Bulletin

\ ( Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club Inc.

Iffj BULLETIN

\ / Editor: Annie Rushton bul.editor@tasfieldnats.org.au

Quarterly Bulletin No 343 July 2011

The Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club encourages the study of natural history and supports conservation.
People of any age and background are welcome as members.

For more information, visit website http://www.tasfieldnats.org.au/: email info@tasfieldnats.org.au ;
write to GPO Box 68, Hobart, 7001; or phone our secretary on mobile 0418 942 781.

We welcome articles and interesting photos for the Bulletin. If you would like to contribute to the next
edition, please email the editor with your article or photos.

Program.1

Coningham Foreshore Track-10 th April 2011.2

Blackmans Bay Shell Excursion-May 2011.4

A Tale of Two Cowries-May 2011.6

Field Nats Go Global!.7

Vale Margaret Aves.7

Subscriptions Reminder.7

Program

General Meetings start at 7.15 pm for 7.30 pm on the first Thursday of the month, in the Life Science
Building at the University of Tasmania.

Excursions are usually held the following Saturday or Sunday, meeting at 9.00 am outside the Museum
in Macquarie St, Hobart. Bring lunch and all-weather outdoor gear.

If you are planning to attend an outing, but have not been to the prior meeting, please confirm the
details as late changes are sometimes made.

Thurs 7

July

Meeting 7.15pm in Life Sciences building, University of Tasmania.

Meeting 7.15pm in Life Sciences building, University of Tasmania.

Our guest will be entomologist Cathy Young who will give us some background on the
Museum Collection and her research on moths.

Sun 10 July

Excursion with Cathy Young to the Tasmanian Museum's Research and Collections
Facility at Rosny. Details to be announced.

Thurs 4 Aug

Meeting 7.15pm in Life Sciences building, University of Tasmania.

Kris Carlyon, a wildlife biologist with DPIPWE, will present Koala: an icon with issues.

Sat 6 Aug

Excursion to Mt Direction led by Qug McKendrick.

Thurs 1 Sept

Meeting 7.15pm in Life Sciences building, University of Tasmania.

Malcolm Downing, a forecaster at the Bureau of Meteorology, will talk to us on
Clouds.

For details of talks and excursions beyond this date, please check the website at
http://www.tasfieldnats.org.au/

Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club BULLETIN 343 July 2011 pi

Coningham Foreshore Track-10 th April 2011

Andrew Hingston

A large group of adults and children explored
the Coningham Foreshore Track in cool,
cloudy conditions on Sunday 10 th April. Those who
arrived at Coningham Beach earlier than I did
were rewarded with a sighting of a grey goshawk.
Although I was running late, I did time my drive to
Coningham well enough to chance upon an
Australian hobby flying near Peter Murrell
Reserve, and arrive just at the moment the group
was deciding who should write this report!

So, with pen and used envelope in hand for note¬
taking, I wandered down the beach with the
others admiring the burrows and footprints of
crabs in the sand. Tarn later excavated one of
these; a beautiful blue crab with a spherical body
of around 1 cm in diameter.

At the eastern end of the beach, we headed onto
the Foreshore Track that led through dry forest
along the top of the sandstone cliffs that border
North West Bay. A large part of this vegetation
was dominated by drooping sheoak Allocasuarina
verticillata, with many of the sparse emergent
eucalypts in poor health or dead.

There were many species flowering in the
understorey, including Epocris impressa,
Astroloma humifusum (correctly identified by
Tarn, who first identified this and mumbled the
Latin binomial as a toddler), Leucopogon
ericoides, L virgata, Correa relexa, C. alba ,
Banksia marginata, and Cassytha glabella.

Crab tracks. Photo Andrew Hingston

Meandering along the beach. Photo Andrew Hingston
Apart from one area of stormwater runoff, there
were few weeds present. The stormwater outlet
was infested with watsonia Watsonia meriana,
and also supported agapanthus Agapanthus

Blue crab. Photo Andrew Hingston

Banksia larvae. Photo Andrew Hingston
praecox subsp. orientals and the daisy Euryops
sp. The only weeds that I saw outside the
stormwater area were all Australian species:
bluebell creeper Sollya heterophylla (from WA);

Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club BULLETIN 343 July 2011 p2

Grevillea sp.; and Acocio sp. There was also one
specimen of Leptospermum grondiflorum, which
was probably outside its natural range of
Tasmania's east coast.

As we walked along we passed a small
constructed pond in a gully, where I heard a
brown tree frog Litoria ewingii. On the track I
noted scratchings in the ground, which looked like
those made by bandicoots, and scats of wallabies,
possums and dogs. The cool, cloudy conditions

A starfish. Photo Andrew Hingston

"They found a cave...." Photo Andrew Hingston

There were plenty of insects around. Mike
identified a disappearing grasshopper
Schizobothrus flavovittatus, to a chorus of "Where
is it? Where is it?" from bystanders, and a
common macrotona Macrotona australis.

Other insects found included a bright green
caterpillar of a helena gum moth Antheraea
helena, a female common brown butterfly
Heteronymphe merope, a fleeting glimpse of
another species of Nymphalidae (possibly a
meadow argus Junonia villida), jewel bug
Choerocoris paganus, honeybrown beetle
Ecnolagria grandis, a braconid wasp, inch man

were ideal for bird activity. The species identified
included eastern spinebill, crescent honeyeater,
yellow-throated honeyeater, silvereye, spotted
pardalote, scarlet robin, brown thornbill, grey
fantail, grey shrike-thrush, grey butcherbird, pied
oystercatcher, white-faced heron, black-faced
cormorant, Pacific gull, and a white-breasted sea
eagle spotted by Geoff and Janet after most
people had left.

Fish swimming in water. Photo Andrew Hingston

The weed Solya very out of place on the foreshore. Photo
Andrew Hingston

Myrmecia forficata, jackjumpers M. pilosula, and
(of course) European or English wasps Vespula sp.
and bumble bees Bombus terrestris.

One particularly interesting find was of large
numbers of larvae in the cores of developing
inflorescences of a Banksia marginata. Lynne
thought they looked like those of beetles in the
family Tenebrionidae, possibly of an Atoichus
species. We didn't find many spiders, just a black
and red spider (formerly Nicodamus bicolor)
crossing the track and a 'huntsman-like' spider
(probably a shield spider Olios diana).

Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club BULLETIN 343 July 2011 p3

Geoff led the group off the main track downhill to
a sandstone cave by the coast, which featured
some amazing eroded patterns.

Among the sandstone in the water, there was a
somewhat depauperate invertebrate community
of snails, limpets, mussels, barnacles, a crab, and
a biscuit star. The crab found by Abbey and Kevin
was not a 'true crab'. Upon turning it upside-
down, it flapped its abdomen at us. Thus,
although the abdomen was curled beneath the
carapace, it was not fused to the carapace as in
'true crabs' but was free as in crayfish.

The highlight of the excursion for me occurred on
the walk back, thanks to the sharp eyes of Kevin.
No, it wasn't a snail! It wasn't even under a log or
rock! It was a large fish, which we watched for
several minutes from atop the cliff. This grey-
brown fish, with about six vertical pale orange
stripes, was darting in and out from beside rocks.
Kevin and Abbey estimated its length at 30-50 cm
but I'm sure it was about a metre long, and when
I tell the story next year it will be at least two
metres!

Blackmans Bay Shell Excursion-May 2011

Michael Driessen

his excursion to Blackmans Bay beach was an
opportunity to use Simon Grove's new shell
book which was launched the previous Sunday at
Fullers bookshop. The launch was well attended
with ABC news reader Peter Gee providing an
entertaining launch.

Simon joined us at Blackmans Bay beach, which
also happened to be his birthday (31 again), and
was able to help us with the identification of
some of the trickier shells.

Exploring the Blackmon's Bay foreshore. Photo Amanda
Thompson

A total of twenty-eight members turned up for
the outing despite the cool weather and the
possibility of rain. We were pleasantly surprised
to be bathed in sunshine.

The first part of the excursion involved walking
along the southern end of the beach collecting
and identifying shells using the shell books. I
brought a 1 x 1 metre quadrat which I 'randomly'
through onto the shell line and then, along with
other members, collected all the shells in the
quadrat, and identified and counted them (see
results below).

We then headed around the rocks to Flowerpot
Point collecting and identifying shells as we went.
It took a little practice to get our identifications

crevice filled with Nodilittorina unifasciata. Photo Amanda
Thompson

right and we had to allow for variations due to
colour and wear.

To quote Simon "Three hours of shelling was
completed before getting 'mollusced out' shows a
lot of staying power". Over one hundred shell
species were recorded (see list) which according
to Simon was not a bad haul considering how
little distance was covered. Simon says there are
records of 250 shell species in his database from
the area.

Simon found a fragment of what he thought was
Bullina lineata (lined bubble-shell) on the sandy
part of the beach. If confirmed, it would be only
the second record he is aware of from Tasmania.
The other unconfirmed record was from Pirates

Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club BULLETIN 343 July 2011 p4

Bay in the early 20th Century. It's a widespread
species in tropical waters, extending right down
the coast of NSW, so wouldn't be unexpected in,
say Flinders Island. But Blackmans Bay is certainly
an odd part of Tasmania to have found it.

Kevin Bonham proved again to be the master of
finding cowrie shells; he collected a brown
cowrie, Compton's cowrie and a freckled cowrie.
Thanks to Simon for a lovely morning collecting
shells and for answering our numerous queries
about them.

First find the shell..... Photo Amanda Thompson

... then consult the comprehensive guide. Photo Amanda
Thompson

Number of shell species recorded in four lxlm quadrats on Blackmans Bay Beach and in a 25 x 25 cm
quadrat in a shell wash at Flower Pot Point.

Common Name Blackmans Bay Beach Flowerpot Pt

1

2

3

4

1

flea mussel

3

1

1

23

blue mussel

3

1

1

3

12

doughboy scallop

1

king scallop

3

elongate wedge-shell

1

purple sunset-shell

1

1

feathered venus

4

1

tall-ribbed limpet

2

Maltese-cross limpet

3

ribbed top-shell

4

keeled top-shell

1

people's top-shell

1

rainbow kelp-shell

2

golden star-shell

1

wavy turban

1

grainy creeper

2

New Zealand screw-shell

1

4

1

1

5

common shelf-limpet

1

southern wentletrap

1

Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club BULLETIN 343 July 2011 p5

Common Name

Blackmans Bay Beach

Flowerpot Pt

black-mouth conniwink

1

lined whelk

7

white-mouthed dove-
shell

1

knobbly rock-shell

1

Brazier's trophon

1

common siphon-shell

3

corded siphon-shell

8

sinum zonale

1

amalda marginata

1

semicassis

Several

broken

A Tale of Two Cowries-May 2011

Kevin Bonham

The cowry (or cowrie for those who prefer that spelling) on the right was collected on the May excursion
to Blackmans Bay. The one on the left was collected at exactly the same spot (to within a few metres)
four years earlier. Those who have Simon's excellent book may notice that the one on the right is a dead
ringer for his photo of Notocyproeo comptoni. The one on the left is chubbier, paler, with wider-spaced
bands, sparser spotting and a paler base.

Photo Kevin Bonham

N. comptoni is an extremely variable cowry. Plump pale forms are often called N. comptoni mayi, but
most authors consider this just a variant while others think N. mayi is a different species (the live animal
can also look quite different). Genetic tests on mainland mayi showed no differences, but not enough
Tasmanian mayi have been tested.

Although these two dead shells were found in the same spot on the shore, they may have lived in very
different conditions, and just happened to wash up in the same place.

Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club BULLETIN 343 July 2011 p6

Field Nats Go Global!

Y es it's true! The Tasmanian Field Naturalists has recently extended its outreach on a global scale with
online book sales. Thanks to the hard work of Neil Klaer, Geoff Fenton and Anna McEldowney, our
website now has the PayPal facility enabling online purchase of a range of publications, such as Simon
Grove's new Tasmanian seashell book. You don't need a PayPal account as the system will also allow
you to pay using a credit card.

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tasmanian field naturalists

So next time you are online, check out the website, peruse the publications. You can also renew your
subscription online using the PayPal system as well.

Vale Margaret Aves

I t is with sadness that the Tasmanian Field Nats say farewell to longstanding member Margaret Aves,
who died recently aged 102. From the time they first joined in the early 1950s, Margaret and husband
Kelsey made Field Nat membership a family affair. They attended many talks and excursions with their
family of three daughters, inculcating in them a love of the natural world. Daughter Liz Turner, a retired
invertebrate zoologist at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, carries on the family membership
tradition. Many will remember Margaret with fondness, and although sad at her departure, will
celebrate memories of her involvement over very many years.

Subscriptions Reminder

H ave you paid your 2011 subs yet? A reminder that membership subs are due on 1 Jan each year.
Please send a cheque payable to Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club Inc, addressed to the Treasurer
TFNC, GPO Box 68, Hobart, 7001; or pay by EFT to BSB 067102 Account number 28000476 in the
name of Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club Inc. PLEASE put your surname AND initials in the transfer so
Anna can identify the payments. Or visit www.tasfieldnats.org.au and pay online using Paypal.

If you have a large red cross on your envelope you are not financial for 2011. If you have two red crosses
then you are behind for 2010 and 2011 and will shortly be struck off the mailing list!

Membership rates are: Adult—$30, Family—$35, Concession—$25.

Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club BULLETIN 343 July 2011 p7