ARC linkage project awarded
Bennelongia would like to congratulate the University of Adelaide, Curtin University and Flinders University on recently being awarded an Australian Research Council grant to study the food webs of stygofauna and the energy sources they use, as well as the potential use of environmental DNA for stygofauna monitoring. The project, “Subterranean invertebrate communities of arid […]
Read More → 4th August 2014New publication on trapdoor spiders
Danilo Harms has co-authored a paper describing four new Mouse Spider species from the Pilbara and Carnarvon. The paper, a collaboration with Laura Miglio (Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Brazil), Mark Harvey (WA Museum) and Volker Framenau (Phoenix Environmental) was published in the journal ZooKeys and can be downloaded here. Mouse spiders are one of the […]
Read More → 12th June 2014Launch of Birds of the Murray-Darling Basin Conservation Statement
Stuart Halse has contributed to an article recently published by BirdLife Australia as part of their Birds of the Murray-Darling Basin Conservation Statement [link]. The work undertaken in 2008 took 2 months and three aircraft to complete, surveying waterbirds across 4,858 wetlands in Australia. This national waterbird survey was of an unprecedented scale and recorded much needed […]
Read More → 10th March 2014Troglofauna in the vadose zone: sampling results & adequacy
Stuart Halse and Grant Pearson have just published a paper on sampling methods for troglofauna in the Journal of Subterranean Biology [link]. The paper also provides the first overall description of the taxonomic composition of troglofauna communities in WA and gives information on their ranges and depth of occurrence. Three broad conclusions are drawn from this […]
Read More → 22nd January 2014Pilbara stygofauna: globally significant radiation of biodiversity
At last the results of the stygofauna surveys undertaken as part of the Pilbara Biodiversity Survey are available in a paper just published online in the Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 78 [link to Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 78] . This paper on stygofauna complements the earlier paper [link] on wetland […]
Read More → 18th December 2013New discovery, 1st stygal beetle in Pilbara, new copepod species
Jane McRae has co-authored two of the four papers in the second issue of the Records of the Western Australian Museum for 2013. The first paper with Chris Watts from the South Australian Museum describes the first species of beetle (family Dytiscidae) to be found in Pilbara groundwater (link), discovered by Sean Bennett and Jim Cocking. Despite […]
Read More → 9th December 2013Stygofauna in the 21st century
Bennelongia was a sponsor of the 52nd Australian Society for Limnology congress at the University of Canberra, December 2013. Stuart Halse spoke about key conservation issues for stygofauna and the environmental assessment process. Here is the powerpoint presentation, which is also in the gallery below.
Read More → 6th December 2013Seven new ostracod species discovered
Another paper in the series describing new species of Bennelongia ostracods has been published (link). Koen Martens, Stuart Halse and Isa Schön have just described another 7 species from WA, mostly occurring in granite rock pools. This adds to the 9 species from WA and 3 species from Queensland described in 2012; many more await […]
Read More → 28th November 20132013 Elachbutting BioBlitz
Michael Curran attended the 2013 BioBlitz at Elachbutting Rock Reserve. Around one hundred and twenty-five people participated in surveys at the small bush reserve situated 53km NE of Mukinbudin and 303km NE of Perth. Pseudoscorpions, scorpions, isopods, trapdoor spiders, platyhelminthes, millipedes and centipedes were collected and could include some new species! Great work volunteers and thanks […]
Read More → 6th November 20132013 Australian Entomological Society Conference
Stuart Halse gave a talk at a subterranean fauna symposium session at the Australian Entomological Society conference in Adelaide on 20 September about ranges and genetic variability of troglofauna species in the Pilbara. Here is the abstract and powerpoint presentation, which is also below in the gallery.
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