published, ac¬ cepted or submitted for publicadon elsewhere, and that all authors agree to its submission. All manuscripts are refereed. The editors reserve the right to require modification of manuscripts to eliminate ambiguity and repetition and improve communication. There are no page charges. The editors welcome suggestions for colour plates, which may be included at no charge at the Club’s discretion provided the material contributes substantially to the manuscript and enhances the journal. The NTFNC retains copyright to all published manuscripts, while granting an unre¬ stricted licence for non-commercial use by authors. A PDF copy of the published manuscript will be provided to the primary author. Authors may submit material in the form of Reviews, Research Articles, Short Notes, Species Profiles or Book Reviews. Reviews (up to 10 000 words) generally emphasise the synthesis of existing (published) data or knowledge rather than presenting new primary data or results. The choice and number of subheadings is optional, but an abstract must be included. A Research Article (up to c. 5000 words, though longer papers will be considered at the discretion of the editors) is a succinct scientific paper describing the findings of original research written in the traditional format, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, acknowl¬ edgements and references. Short Notes (up to c. 1500 words) will be considered where the contribution significantly increases current knowledge of natural history, such as describing new or unusual field observations, or summarising survey methods. Subheadings are not required; an abstract is desirable though not essential. A Species Profile consists of a short overview of a particular animal or plant. Abstract and other subheadings are not required, but figures (e.g. distribution map) and other illustrative material are welcome. Book Reviews (up to c. 1000 words) of natural history works (books or CDs) of major importance to the NT or northern Australia are encouraged. Reviews, Research Articles, Short Notes, Species Profiles and Book Reviews should be intel¬ ligible to readers without specialist knowledge of the subject. Authors should consult the most recent edition of the journal as a guide to layout, including headings, table format, and references. For more detailed instructions on preparation of manu¬ scripts please refer to the guidelines for authors on the NTFNC web site: http://sites.google.com/ site / ntficldnaturalists / journal . Manuscripts should be sent to: The Editors, Northern Territory Naturalist , c/o NT Field Natural¬ ists Club Inc., PO Box 39565, Winnellie NT 0821, or email: michael.braby@nt.gov.au. Land snails as bioindicators Butterfly counts at Casuarina Genetics of Litchfield Solanum Dolphin foraging Eucalypts in the Lesser Sunda Islands Plus shearwaters, grasshoppers and book review 38533 uniprimNT12.il N