NATIONAL MUSEUMS OF VICTORIA

TRUSTEES

President: W. RUSSELL GRIMWADE, ESQ., C.B.E., B.SC., F.A.C.I.-

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G. FINLAY, ESQ., 0.B.E., L.D.S., B.D.SC.

L. J. HARTNETT, ESQ., C.B.E., M.LE.

PROFESSOR E. S. HILLS, D.SC., PH.D.

ERROL G. KNOX, ESQ., M.B.E.

O. E. NILSSON, ESQ., B.SC., A.M.LE. (AUST.)

Sır DAVID RIVETT, K.C.M.G., M.A., D.SC., F.R.S., F.A.C.I.

F. G. THORPE, ESQ., M.C., E.D.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF VICTORIA

DIRECTOR

R. T. M. PESCOTT, M.AGR.SC., F.R.E.S.

SCIENTIFIC STAFF

Geology and Palaeontology :

Palaeontology: R. A. KEBLE, F.G.S.

Mineralogy: SYLVIA G. WHINCUP, M.SC. `

Vertebrate Zoology:

Mammalogy and Herpetology: С. W. BRAZENOR.

Ornithology: F. G. ELFORD, B.SC., B.ED.

Assistant: BARBARA SANDERS.

Invertebrate Zoology :

Entomology: A. N. BURNS, B.SC., F.R.E.S.

C. Оке.

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HONORARY SCIENTIFIC STAFF

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Rev. E. H. CHAPPLE.

Rev. E. D. GILL, B.A., B.D.

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Ornithology: A. G. CAMPBELL, ESQ., J.P.

N. J. FAVALORO, ESQ.

J. A. Ross, ESQ. (Ooroav)

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Entomology: E LYELL, ESQ.

. E. WILSON, ESQ.

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Anthropology: J. WUNDERLY, ESQ., ‘D.SC.

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Кр 19) Mann, ESQ.

R. R. RYMILL, Esq.

CONTENTS

New Species of the Genera Prolasius Forel and Melophorus Lubbock

(Hymenoptera, Formicidae). By J. J. MCAREAVEY, S.3. 2

Notes on Australian Quaternary Climates and Migration. By R. A.

KEBLE, F.G.S. 5C 2n 5t хо $ " p 9t

A new Saltieid Spider from Vietoria. By R. A. DUNN

New Geographieal Races of Australian Butterflies, with a description of

the female, larva, and pupa of Pseudalmenus chlorinda barringtonensis

Whs. By A. N. BURNS, B.sc., F.R.E.S., F.R.H.S.

New Records of Lepidoptera from Victoria, with notes on some rare species.

By A. N. BURNS, B.SC., F.R.E.S., F.R.H.S.

Additions to and alterations in the Catalogue of the Land Shells of Victoria

(including descriptions of new species). By C. J. GABRIEL

A new Leaf-hopper from Victoria (E LOD er J ie) By J. W. EVANS,

M.A., D.SC., F.R.E.S.

A new Snake from Torokina, Bougainville Island. By C. W. BRAZENOR

Mud Islands, Port Phillip Bay. Their Geology, Botany and Entomology ..

A preliminary report on the Biology and TTA | of the any River

area in north-eastern Victoria a:

Records of Onchidiidae (Mollusca, Gastropoda) “тй Victoria. БУ,

J. Hope McPHERSON, B.SC.

A new Harvestman of the subfamily Liobuninae from Australia. By R. R.

FORSTER ° - T T m T 52 д

Description of a new species of Casemoth NDepidopiera; Psychidae). БУ

CHARLES G. OKE ^ ak; zs : nt d. !

Obituary—James Andrew Kershaw

PAGE

126

128

131

146

172

174

178

180

Мем, Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

NEW SPECIES OF THE GENERA PROLASIUS FOREL

AND MELOPHORUS LUBBOCK (HYMENOPTERA,

FORMICIDAE)

By J. J. McAreavey, S.J.

ТЕЕ 1b Pie, il-

(Received for publication May 27, 1947)

Although this paper is concerned almost entirely with species

of Prolasius, it is not meant to be a revision of that genus. Species

described by Clark from the Otway Ranges (Mem. Nat. Mus. Vict.

8, pp. 66-70, 1934), and several species previously regarded as

belonging to other genera, have been included as well as a number

of new species. Since, however, only those new species of which

considerable numbers of specimens could be examined are

described in this paper, and since it is known that there are

undescribed species in various collections, a complete revision of

the genus Prolasius would eontain more than twice the number

of ants here described.

Wheeler included among Prolasius the species Notoncus hick-

mani Clark and Notoncus rotundiceps Clark (Roy. Soc. Vict. 42,

pp. 126-127, 1929), though in his article (Psyche 42, March pp.

68-72, 1935) he does not give the reason for this change. This

does not appear to be correct, since apart from the difference in

the structure of the thorax, neither of these species has the

ocelli, which are always present in Prolasius. However, from the

descriptions and figures, neither of these species seem to belong

to Notoncus, for the pronotum and metanotum lack the character-

istics of that genus, and again ocelli should be present, as in other |

species of Notoncus. Without an examination of the types, it is

difficult to determine to which genus these species should be

transferred— certainly they are not Prolasius.

In the same article in Psyche, Wheeler agrees with Clark, who

places the genus Myrmecorhynchus in the tribe Melophorini,

though previously both he and Emery (Genera Insect. Fasc. 183,.

p. 96, 1925) had regarded it as representing a distinct tribe.

Melophorini now contain the following almost entirely Australian

genera—Melophorus Lubbock, Prolasius Forel, Diodontolepis

Wheeler, Notoncus Emery, Pseudonotoncus Clark and M yrme-

corhynchus Andre, each of which needs complete revision. Based

on differences in external structure, Wheeler’s division of

8 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS

Melophorus into three sub-genera (Psyche 1935 p. 69) (i)

Melophorus sensu stricto, (ii) Erimelophorus and (iil) Tricho-

melophorus, is a useful one. Further knowledge of the habits of

the species may suggest an even more accurate division, for the

habits certainly differ greatly—some species are honey ants,

others harvest grain, and a third group, containing Melophorus

fulvihirtus Clark, live by raiding other ant nests. The interesting

ant, Melophorus potteri new species, described in this paper

presents still another difference of habit, for this ant attacks

termites. i BE T, :

The habits and nest of M. potteri correspond closely to those of

the robber ant M. fulvihirtus, described by Clark (Mem. Nat.

Mus. Vict. 12, pp. 71-74, 1941). It is interesting to note that the

moundless nest, and the habit of closing the entrance with small

stones during the cooler part of the day, is common to other

species of Melophorus. Melophorus aeneovirens (Lowne) has

- been observed at Pymble, N.S.W., and it was noted that the

entrance to the nest was open only from about eleven a.m. till

three p.m. on hot days, and that the small stones used to close the

entrance were kept inside the nest. The nest of M. potteri is

situated about three or four yards from the termite nest, and

when the temperature rises to above 90° Fahr. a few ants appear

and make their way to the termite nest. 'To quote Mr. Herbert

Potter, of Patho, Victoria, who discovered this species, “they

break into the east of the termite nest on the surfaee of the

ground, enter, always come out baekwards dragging the termites

after them, and go into their own nests in the same way.” “They

are not very numerous, and there are not often more than three

or four on the track between the two nests.” “They seem to live

- entirely on termites and are never seen carrying anything else to

their песа r 5

Wheeler, in his paper on the relationship between an

termites (Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Se. 1 (3) pp. iin

1936), discusses at length the question of ‘‘Termitharpagy,”’ but

the habits of M. potteri do not appear to correspond with those

of any ant he describes. Stigmacros termitoxenus Wheeler, for

example, from Mullewa, W.A., lives in the nest of Tumulitermes

peracutus Hill apparently quite peacefully, though it is possible

that it steals termite eggs as do many of the species of Solenopsis.

The Ponerine ants, Termitopone and Megapone of Brazil attack

termite nests, and carry off termites, but they do this in close

eolumns, rather similar to the raiding columns of our Eusphinctus

when these carry off the eggs and larve of other ants. The

Australian species M achomyrma dispar Forel engages in warfare

NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS 9

with termites, and it is a well known fact that Iridomyrmex and

many Formicine attack termites once they discover a broken

termite nest, but systematic raiding by individual ants appears to

be something new.

Family FORMICIDAE Latreille, 1810

Subfamily Formicinae Lepeletier, 1836

Tribe Melophorini Forel, 1912

Genus PROLASIUS Forel, 1892

Genus PROLASIUS Florel, Mitt. Schweitz. Ent. Ges. 8. p. 332,

1892.

Formica (part) Smith Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., I., р. 53, 1862.

Prenolepis (part) Mayr Verh. Zool. Bot. Ges Wien., 36, p. 362, 1886.

Lasius subgen. Prolasius Forel Mitt. Scheitz. Ent. Ges., 8, p . 332, 1892.

Melophorus subgen. Lasiophanes Emery Act. Soc. Se. бш, р. 16, 1895.

Prolasius Wheeler Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 45, р. 695, 1992. `

Melophorus subgen. Prolasius Emery Genera Insect. fasc. 183, p. 13, 1925.

Prolasius Clark Mem. Nat. Mus. Viet., 8, p. 66, 1934..

Worker: small and monomorphic. Head subrectangular with sides more or

less convex. Mandibles with the masticatory edge furnished with five or six

small but distinct teeth; the tips of the terminal edge do not cross as they do

on Pseudolasius. Frontal carin short and straight. The antennal groove does

not merge completely with the clypeal groove. Antenne of twelve segments

with the funiculus filiform. Frontal area distinct. Eyes moderately large.

Ocelli always present. Thorax more or less constricted at the mesonotal region,

and both sutures are distinct.. Epinotum more or less convex above and quite

unarmed. Node perpendicular, not sloping. Gaster oval. Legs usually slender.

Female and male distinguished by the same characters as in the worker. The

wings have a closed radial cell without a discoidal cell. In the male the outer

genital plates are triangular, but very much narrower towards the tip, the

middle plates have a short blunt outer, and a long hook- shaped inner process.

Pups enclosed in cocoons.

Type Prolasius advena Smith.

KEY TO SPECIES

A. Uniformly light brown.

Clypeus carinated.

1. Declivity of epinotum twice as long as the dorsum У

Р. advena Smith.

2. Declivity of epinotum three times as long as the dorsum

P. hellenae new sp.

3. Declivity of epinotum slightly longer than the dorsum

P. antennata new sp.

Clypeus not carinated.

4. Anterior border of ae rounded and the declivity of the

epinotum twice as long as the dorsum

P. zealandica Smith.

5. Anterior border of clypeus rounded and the declivity of the epinotum

one quarter longer than the dorsum

P. convexa new s

6. Anterior border of elypeus produced to a blunt point and Rot

segment of the funieulus as long as the three following

P. clarki new sp.

10 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS

7. Anterior border of the elypeus produced to a blunt point, the first

segment of the funiculus as long as the two following

P. brunea new sp.

B. Gaster much darker brown than the head and thorax.

Clypeus carinated.

8. Scape extends beyond the oceipital border by half its length

P. mjobergi Forel.

9. Scape extends beyond the oceipital border by a third of its length,

and the first segment of the funiculus is as long as the three follow-

ing

P. nigriventris new. SP.

10. Scape extends beyond the occipital border by a third of its length,

and the first segment of the funiculus is as long as the two follow-

ing

P. quadrata new. sp.

Clypeus not carinated.

11. Head longer than broad with the sides strongly convex and the

anterior border of the clypeus produced to a blunt point

P. abruptus Clark.

12. Head nearly square with the sides feebly convex and the anterior

border of the clypeus rounded

y P. robustus new sp.

13. Scape extends beyond the occipital border by a quarter of its

length, and the anterior border of elypeus produced to a blunt

point

P. pallidus Clark

14. Scape extends beyond the occipital border by a third of its length,

anterior border of clypeus rounded, and the declivity of the epino-

tum evenly straight or feebly convex

P. hemiflavus Clark.

15. Scape .... but the declivity is not straight but at middle of its

length has a very obtuse angle which forms two almost straight

planes

var. wilson? new var.

.C. Uniformly very dark brown.

Clypeus produced to a blunt point in front.

16. Anterior border of clypeus produced to a blunt point; epinotal

declivity a third longer than the dorsum; first segment of the

funiculus as long as the three following

P. flavicornis Clark

17. .... first segment of funiculus as long as the two following

|. var. minor new var.

18. Anterior border of clypeus produced to a blunt point; epinotal

declivity twice as long as the dorsum; first segment of the funiculus

as long as the two following "

| P. flavidiscus new sp.

19. Anterior border of the elypeus produced to a blunt point; epinotal

declivity twice as long as the dorsum; first segment of the funiculus

slightly longer than the second segment

= Р. wheeleri new sp.

Anterior border of the elypeus rounded.

š 20. Epinotal declivity twice as long as the dorsum

P. reticulata new sp.

NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS

Epinotal declivity only slightly longer than dorsum, but the dorsum

21.

does not overhang the declivity—

(a) node only half as high as declivity

22.

23.

(b) node nearly as high as declivity

P. depressiceps Emery.

var. similis new var.

Epinotal declivity only slightly longer than the dorsum, but the

dorsum overhangs the declivity to a marked degree-—

(a) clypeus carinated and frontal area indistinct

24.

25.

(b) clypeus subearinated an

P. nitidissimus Andre.

d frontal area distinct ;

P. nitidissimus var. formicoides Forel.

Epinotal declivity slightly longer than the dorsum. Anterior border

of the clypeus bluntly pointed. First segment of the funiculus

slightly longer than the second

P. mger Clark.

CHARACTERISTICS COMPARED `

Scape extends over] First segment of fun-

Species Clypeus the occiput by— | iculus longer than— Epinotal declivity Colour

CUm rounded; carinate quarter of length | two following twice Dorsum

igitar. rounded; carinate third of length two following three times Dorsum | Uniformly

antennata pointed; carinate half of length ` | two following "| just longer than D.

Tanam | rounded ; not carin. | third of length two following ` twice Dorsum light

autres | [34-96 — rounded; not carin. | half of length two following just longer than D.

clarki pointed; not carin. third of length three following twice Dorsum brown

Gum | pointed; not carin. | third of length two following twice Dorsum

ли .| rounded ; carinate half of length longer than Dorsum | rer

РР 3-4 mm. | rounded; carinate third of length three following just longer than Бо | Gaster .

quadrata | 3.5-4 mm.) rounded ; carinate third of length two following SES TF darker

abruptis | 3.5 mm. | pointed; not carin. | half of length as PARES fol- chalco] * brown :

robustus rounded ; not carin. | half of length two following twice Dorsum a

hemiflavus rounded; not carin. | third of length three following twice Dorsum er.

wilsoni ian reelle mbr, | Rias] two following twice Dorsum

flavicornis , pointed ; sub-carin. | half of length three following ` ` Just longer than D. L

minor pointed; sub-carin. | half of length two following „| just longer than D.

flavidiscus pointed ; sub-carin. | third of length two following twice Dorsum -| Uniformly

wheeleri pointed ; carinate half of length | öne following ` twice Dorsúm ` very

reticulata | 3.4-4 mm.| rounded; carinate | half of length ‘one following ‘twice Dorsum dark

depressiceps | 3-3.5 mm.| rounded ; carinate half of length one following just longer than D. brown

; ` A ; ; TE twice height of node | .

similis | 3-3.5 mm. rounded з БЕКЕ | half of length | one following just longer than D. | ` "s

h as high as node р 7

nitidissimus | 3.5-4 mm.| rounded ; carinate half of length one following KD just longer than D. | Н 92 :

. | F. area indistinct Dorsum overhanging A >

formicoides 3.3-4.2 Sub-carinate ` irc] Toe ee | just longer than D. | ү

F. area distinct. i E DGS overhanging | 32007

12 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS

«1. Prolasius advena, Smith. (Plate I. figs. 1, 2, 3) |

- Formica advena Smith, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. I (3) p. 53. 1862 5 о

Kirby, Journ. N. Zeal. Instit., 2. p. 70, 1884. з 9

Prenolépis advena, Mayr, Verh. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien. 36, p. 362, 1886.

Lasius (Prolasius) advena, Forel, Mitt. Schwiez. Ent. Ges. 8, p. 332, 1892.

$ 3 9

Melophorus (Lasiophanes) advena, Emery, Act. Soc. Se, Chili, 5, p. 16, 1895.

коодо (Prolasius) advena, Emery, Genera Insect. fase. 188, p. 14,

1925.

Prolasius advena, Wheeler, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sc., 62, p. 127, 1927.

Redescribed from specimens from Christchurch, N.Z.

Worker: ;

Length 3mm. Brown with thorax and legs a slightly lighter brown.

Shining; microscopically punctate throughout; legs densely punctate but the

promesonotum is very sparsely punctate.

Hair yellow, long, erect but confined to the mandibles, elypeus and gaster.

_Pubescence greyish, very fine, adpressed, abundant throughout but not

hiding the sculpture.

Head one fourth longer than broad, almost rectangular, with sides and the

occipital border feebly convex, and the corners broadly rounded. Mandibles

triangular, furnished with six strong sharp teeth, the first three being very

much longer than the others. Clypeus rounded in front and carinated. Frontal

area transversely triangular. Frontal carine parallel, short, as long as their

distance apart. Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by barely a fourth

of their length. The first segment of the funiculus is slightly longer than the

two following taken together, the fourth to the tenth longer than broad, while

the apical segment is longer than the two preceding taken together. The eyes

are large and placed at the middle of the sides of the head. The ocelli are small.

The thorax is twice as long as broad. The pronotum is a quarter broader

than long with the sides very strongly convex, and is fully twice as broad as

the rest of the thorax. Mesonotum is as long as broad and has the sides feebly

convex. The epinotum which is slightly wider behind than in front, is a shade

longer than broad. In profile the pronotum and mesonotum form an almost

. even convexity, while the epinotum is much lower than the mesonotum. The

dorsum of the epinotum forms an almost straight line elevated towards the

back. The epinotal declivity is straight and twice as long as the dorsum. The

node is thorn-like, transversely convex, while in profile the anterior face is

faintly convex, the posterior face almost flat with a slight thickening towards

the base. Gaster slightly longer than broad. Legs long and slender.

Female: Described by Forel, Mitt. Schweiz. Ent. Gest. 8, p. 322, 1892.

Length: 5-6mm. VIA

‚Head broader than long. Thorax high, broader than the head. Scale emar-

ginate above. Head and gaster more plentifully provided with adpressed

pubescenee than the worker. Mandibles with seven teeth. Anterior edge of

the elypeus as in the worker, triangular, produced medially. In other respects

like the worker.

Male: Described by Forel.

Length : 2:8 mm. 2

Mandibles with broad сопсауе terminal edge which bears а pointed terminal

tooth with a small blunt tooth in front. Outer genitalia, partieularly the plate

rather large. Scale rounded above, not emarginate. Wings almost water clear.

Original habitat: Port Lyttleton, N.Z.

NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS- 13

2. Prolasius hellenae, new species. (Plate I, figs. 8-9).

Worker:

Length 2:5mm.

Colour of uniform dull yellow or yellowish brown, with antenne and legs

lighter. a

Microscopically punctate throughout.

Hair yellow, long, erect on clypeus and gaster, suberect on mandibles.

Pubescence yellow, very fine, adpressed and abundant throughout.

Head one third longer than broad, slightly narrower behind than in front,

with sides strongly convex, and occipital border fairly convex. Mandibles

triangular, furnished with five uneven sharp teeth.. Clypeus rounded in front,

earinated. Frontal area triangular. Frontal carine short, as long as their

distance apart, parallel. Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by more

than a third of their length. First segment of the funiculus longer than the

two following taken together, third as long.as broad, fourth longer than broad,

fifth to tenth nearly twice as long as broad, apical as long as the preceding two,

taken together. Eyes large and rather flat. Ocelli small. Thorax twice as

long as broad. Pronotum broader than long, sides strongly convex. Mesonotum

one and a quarter times longer than broad, with the sides straight. Epinotum

slightly broader than long, faintly broader behind than in front, with the sides

almost straight. In profile the pronotum and mesonotum form an even convexity.

Epinotum has the dorsum straight or feebly convex, and raised behind. Epinotal

declivity straight, fully three times as long as the dorsum.

Node transversely convex. In profile thorn-like, very narrow and sharp,

with the anterior face convex, and the posterior face straight or feebly concave.

Legs rather robust. : JN

Colleeted by Miss E. Clark. Katoomba, N.S.W.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

3. Prolasius antennata, new species. (Plate I, figs. 4-5.)

Worker:

Length: 3-3:4mm.

SEEN brown with antenne, legs and mandibles much lighter. Smooth and

shining.

Hair whitish, erect, rather short, apparent on clypeus, mandibles, scapes

pronotum and gaster. Pubescence also whitish, fine, adpressed and abundant

throughout.

Head almost a quarter longer than broad, with sides feebly convex, the `

occipital border definitely convex, and the corners broadly rounded. Mandibles

triangular furnished with six teeth. Frontal area transversely triangular.

Frontal carine short, parallel and as long as their distance apart. Scapes

extend beyond the occipital border by almost half their length. First

segment of funieulus almost as long as the following two taken together, the

rest longer than broad, the apical segment almost as long as the two preceding

together. Eyes large and convex, placed just behind the middle of the sides.

Ocelli very small. a !

Thorax twice as long as broad. Pronotum twice as broad as long, with sides

strongly convex. Mesonotum almost as broad as long, with the sides feebly

convex, broader in front than behind. Epinotum sliehtly broader than long

with sides very feebly convex or almost straight. In profile the pronotum and

mesonotum form an almost even eonvexity. The dorsum of the epinotum is

convex, and the almost straight declivity is just slightly longer than the

14 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS

dorsum. Node сопуех transversely. In profile thorn-like, bluntly pointed

almost as high as the epinotum, and has the anterior face and posterior face

almost straight. Legs slender.

Collected by J. Clark. Ludlow, W.A.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

4. Prolasius zealandica, Smith.

Formica zealandica, Smith, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., p. 6, 1878. 9

. Emery, Genera Insect. fase. 183, p. 271, 1925.

IE Wheeler, Bull. Amer. Acad. Arts & Se., 62, p. 127,

1927

Original deseription by Smith.

Female:

Length: 24 lines.

The abdomen black, the head and thorax blackish brown, eovered with a fine

cinereous pile, which is most dense on the abdomen; mandibles, the scapes of

the antenne, and the flagellum at their base and apex pale rufo-testaceous.

The thorax ovate, smooth and shining, the metanotum obliquely truncate, the

femora rufo-fuscus, with their apex, the tibia and tarsi pale rufo-testaceous;

the tibie usually more or less fuscus in the middle. Abdomen ovate shining

with the margin of the segments very narrowly testaceous; scale of petiole

ovate and emarginate above.

Collected by Prof. Hutton. New Zealand.

New description of worker from Nelson, New Zealand.

Worker:

Length: 3mm.

Testaceous with gaster and head darker brown.

Head mesonotum and epinotum covered with shallow microscopic punctures.

Hair yellow, long, erect confined to the gaster and the elypeus. Pubescence

whitish, fine, adpressed, abundant throughout but not hiding the sculpture.

Head slightly less than a quarter longer than broad with the sides and oceipital

border convex, but to a very small degree, corners broadly rounded. Mandibles

triangular and furnished with six short sharp teeth. Clypeus rounded in front

and not carinated. Frontal area transversely triangular. Frontal carine

parallel and slightly longer than broad. The scapes extend beyond the occipital

border by more than a third of their length. The first segment of the

funiculus is slightly longer than the two following together, the fourth as long

as broad while the apical is slightly longer than the two preceding taken

together. Eyes moderately large and convex, placed just behind the middle

of the sides. Ocelli small.

Thorax little more than twice as long as broad. Pronotum slightly broader

than long, with very strongly convex sides. The promesonotal suture deeply

impressed. Mesonotum one and a half times longer than broad, with straight

parallel sides. | Epinotum slightly broader than long, feebly convex, and very

slightly broader behind than in front. In profile the pronotum and mesonotum

form an almost even convexity. Epinotum slopes upward behind, and the

dorsum is almost straight or feebly convex. We

Epinotal declivity straight and almost twice as long as the dorsum. Node

convex transversely, while in profile the anterior face is feebly concave and the

posterior face straight. Legs slender.

Collected by E. B. Gourley. Nelson, New Zealand.

NEW .SPECIES.OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS 15

5. Prolasius convexa, new species. (Plate I, figs. 6-7).

Worker:

Length: 3:4-8:6mm.

Bright ferruginous throughout, but antenns, legs and mandibles lighter.

Smooth and shining.

Hair yellow, long, erect, confined to the elypeus and gaster. Pubescence

yellow, fine, adpressed almost confined to legs and funiculus.

Head as broad as long—almost circular—with the sides and the occipital

border very strongly convex, and the corners broadly rounded. Mandibles

triangular, furnished with six strong teeth. ^ Clypeus rounded in front, not

carinated. Frontal area triangular transversely. Frontal carine short, diverg-

ing slightly. Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by almost half their

length. First segment of the funiculus longer than the two following together,

third very short, fourth to tenth longer than broad, apical segment almost as

long as the two preceding together. Eyes large convex, placed at the middle

of the sides. Ocelli small.

Thorax twice as long as broad. Pronotum as long as broad with sides strongly

convex. Mesonotum one third longer than broad, anterior two thirds of sides

slightly convex, and wider apart than posterior third, whose sides are straight.

Epinotum twice as broad as long, sides feebly convex, broader behind than in

front. In profile the pronotum and mesonotum form an even convexity, with a

deep indentation at the promesonotal suture. Epinotal dorsum straight or very

feebly convex, inclined upwards behind. Deelivity straight, at right angles

to the dorsum, and a quarter longer than the dorsum. Node transversely

convex. In profile thorn-like, almost twice as high as broad, with anterior face

convex. and posterior face almost straight. Legs slender.

Collected by P. J. Darlington. Dorrigo, N.S.W.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

6. Prolasius clarki, new species. (Plate I, figs. 26-27).

Worker:

Length 2:5-3mm.

_ Ferruginous with antenn® and legs lighter; in some specimens the colour

15 mottled dark ferruginous with the pronotum and mesonotum lighter.

Smooth and shining.

Hair yellow, short, erect, apparent only on the clypeus and gaster. Pubes-

cence yellow, very fine, adpressed, abundant throughout but not hiding the

sculpture. i

Head very sliehtly longer than broad, with the sides convex, and the oceipital

border concave. Mandibles triangular, furnished with six fairly even teeth.

Clypeus produced to a blunt point in front, not carinate. Frontal area trans-

versely triangular. Frontal carine short and parallel. Scapes extend beyond

the occipital border by almost a quarter of their length. First segment of the

funiculus almost as long as the three following taken together, rest longer

than broad, the apical segment as long as the two preceding together. Eyes

small, placed slightly behind the middle of the sides. Ocelli small.

_ Thorax twice as long as broad. Pronotum slightly longer than broad, with

Sides strongly convex. Mesonotum one and a half times as long as broad, with

the sides ‚almost straight. | Epinotum slightly broader than long, with the

sides straight. 4 In profile pronotum and mesonotum form ап even convexity.

The epinotum is straight and elevated behind, while the declivity is straight or

16 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS

feebly concave, and twice as long as the dorsum. Node convex transversely. In

profile thorn-like, bluntly pointed, with anterior face straight and posterior

face faintly convex. Legs slender.

Female:

Length: 5:5mm. E

Colour more uniformly light ferruginous. Pilosity as in worker. Microscopi-

cally punctate throughout. Occipital border and sides of head almost straight,

the angles broadly rounded. Eyes and ocelli large and convex. Antenne and

mandibles as in worker. Thorax one and a half times as long as broad.

Pronotum very short. Mesonotum slightly broader than long, with sides and

front strongly convex. Parapsidal furrows fully half as long as the dorsum,

and clearly impressed. Scutellum one quarter broader than long. Epinotum

four times as broad as long. :

Collected by P. J. Darlington. Barrington Tops, N.S.W.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

T. Prolasius brunea, new species. (Plate I, figs. 22-23).

Worker: з m ERN

Length: 3:4.

Dark ferruginous with antenne and legs lighter. Some examples are dark

reddish ferruginous with antenne and legs yellowish.

Microscopically punctate throughout.

Hair yellow, long, confined to clypeus, mandibles and gaster. Pubescence

yellow, fine, adpressed,, abundant throughout but not hiding. the sculpture.

Head about a quarter longer than broad, with sides feebly convex and occipital

border almost straight, corners broadly rounded. Mandibles . triangular,

furnished with six fairly even teeth. Clypeus broadly pointed in front, not

carinated. Frontal area transversely triangular. Frontal carin; as long as

the distance separating them, parallel. Seapes extend beyond the oceipital

border by almost a third of their length. First segment of funieulus almost as

long as the two following together, fourth as broad as long, rest almost twice

as long as broad, apical as long as the two preceding together. Eyes large,

convex, placed at the middle of the sides. Ocelli small. is

Thorax two and a half times as long as broad. Pronotum as long as broad,

sides strongly convex. Mesonotum slightly longer than. broad, with the sides

almost straight. Epinotum one and a half times as long as broad, with the

posterior margin wider than the anterior margin, and sides almost straight. In

profile pronotum and mesonotum form an even convexity. Epinotum almost

straight, raised slightly behind. Declivity straight, fully twice as long as the

dorsum. Node much lower than the epinotum, transversely convex. In profile

BASE pointed, with anterior face convex, posterior face almost straight. . Legs

slender. Ne Й i

Collected by J. Clark.

Millgrove, Vic.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

8. Prolasius mjobergi, Forel. : : X:

‘Prenolepis mjorbergi, Forel. Arkiv. £ Zool, 9, 16, p. 93, pl. 2, fig. 6, 1915. š

Prenolepis mjobergiellus, Santschi, Bull. Soc. Ent. Fr. p. 242, 1916. ~

Melophorus mjobergiellus, Emery, Genera Insect. fase. 183, p: 12, 1925.

Translated from Forel’s description in Arkiv. f. Zool.

NEW. SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS 17

Worker:

Length : 3:5-4mm.

Bright brown, gaster dark brown. Mandibles, funiculus and tarsi brownish

yellow.

Hair reddish, sparse, fine on head and gaster. Pubescence reddish confined to

the limbs.

Shining. Thorax and node almost wholly smooth. Head and limbs delicately

and finely retieulate rugose or punctate. Gaster also transversely rugose, and

with scattered reddish brown bristles.

Head rectangular, about a quarter longer than broad, in front and behind

equally broad, with very feebly-convex sides, almost straight occipital border and

rounded angles. Mandibles shining, distinctly and finely longitudinally striate

with scattered fine punctures, and furnished with six teeth, of which the last

two are longer. Clypeus carinated on anterior two thirds, rounded on frontal

border, but pointed in the middle. Frontal area triangular, rather convex and

smooth. Frontal carine feebly diverging. Eyes large and feebly convex, placed

at the middle of the sides. Ocelli very small but moderately distinet. The scapes

extend beyond the oceipital border by half their length. The segments of the

funiculus almost three times as long as broad.

The pronotum as broad as long, convex on all sides. Mesonotum almost

twice as long as broad, more convex transversely than longitudinally.

Epinotum broader than the mesonotum. Dorsum of the epinotum about a third

longer than broad, feebly convex, hardly higher behind than in front, with the

mesonotum it forms a strong broad hump. The declivity of the epinotum upright,

even, longer than the dorsum, into which it turns with a sudden strong curve.

Node thick, above wholly bluntly rounded, almost twice as high as thick (long)

strongly inclined, anterior face convex, posterior face almost straight. Gaster

short. Legs very long.

Malanda, Q.

9. Prolasius nigriventris, new species. (Plate I, figs. 12-13).

Worker: |

Length: 3-4mm. P 3

Thorax ferruginous with legs much darker. Head in many specimens a reddish

brown with the antennæ lighter—lighter than the colour of the thorax. Node

and gaster very dark blackish brown. :

Smooth and shining. ; я

Hair yellow, long, erect eonfined to gaster, clypeus and mandibles.

Pubescence greyish, adpressed, abundant on antenne and legs, less noticeable .

on head and rest of body. =

Head very slightly longer than broad, sides convex, occipital border straight,

angles rounded. Mandibles triangular, furnished with six strong, fairly even

teeth. Clypeus rounded in front, carinated. Frontal area rather rounded

behind. Frontal carine moderately long, diverging outwards behind. Scapes

extend beyond the oceipital border by more than a third of their length. First

segment of the funiculus nearly as long as the three following, rest longer than

broad, apical segment as long as the two preceding together. Eyes large, placed

about the middle of the sides. Ocelli small but distinct. ;

Thorax twice as long as broad. Pronotum broader than long, with the sides

Strongly convex. Mesonotum slightly longer than broad, with sides almost

straight, wider in front than behind. Epinotum slightly broader than long,

drawn in at the mesoepinotal suture, but with the sides almost straight, and

parallel. In profile pronotum and mesonotum are both convex, but the convexity

18 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS

is broken by the deep suture. The epinotum is very feebly convex raised

slightly behind. The epinotal declivity is straight and about a quarter longer

than the dorsum. Node transversely convex, three times as wide as long. In

profile rather rectangular with anterior face convex, the posterior face straight

and the dorsum rather flattened. Legs rather robust.

Male:

Length: 3:7mm.

More uniformly dark brown, with the head slightly darker. Mandibles yellow.

Smooth and shining.

Hair and pubescence more yellowish. Hair long on top of head and thorax.

Head slightly broader than long, sides strongly convex, occipital border straight,

angles very sharp. Mandibles very small, edentate. Clypeus almost straight

in front, with anterior border edentate. Frontal carine not clearly impressed.

Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by almost half their length, their

bases exposed. Funiculus twelve segmented. First segment broader than any

of the others, and as long as the two following together, apical segment as long

as the preceding two.

Thorax has short pronotum which from above is twice as broad as long. Mesono-

tum almost circular. Scutellum longer than broad, sides almost straight, broader

in front than behind. Metanotum about three times as broad as long. Epinotum

as long as broad, sides convex. In profile the pronotum is raised behind.

Mesonotum high, strongly convex from apex to base. Scutellum convex, slightly

higher than the mesonotum; epinotum feebly convex, declivity oblique, longer

than the dorsum into which it is rounded. Node from above is twice as broad

as long, convex transversely. In profile it is rather rectangular with the faces

slightly convex, about one and three quarters as high as long,

Collected by D. J. Mahony. Deal Island, Vie.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

10. Prolasius hemiflavus, Clark.

Clark, Mem. Nat. Mus. Vict. 8, p. 68, Pl. 4, figs. 28-29, 1934. Y 9

Worker:

Length: 2:7-3:2mm.

Head, thorax, node, antenn® and legs ochraceous; gaster brownish, apex of

gaster yellowish.

Smooth and shining; head, thorax, antenne and legs very finely and densely

punctate.

Clypeus strongly convex, not carinate, anterior border rounded. Scapes extend

beyond the occipital border by almost a third of their length. First segment of

funiculus larger than the three following together. Epinotal declivity twice as

long as the dorsum.

Beech Forest, Vic.

11. Prolasius hemiflavus var. wilsoni, new variety. (Plate I, figs. 16-17).

Worker:

Length: 3mm. ч

pu yellow with the gaster very much darker—a dull brown in some specimens.

air yellow, long, erect, confined to the gaster. Pubescence yellow, very fine

adpressed, abundant throughout, but more noticeable on the darker gaster.

Shining; microscopically punctate throughout.

NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS 19

Head slightly longer than broad, sides convex, occipital border almost straight.

Head as in P. hemiflavus except that the first segment of the funiculus is larger

than only the two following segments together. Thorax slightly more than

twice as long as broad. Pronotum very slightly longer than broad, sides strongly

convex. Mesonotum slightly longer than broad, broader in front than behind.

Epinotum as broad as long, very much narrower than the mesonotum. In profile

similar to P. hemiflavus. The epinotal declivity slightly convex, with a very

obtuse angle at the centre so that the upper half of this face slopes outward

towards the node, the lower half is almost straight and vertical. The whole

declivity is twice as long as the dorsum. Node seen from above is very narrow

and transverse, almost straight. In profile it is sharp pointed with the faces

straight, and only half as high as the epinotum. Legs slender.

Collected by F. E. Wilson. Bogong Plains, Vic.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

12. Prolasius pallidus, Clark.

Clark, Mem. Nat. Mus. Vict. 8., p. 67, pl. 4, figs. 26-27, 1984. 5 9

Worker:

Length: 2:2-2:8mm.

Pale ochraceous yellow; gaster slightly darker. :

Clypeus produced to a blunt point in front, not carinated. Scapes extend

beyond the occipital border by one quarter of their length. First segment of the

funiculus slightly longer than the two following together, second and fourth as

long as broad, third shortest, one third broader than long, fifth to ninth longer

than broad, tenth as long as broad, apical longer than the two preceding together.

Dorsum of epinotum half as long as the declivity.

Beech Forest, Vic.

13. Prolasius abrwptus, Clark.

Clark, Mem. Nat. Mus. Vict., 8 p. 66, pl. 4, fig. 25, 1934. 9

Worker: |

Length: 3:5mm.

Ferruginous; mandibles, antenne and legs lighter; gaster brownish.

Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by barely half their length. First

segment of the funiculus as long as the two following together, second and third

as long as broad, fourth to tenth longer than broad, apical as long as the two

preceding together,

Gellibrand, Vic.

Note.—The original description gives “first segment of the funiculus twi

à ce as lon

as the two following together.” _ After checking the type and several ee it EB

found that this is incorrect and it was necessary to make the above correction. `

14. Prolasius quadrata, new species. (Plate I, figs. 10-11).

Worker: x

Length: 3:5-4mm.

Head and thorax dull yellow; gaster dark brown, lighter than P, robustus.

Microscopically punctate throughout, but smoother than P. robustus.

Hair yellow, long, erect, sparse, confined to clypeus and gaster. Pubescence

yellow, very fine, adpressed, abundant throughout but not hiding the sculpture.

Head noticeably rectangular, slightly longer than broad, sides and occipital

border almost straight, corners broadly rounded. Mandibles triangular furnished

with five sharp teeth. Clypeus broadly rounded in front, carinated. Frontal

20 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS

area almost rounded behind. Frontal carine as long as their distance apart,

diverging slightly behind. Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by one

third of their length. First segment of the funiculus as long as the two following,

second to fourth as long as broad, rest longer than broad, apical longer than the

two preceding together. Eyes large and convex. Ocelli small.

Pronotum one and a half times broader than long, sides strongly convex.

Mesonotum slightly longer than broad, broader in front than behind, sides

straight. Epinotum broader than long, sides almost straight, slightly broader

behind than in front. In profile pronotum and mesonotum form an even con-

vexity with pronotum slightly higher than mesonotum. Dorsum of epinotum

straight, and inclined upward behind. Epinotal declivity feebly convex, almost

at right angles to the dorsum, and at least twice as long as dorsum. Node trans-

verse, convex on top. In profile thorn-like, bluntly pointed above, with anterior

face convex, posterior face almost straight. Legs slender.

Collected by W. M. Wheeler. Mt. Kosciusko, N.S.W.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

15. Prolasius robustus, new species (Plate I, figs. 18-19).

Worker :

Length: 3:4-4mm.

Light brown with thorax, antenne and legs of lighter colour.

Microscopically punctate throughout, rather dull, with gaster more shining.

Hair yellow, long, erect, confined to gaster, clypeus and mandibles. Pubescence

yellowish, very fine, abundant throughout but not hiding the sculpture.

Head slightly longer than broad, squarish, sides and oceipital border very

feebly convex, angles broadly rounded. Mandibles triangular, furnished with

five strong sharp teeth. Clypeus rounded in front, not carinated. Frontal area

triangular. Frontal carine short and parallel. Scapes extend beyond the

occipital border by half their length. First segment of the funiculus as long as

the two following together, the rest twice as long as broad, the apical as long as

the two preceding together. Eyes large and convex, ocelli small.

Thorax twice as long as broad. Pronotum broader than long with the

sides strongly convex. Mesonotum twice as long as broad with the sides

straight. Epinotum as long as broad, with the sides feebly convex. In profile

the pronotum and mesonotum form. an even convexity. Epinotum straight

elevated behind. Epinotal declivity straight, more than twice as long as the

dorsum. Node from above slightly convex. In profile it is thorn-like, bluntly

pointed, with faces slightly convex, not half as high as the epinotum. Gaster

large, twice as long as broad. Legs slender.

Collected by J. Clark. Fern Tree Gully, Vie.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

16. Prolasius flavicornis, Clark.

Clark, Mem. Nat. Mus. Vie., 8, р. 69, pl. 4, figs. 31-32, 1934. 5 9

Worker :

Length: 3-4mm.

Blackish brown; antenne and coxe yellowish; legs and node brown.

Shining, microscopically punctate throughout. Mandibles very finely longi-

tudinally striate. E

Clypeus produced and bluntly pointed in front, subearinated on anterior two

thirds. Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by almost half their

length. First segment of the funieulus as long as the three following together,

Мем. Nat. Mus. Vicr., 15.

MEE

| ÉL DE

2 омы

SET xc PR

pr u

NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS 21

second to fourth as broad as long, rest longer than broad. Epinotal declivity

just longer than the dorsum.

Beech Forest, Vict.

17. Prolasius flavicornis var. minor, new variety.

Worker:

Length: 3:5mm.

Differs very little from the type. The colour is lighter. First segment of

the funiculus is longer than the two following, but certainly not as long as the

three following together.

Collected by W. M. Wheeler. Habitat: Sherbrooke Forest, Vic.

Type in the National Museum of Vie.

18. Prolasius flavidiscus, new species. (Plate I, figs. 20-21).

Worker:

Length: 3:4-3:6mm.

Dark almost blackish brown; legs, antenne more reddish brown. The colour

varies somewhat, some species being almost black, some have coxe and articula-

tions of the antenne dark yellow, some have the body a reddish brown.

Shining but with small shallow punctures throughout, almost reticulate, more

noticeable on the pronotum and back of head where there are rough little

clusters of punctures.

Hair yellow, long, erect, and confined to the gaster and the clypeus. Pubescence

yellowish, abundant on the antenne and legs. |

Head slightly longer than broad, sides slightly convex, occipital border almost

straight, corners broadly rounded. Mandibles triangular furnished with five

strong teeth. Clypeus produced to a blunt point, faintly carinated. Frontal

area broadly triangular. Frontal carine slightly diverging behind. There is

a faint frontal groove stretching beyond the eyes, Scapes extend beyond the

occipital border by more than a third of their length. First segment of the

funiculus longer than the two following together, rest longer than broad, the

apical longer than the two preceding taken together. Eyes circular, convex,

placed a little behind the centre of the sides. Ocelli very small.

Thorax a little more than twice as long as broad. Pronotum slightly broader

than long, strongly convex, twice as broad as the rest of the thorax. Mesonotum

one quarter longer than broad, with the sides almost straight. Epinotum as

long as broad, broader behind than in front. In profile the pronotum and

mesonotum form an even rather flat convexity. The epinotum slightly convex,

raised behind, and higher than the mesonotum. The epinotal declivity straight

and nearly twice as long as the dorsum. 6

The node is thorn-like, transversely convex. In profile it is sharply pointed,

with the anterior face convex, and posterior face straight, Legs rather sturdy.

Female:

Length: 5:2mm.

The colour is of the worker, but with this noticeable difference—on the dorsum

of the mesonotum, there is a large dise of bright yellow. with a small spot of

dark red in the centre.

The sculpture is coarser especially on the gaster. The pilosity similar to that

of the worker but pubescence is found on the thorax and head. Head much

the same as worker’s but the clypeus is elearly carinated, the seapes slightly

Shorter. Eyes and ocelli large and convex.

_Pronotum almost hidden, the mesonotum large and strongly convex in all

directions, the parapsidal furrows not reaching the centre of the sides of the

22 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS

mesonotum, but very clear and distinct. The upper edge of the node is very

strongly concave so as almost to form two prongs. г і

Collected by J. J McAreavey. Mt. Ben Cairn, Vie.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

19. Prolasius wheeleri, new species.

Worker:

Length: 3:4-3: 8mm.

Very dark brown, gaster darker but legs and antenne lighter.

Shining, reticulate punctate throughout.

Hair yellow, erect, scattered on clypeus, thorax and gaster. Pubescence grey-

ish, very fine, adpressed, abundant throughout. n.

Head one quarter longer than broad, sides almost straight and parallel, oceipital

border convex, corners broadly rounded. Mandibles triangular, furnished

with five teeth. Clypeus bluntly pointed in front, carinated, almost overhanging

the mandibles. Frontal area convex behind. Frontal carine rather long,

diverging behind. Eyes large, convex, placed about the middle of the sides.

Ocelli large. Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by more than half

their length. First segment of the funiculus slightly longer than the second,

rest more than twice as long as broad, the apical segment almost as long as the

two preceding together.

Thorax slightly more than twice as long as broadest part. Pronotum as

broad as long, sides strongly convex. Mesonotum longer than broad by a half,

sides almost straight. Epinotum as long as broad, sides feebly convex, broader

behind than in front. In profile the pronotum and mesonotum form an even

convexity with the pronotum slightly higher. The dorsum of the epinotum is

convex, higher behind, and higher than the mesonotum. Epinotal declivity

almost straight, or feebly concave, twice as long as the dorsum. Node thorn-like,

flattened on top, posterior face, in profile, straight, while the anterior face is

straight, with a slight inclination forward. Legs slender.

Colleeted by W. M. Wheeler. King's Park, Perth.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

20. Prolasius reticulata, new species. (Plate I. figs. 14-15).

Worker :

Length: 3:4-4:4mm.

Dark reddish brown; legs, antenne and mandibles lighter, more yellowish.

Microscopically reticulate throughout. р

Hair yellow, long, erect, confined to gaster and elypeus. Pubescence greyish,

very fine, adpressed, abundant throughout, but not hiding the sculpture.

Head one fifth longer than broad, sides convex, occipital border feebly

convex, corners broadly rounded. Mandibles triangular, furnished with six

strong sharp teeth, the apical being the longest. Clypeus carinated, rounded

in front. Frontal area triangular. Frontal carine short, parallel. In some

specimens there is a distinct frontal groove extending beyond the eyes, almost

to the ocelli. Scapes extend beyond the occiput by fully half their length.

First segment of funieulus one and a half times as long as second, rest two to

three times as long as broad, apieal almost as long as the two preceding together.

Thorax almost two and a half times as long as broad. Pronotum as long

as broad, sides strongly convex. Mesonotum twice as long as broad, slightly

broader behind than in front. Epinotum as long as broad, sides almost straight.

In profile the pronotum and mesonotum form an even rather flat convexity

with a deep depression at the suture. Epinotum convex, elevated behind and

NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ÄNTS 23

rounded into the declivity. The epinotal declivity straight or feebly convex,

twice as long as the dorsum. Node from above is straight, or feebly convex,

transverse. In profile thorn-like, anterior face convex, posterior face straight,

flattened on top. Legs slender.

Collected by J. Clark. Mundaring, W.A.

Type in the National Museum of Vic.

21. Prolasius depressiceps, Emery. (Plate I, figs. 24-25).

Melophorus, Emery, Boll. Lab. Zool. Portici, 8, p. 186, fig. 5a, 1914. Genera

Insect. fase. 183, p. 12, 1925.

Prolasius, Wheeler, Psyche, 42, p. 71, 1935.

Redescribed from ants from Katoomba, N.S.W.

Worker:

Length: 3-3:5mm.

Reddish dark brown, legs slightly lighter, mandibles orange.

Hair yellow, long, erect, confined to clypeus and gaster. Pubescence whitish

very fine, adpressed, confined to legs and antenne.

Smooth and shining; antennz very finely punctate, gaster finely shagreened.

Head slightly longer than broad, sides convex, oceipital border convex, corners

broadly rounded. Mandibles triangular, furnished with five strong, sharp

teeth behind the apex. Clypeus rounded in front and carinate. Frontal area

broadly triangular. Frontal carine barely as long as the distance between them

and parallel. Eyes large, placed about the middle of the sides. Ocelli small

but distinet. Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by half their length.

First segment of the funiculus slightly longer than the second, rest nearly twice

as long as broad, the apical segment as long as the two preceding taken

together. Thorax twiee as long as broad. Pronotum slightly longer than

broad, sides strongly convex. Mesonotum one and a half times longer than

broad, broader behind than in front, sides straight. Epinotum as broad

as long, broader behind than in front, sides feebly convex. In profile pronotum

and mesonotum form an even convexity, with a slight dip at the promesonotal

suture. Dorsum of the epinotum strongly convex, and slightly elevated

behind, joining the slightly concave and slightly longer declivity with a notice-

able angle (right angle). ;

The node scale-like, convex transversely. In profile bluntly pointed with the

anterior face strongly convex, the posterior face straight, about half as high

as the epinotum. Legs slender.

Original Habitat: Katoomba, N.S.W.

22. Prolasius depressiceps var. similis, new variety.

This ant differs very slightly from the type. The node is very much higher

than is the node of P. depressiceps. It is also very like P. nitidissimus,

but the dorsum of the epinotum does not in any way overhang the declivity

to form the very distinct angle described by Andre.

Collected by W. M. Wheeler, 1931. ' . Mt. Kosciusko, N.S.W.

Type in the National Museum of Vie.

23. Prolasius nitidissimus, Andre. (Plate 1, figs. 28-29.)

Formica nitidissimus, Andre, Rev. d’Ent. Caen, p. 255, 1896. %

Melophorus nitidissimus, Emery, Boll. Lab. Zool. Se. Agric., Portici уш.

p. 186, fig. 5b, 1914. ¥

Melophorus nitidissimus, Emery, Genera Insect. fase. 183, p. 12, 1925.

24 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS

Prolasius nitidissimus, Wheeler, Psyche, 42, p. 71, 1935.

Redeseribed from ants from Goulburn River, Vie.

Worker:

Length: 3:5-4mm. j h |

Бы brown, some with a reddish tint; legs, antenne, mandibles slightly

lighter. i

Hair yellow, short, suberect apparently only on the clypeus and gaster.

Pubescence whitish, very fine, adpressed, confined to legs and antenne. :

Smooth and shining, antenne very finely punctate. JA :

Head slightly longer than broad, sides fairly convex, occipital border convex

corners broadly rounded. Mandibles triangular, furnished with five strong

sharp teeth behind the apex. Clypeus carinated. Frontal area broad, almost

convex behind. Frontal carine parallel, barely as long as the distance between

them. Eyes large, placed about the middle of the sides. Ocelli small but

distinct. Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by half their length. ‚First

segment of funiculus slightly longer than the second, the rest nearly twice as

long as broad, the apical segment almost as long as the two preceding taken

together. Pronotum slightly longer than broad, sides strongly convex. Mesono-

tum one third longer than broad, sides almost straight. Epinotum as long

as broad, sides almost convex, slightly wider behind. | In profile pronotum

and mesonotum form an even convexity. Dorsum of epinotum convex. The

declivity of the epinotum straight, slightly longer than the dorsum. The

dorsum joins the declivity at a very noticeable angle, and seems to overhang

slightly the declivity. , .

The node is scale-like, from above it is transverse, straight or faintly concave

on top. In profile it is bluntly pointed above, the anterior face slightly convex,

the posterior face straight. Legs slender. ; :

Original habitat: Australian Alps, 1896.

24. Prolasius nitidissimus var. formicoides, Forel.

Melophorus formicoides, Forel, Rev. Suisse Zool. x, р. 483, 1902. 5 9

Melophorus formicoides, Emery, Genera Insect. fasc. 183, p. 12, 1925. Y 2

From Forel's deseription only.

Worker:

Length: 3:3-4:2mm, s

Blackish brown; gaster brownish black. Legs, seapes, base of mandibles, and

sometimes also the thorax and head brown. Rest of mandibles, funieulus red-

dish yellow. Posterior border of the segments of the gaster a clear brown.

· Whole body chargined. Head evenly subopaque.

Coarse brown, stiff, thick, suberect hairs on gaster. Legs and scapes without

„ hair but covered with very fine pubescence. Р

Head nearly square, slightly longer than broad, with the posterior border

very distinct, The eyes are very much larger than in P. nitidissimus, being

almost as long as their distance from the occipital angle. Ocelli distinct.

Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by more than half their length, the

segments of the funiculus three times as long as broad. Clypeus subcarinate.

The pronotum and mesonotum are more convex than in P. nitidissimus and

the dorsum of the epinotum larger, while the declivity is as in nitidissimus.

The node is much higher and thinner than in P. nitidissimus.

Female:

Length: 5:5mm.

Thorax larger than the head and strongly convex. The declivity of the

epinotum flat and truncated. Node high, the upper border straight.

NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS 25

The whole body is covered with a very distinet greyish pubescence forming a

light down. Legs reddish. The rest as in the worker.

Collected by G. Turner. Mackay, Q.

25. Prolasius niger, Clark.

Mem. Nat. Mus. Vict., 8, p. 68, 1934, %

Worker:

Length: 3:4-3:8mm. і

Black. Mandibles antenne and tarsi brown. Legs blackish brown.

Smooth and shining. Mandibles feebly striate and punctate. Clypeus micro-

scopically reticulate. Scapes and legs very finely and densely punctate.

Clypeus sharply carinate on anterior two thirds.

Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by half their length. First segment

of the funiculus slightly longer than second and twice as long as broad.

Beech Forest, Vic.

Genus MELOPHORUS, Lubbock, 1883.

Melophorus potteri, new species. (Fig. 1.)

Major Worker:

Length: 4:2-4:8mm. :

Head and promesonotum bright red, epinotum and node brownish red, gaster

shining black, mandibles brownish red. і

Hair yellowish, long and confined to mandibles, elypeus and underside of

gaster. Pubescence greyish, confined to funiculus, tibie and tarsi.

Mandibles shining, smooth with some scattered punctures. Head smooth

and shining with very minute punctures. Pronotum transversely ‘striate very

finely. Mesonotum more feebly striate and the striation is rather circular.

Epinotum reticulate and densely and finely punctate. The sides of the thorax

very finely and densely reticulate though rather transversely striate on epinotum.

Node very finely reticulate and the gaster very finely transversely striate.

Head excluding the mandibles very slightly longer than broad, slightly

broader in front than behind, with almost straight sides and occipital border,

the posterior angles broadly rounded. Mandibles large and broad, furnished

with five even strong teeth. Clypeus strongly convex in front, raised and

projecting over the mandibles to a very marked degree. Frontal carine very

short, hardly noticeable in some specimens. Antennal insertions quite exposed.

Frontal area faint, triangular, but no sign of frontal groove. Seapes extend to

the occipital border. First segment of the funiculus twice as long as the

second, remaining segments twice or almost twice as long as broad, apical

segment slightly longer than the preceding one. Eyes small, rather flat, near

the sides, with the anterior border just behind the middle of the sides. Ocelli

small but distinct. ` '

Thorax twice as long as its broadest part, which is a line through the prono-

tum. Pronotum slightly broader than long, with sides strongly convex.

Mesonotum longer than broad, twice as broad in front as behind, with a marked

depression near the mesoepinotal suture. The apex of this triangular depression,

or metanotum is raised slightly over the dorsum of the epinotum. Epinotum

twiee as long as broad, the sides sloping inwards to form the dorsal surface

whieh is one and three quarter times longer than broad, with feebly convex

sides, convex posterior border, and broader behind than in front. In profile

the pronotum and mesonotum form an even convexity with a marked promesonotal

suture, metanotum small, its dorsum raised slightly behind. Epinotal dorsum

26 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS

almost straight, passing by an even curve into the declivity, which is one and

three quarter times longer than the dorsum, sloping outwards in a straight

line towards the base of the node. Node nearly four times as broad as long,

anterior face convex, posterior face concave, upper border deeply concave in

middle. In profile scale-like, three times as high as long, with anterior face

FIG. 1

Fic. 1. a. Melophorus pottert sp. noy., major worker. b. Dorsal, view of

same. c. Head of major. d. and e. Wings of female.

feebly convex, posterior face almost straight, and bluntly pointed on top. Gaster

oval. Legs robust.

Minor worker :

Length: 4mm.

The colour varies: some of the specimens are of the same colour as the

major, except that the front of the head is more brownish, while others are

very much darker. In these examples the head is dark reddish brown, the

NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS 27

thorax and node darker chestnut and the gaster brownish black. taa light

brown.

The sculpture is much finer, but there are no punctures.

The eyes are more oval than those of the major. The rest as in the major.

Female:

Length: 5:2mm.

Very like the major, and the colour sculpture and pilosity are the same. The

pronotum is twice as wide as long with the sides feebly convex. Mesonotum

large, almost circular, though very slightly wider in front than behind.

Parapsidal furrows deep, longer than half the mesonotum. Scutellum broader

than long, elliptical, with a wide suture separating it from the epinotum. It is

smooth and shining. Epinotum transversely striate and twice as broad as

long. The node is finer than that of the major, concave on top. In profile the

mesonotum is higher than the pronotum with a feebly convex dorsum. The

scutellum is lower than the mesonotum, while the epinotum is convex with a

declivity concave, and much steeper than that of the major. The wings are

almost colourless with the pterostigma light brown.

Collected by Mr. Herbert Potter of Patho, Victoria, who has previously

contributed a number of new and very interesting raiding ants from his

district.

Type in the National Museum of Vie.

PLATE I.

Fra.

1. Prolasius advena Smith Worker, head from in front.

2. P. advena Worker, head in profile.

3. P. advena Worker, thorax in profile.

4. P. antennata, new species Worker, head.

5. P. antennata . Worker, thorax in profile.

6. P. convexa, new species Worker, head.

17. P. convexa Worker, thorax.

8.. P. hellenw, new species Worker, head.

9. P. hellen Worker, thorax.

10. P. quadrata, new species Worker, head.

1l. P. quadrata Worker, thorax.

12. P. nigriventris, new species Worker, head.

18. P. nigriventris Worker, thorax.

14. P. reticulata, new species Worker, head.

15. P. reticulata Worker, thorax.

16. P. hemiflarua variety wilsoni new var., worker, ent

17. Р. hemiflavua variety wilsoni Worker, thorax.

18. P. robustus, new species Worker, head.

19. P. robustus Worker, thorax.

20. P. flavidiscus, new species Worker, head.

21. P. flavidiscus Worker, thorax.

29. P. brunea, new species Worker, head.

23. P. brunea Worker, thorax.

24. ^P. depressiceps Emery Worker, head.

95. P. depressiceps Worker, thorax.

26. P. clarki, new species Worker, head.

27. P. clarki Worker, thorax.

28. P. nitidissimus Andre Worker, head.

29. P. nitidissimus Worker, thorax.

Мем. Nat. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES

AND MIGRATION

Ву Е. А. Keble, F.G.S.,

Palaeontologist, National Museum of Victoria

Plate 2, Figs. 1-13.

(Received for publication June 25, 1947)

These notes were made, in the first instance, on climates

suggested by the texture and fossils of some Victorian deposits

that contained artefacts. But to understand the diversity of

climates, it was found necessary to investigate the effects of the

Postglacial and Pleistocene interglacial and glacial stages in the

Southern Hemisphere and this led to their further elaboration.

Apart from regulating the march of the climatic belts and its

effect on habitability, it became evident that the interglacial and

glacial stages were responsible for oscillations in sea-level that

modified the geographical distribution of land and sea, particu-

larly in northern Australia. Obviously, these oscillations had a

profound bearing on immigration to Australia, but in a some-

what different way to that suggested elsewhere; the changing

climate has also influenced migration in Australia.

Marett (1938) succinctly suggests the scope of this enquiry:

The anthropo-geographer can afford to concentrate on climate, treating

fauna and flora, and even avenues of migration, as dependent subjects.

Calculating temperature, rainfall and so on for given regions as the climate

varies, he can proceed to map out areas of relative habitability, suiting man

more or less closely, according to his degree of culture . . . Thus the study

of environment teaches the anthropologist where to look alike for the strong

and for the weak among the human candidates for survival. Geographical

considerations will not suffice to explain the full conditions of the struggle

between ethnic types but whoever aspires to understand human history as a

whole must at least acquire the map-making, map-reading faculty at the start.

In Australia, the pioneer of this class of research was Griffith

Taylor (1919) who showed how changes in temperature affected the

rain-belts now and under somewhat hotter (Pliocene) and colder

(Quaternary) conditions. The basic principles underlying such

an investigation he (Taylor, 1927) stated in the following words:

If the land be subjected to cooler temperatures, this is equivalent to

increasing the factors which bring the southern rain belt to Australia.

We should expect a strengthening of this rain belt so that it should

become broader; in effect, the desert would retreat to the north. If the

climate as a whole became hotter we should expect a movement south of the

desert and a deterioration in the living conditions of southern Australia.

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 29

He illustrates this by maps (Taylor, 1919, 1927).

In the several maps given here, the line of advance and retreat

of the climatic belts is taken to be the axis of the overlap of the

tropical low pressure rainfall and the southern low pressure rain-

fall; this is referred to here as the “line of maximum aridity.”

(Fig. 1).

l'eSSU,

Fig. 1.

Present Line of Maximum Aridity and the Range of the Rainfall-reliability Belt.

This paper discusses:

I The march of the climatic belts.

ШЕ Rainfall: fertility and aridity.

III. Deposits containing artefacts.

a. Tartanga and Devon Downs.

b. Dunes at Altona and Point Cook.

с. Deposits under lava-flows and volcanic ejecta-

menta.

IV. Bones shaped by man or animals.

V. Palaeogeography of the Postglacial and last glacial

periods.

VI. Probable landing places.

30 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

VII. Critical millennia.

VIII. Migration routes in Australia.

IX. Digest of conclusions. |

As far as possible, the writer has restrieted his comments to

the geology of deposits in south-east Australia containing arte-

facts, the elimates implied by such deposits, and the palaeogeog-

raphy at critical periods. Where references are made to social

anthropology, their sources are given.

000.000.

OIDO AA

Cee s

Rainfall-reliability Belt

Sy dik FIG. 2.

Climatic Belts and Rainfall-reliability Belt at the Postglacial Optimum.

(1). Marcu or virg Отлматіс BELTS.

In Australia during the Quaternary period, the climatic belts

moved northwards in the glacial periods and southwards in the

Postglacial and interglacial periods; with them moved the forest,

savannah, arid and steppe belts. A variation in temperature of

12 E. is involved, equivalent to a movement north or south of

800 miles. With the advance of the belts, a region may have

passed successively from desert into savannah to tropical rain-

forest; from aridity into relative fertility to revert on their

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 31

retreat to its former state. Thus the line of maximum aridity

during the glacial period was approximately 200 miles south of

Darwin, but at the Postglacial Optimum 400 miles north of

Adelaide. (Fig. 2).

During the glacial period, only the higher altitudes of Australia

were beset with glacial conditions—the Margaret glaciation—

which were too restricted to affect to any extent the climate: any

reference here to glacial or interglacial in connection with the

mainland refers only to the periods when those stages prevailed

in other latitudes. The following were the climatic, and hence

the physical extremes, in the Australian region during the

Quaternary:

Postglacial and inter- Glacial Period.

glacial Periods.

New Guinea. Tropical rain-forest. Savannah.

Northern Australia. Savannah and tropical Arid belt.

rain-forest.

Lake Eyre Basin. Arid belt. Steppe.

South-east Australia. Steppe. Temperate rain-

forest.

Tasmania. Temperate. Glaciated.

The south-east, the coastal corridor, the orographie rainfall-

belt and the extreme south-west of Australia have always been

regions that have been more or less fertile; the rest of it has been

at some time successively desert or on the borderline of complete

aridity, savannah, steppe, or partly in the fertile belt. In Europe,

the continental character of the climate during the retreat of the

ice-sheet that ushered in the dry period, although largely in-

fluenced by geographical distribution, was, to some extent, due

to astronomical causes, and assuredly had its equivalent in the

Southern Hemisphere. Tt concluded about 4,000 B.C., when

there was a period of submergence—the Atlantic stage. The

Postglacial Optimum is placed here about 2,000 B.O.—i.e., 4,000

years ago (cf. Brooks, 1922). A progressive change of climate

leading to the Postglacial Optimum has been assumed, although,

doubtless, there have been minor climatic fluctuations; the small

amount of geographical change that has occurred in Australia in

the Postglacial—it has occurred mainly in the north—has probably

made these less marked and infrequent. Glaciation ended in

lowland Europe about 7,000 years ago, but the climate became

appreciably warmer about 8,000 years ago.

Glaciation on the Australian mainland was restricted during

the last glacial period to a small area on Mt. Kosciusko. In Tas-

32 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

mania there were at least three glaciations, in local terminology,

the Margaret, Yolandean, and Malannan stages, most fully

described by Lewis (1945). These are respectively probably the

equivalents of the Wurm, Riss, and Mindel glacial stages of the

Northern Hemisphere. The Margaret glaciation occurred after

the formation of Bass Strait, the Yolandean and Malannan

before. Two glaciations have occurred at Mt. Kosciusko (7328

ft.) on the Kosciusko plateau, the newer of which David (1923)

has correlated with the Wurm (Margaret), and the older with the

Mindel (Malannan). In regard to the more recent changes in

climate, we are concerned with those after the Margaret glacia-

tion; this David divided into the Post-Wurm Mountain Glaciation

and the Wurm Glaciation, but seemingly, these may be regarded

as phases of the Margaret. In respect to the summit of Mt.

Kosciusko, he states that the Mountain Glaciation extended down

to 6,400 feet and the Wurm down to 6,150 feet, 928 and 1,178 feet

respectively below the summit. х à

The paths of the lows have changed with the passing north and

south of the glacial, Postglacial and interglacial periods: the

eastern and western littorals have been most affected by the con-

temporaneous passing backwards and forwards of the rain-belt.

Information concerning the present paths of the depressions is

far from complete and any deduetions from it must necessarily

be tentative.

The general direction of the high pressure belt with its comple-

mentary lows is, in the Australian region, a little south of east. Due

to the existence of a greater land-surface in the Northern Hemis-

phere, their direction is there less defined. Brooks (1926) states:

Although the paths of the individual depressions in temperate regions often

appear to be erratie, it has been found possible to classify them into a number

of tracks, which are more usually followed than the intervening regions. These

tracks have a preference for moist areas, especially such inland seas as the

English Channel, the Baltie, and the Mediterranean, or for well watered plains

such as Hungary and Poland .. . The question of the tracks of depressions is

important for palaeometeorology, for a considerable degree of permanence has

been attributed to them.

As most of the reliable rainfall along the south coast of Aus-

tralia is associated with the winter Antarctic low, the average

position of its axis is important from the standpoint of this

discussion. Taylor (1920) shows that it trends E.S.E. by a

straight line from a point about 250 miles south of Cape Leeuwin

and that it enters Bass Strait between King Island and Tasmania.

This is the path at present, 4,000 years after the Postglacial

Optimum; it was also the path 4,000 years before the Postglacial

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 33

Optimum, or 8,000 years ago. The probable paths now and in

the past are shown in Fig. 3.

The Southern Ocean Current profoundly affects the climate

of a large part of Australia, particularly its south-eastern portion.

It bifurcates some hundreds of miles south-west of Cape Leeuwin:

one branch flows northwards up the west coast, the other east-

wards along the south coast impelled by the anti-trade winds. It

receives a great indraft of cold water from the Antarctic Ocean,

and, west of Cape Leeuwin, a surface indraft of warm water

from the Indian Ocean. The Challenger Expedition recorded the

latter as a warm sub-surface current off Cape Northumberland

at the south-east corner of South Australia about 400 miles wide

FIG. 3.

Approximate positions of paths of lows at present and in the past. I. During the six

cool months (after Taylor, 1920, Fig. 132) and also 8,000 years ago; II. at last glacial

maximum; III. 15,000 years ago when the tropical rain-forest reached Australia; IV.

at Postglacial Optimum, 4,000 years ago; V. before existence of Bass Strait.

and about 250 fathoms deep flowing easterly. At Cape Leeuwin

it is a surface current, but at Cape Northumberland it is about

150 fathoms below the surface and has cooled about 16 degrees.

Halligan (1921) states: :

The southern branch eontinues as an easterly surface current across the

Bight, with a rate varying from :8 to :4 knot as far as Spencer Gulf. The warm

current from the Indian Ocean, which appears to be confined to the Bight, to

that point, here dips below and beeomes partly merged in the main stream until

it strikes the Tasmanian Plateau. This obstruction, by deflecting the current to

the south-east, causes a further mixing of the warm and cold waters, which

accounts for the water in Bass Strait being generally from-2? to 4° colder than

the water off Cape Northumberland.

He observes that the Tasmanian Plateau also retards the eur-

rent velocity in Bass Strait to the extent that the tidal currents

become more important and that both are largely dominated by

C K В

34 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

the wind. The main body, however, sweeps along the western

side of the plateau, turning sharply and with increased velocity to

the east round S.W. Cape at the south-west corner of Tasmania.

These are the conditions that have existed since the formation of

Bass Strait, but before that, the whole volume of the current was

diverted south-easterly along the western side of the plateau—the

pre-Yolandean shoreline. The south-east corner of the mainland

did not experience the climatic influence of that portion that

now passes through Bass Strait, which, considering the tempera-

ture of the Southern Ocean Current is less than 62° F., must have

been appreciable.

II. RAINFALL: FERTILITY AND ARIDITY.

The present rainfall-reliability belt is shown in Fig. 1; it is

substantially that shown by Taylor (1920, Fig. 125). It extends

from west to east across southern Australia to the Dividing Range,

and north, for the most part, along the western slopes of the

range into Queensland. The arid belt terminates against its

western boundary and the reliable rainfall belt extends some

250 miles north of the line of maximum aridity (Fig. 1). Falling

for the most part on the western slopes of the Dividing Range,

the reliable rainfall is closely connected with the Antaretie lows

travelling from west to east and is obviously mainly orographic.

The rainfall of the coastal corridor between the Dividing Range

and the east coast, other than the cyclonic rain, comes mostly

with the trade-winds that extend furthermost south in the sum-

mer months. The rainfall of the north portion of the corridor is

seasonal. The corridor has always had a useful, if uneven, rain-

fall, particularly that part of it south of the Tropie of Capricorn;

the number of permanent coastal streams draining is evidence

of this. It connects northern Australia with south-east and

southern Australia by a fertile belt—a fact plainly evident in the

distribution of the white population.

During the last glacial period, the reliable rainfall extended

along the western slopes of the Dividing Range to the Atherton

Plateau in North Queensland (Fig. 13); this was the period of

the greatest and most extensive fertility for eastern Australia.

The rainfall-reliability belt receded slowly southwards until the

Postglacial Optimum, but has since been moving northwards.

Such streams as the Diamantina and the Georgina flowing south

had their sources in the extension eastwards of the Selwyn

Highlands, a low physiographical divide that, owing to its trend,

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 35

does not intercept orographical rainfall. These intermittent

watercourses, together with the south-west flowing Cooper, are

outlets to the Lake Eyre Basin at the present time of from 15 to

20 inches of mostly summer tropical rainfall falling on the -

southern slopes of the Selwyn Highlands and on the western

slopes of the Dividing Range. The effects of climatic change and

the contraction of the rainfall-belt on these streams will be dis-

cussed under the heading Migration Routes (Part VIII). |

In the tropical rain-belt, in Australia, there is a rain-forest

comparable, as regards its ecology, with that in the Malay

Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula; it is restrieted to its

northern part. The sub-tropical dry belt—the summer rain-

region of Australia, savannah and grassland— includes, at

present, a large portion of the north, south of the tropical rain-

belt. On the poleward sides of the latter, in both Hemispheres,

one passes into the arid belts, such as that in Central Australia,

with slight or no rainfall. It is difficult to gauge the aridity of

this in the past. At present the arid belt crosses Australia to

south-west Queensland and north-west New South Wales to the

edge of the rainfall-reliability belt; as already noted, it does not

cross the latter into the coastal corridor. It includes the Lake

Eyre Basin that normally receives less than 5 inches of rainfall,

wholly convectional, but for periods of years no rainfall at all.

Heat and consequently evaporation are excessive, the former not

much less than the hottest parts of the Sahara (Kendrew, 1937),

yet scarcely any of its western portion is true desert and is not

as arid as some at the waterless west-coast deserts of other con-

tinents. Commenting on the desert-phase, Brooks (1926) states:

In parts of the South American desert it has probably not rained for

centuries. Such plants as there are show special devices to prevent the loss

of water, but in many deserts the ground is entirely bare of plants. Among

animals, one of the most characteristic is the lung-fish (Ceratodus), which is

adapted to breathe either air or water, and can remain dried up for long

periods. ре DR e lll

Ceratodus is still living in Australia and is significantly found

in what are now well-watered seasonal rainfall-tracts. ;

The gibber plains of Australia attest long and reeurrent periods

of aridity in the Quaternary. At the Postglacial Optimum the line

of maximum aridity was through Marree, about 50 miles south of

Lake Eyre, and the arid belt was then hotter and more arid. This

hot period which was world-wide ended about 2,000 years ago and

lasted about 4,000 years. Howchin (1913) believed the present

arid conditions of Central Australia had a gradual evolution and

were due to the sunkland in south Central Australia which had

36 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

the effect of raising the mean annual temperature. The increased

temperature prevented rain falling on the advanced side of a

barometric depression and limited it to the departing quadrant.

These, he maintained, are the typical conditions of the rainfall

of South Australia at the present time. He also attributes aridity

to physiographical changes, but the writer has reason to believe

that his conclusions are not supported by current research.

In the Lake Eyre Basin, the sub-surface deposits contain the

remains of Diprotodon, crocodiles, chelonians and other forms

implying wetter, moister conditions. The surface deposits

accumulated during the warmer period of the Postglacial

Optimum and have been transported thither by the spasmodic

drainage accompanying convectional and seasonal tropical

rainfall; the sub-surface deposits were deposited during the earlier

part of the Postglacial or the last glacial period.

_ The effect of the hot period of the Postglacial Optimum is seen

in the forests of eastern Australia. Taylor (1920) observes that

many plants require rainfall all through the year, a break of a

month or two being deleterious; this applies especially to the

tropical forest element present along the east coast and south-east

coast of Australia. He found that the 12 isopleth, which bounds

on the west, the region receiving at least an inch of rain each

month of the twelve, does not coincide with the limits of the

thick tropical or temperate forest, so he plotted the line bounding

the region where an additional inch fell during each of seven

. months on the regions of considerable rainfall. This was found

to agree closely with the distribution of both the tropical and

temperate forest. In this area, the rainfall practically equals

evaporation and the required rainfall seems to be largely a

matter of elevation; evaporation is a much more potent factor on

the lowlands west of the highlands of eastern Australia than on the

highlands themselves. During the warm period of the Postglacial

Optimum the forests must have been much more restricted than

they are today.

Southwards of the arid belt is the Mediterranean type of climate

with an increased winter rainfall, but hot, generally rainless

summers; this type passes into the temperate rain-belt. South of

this is the boreal belt in which a terrestrial region is character-

ized by an ample coastal rainfall, but usually a dry interior; the

winter is severe with a persistent snow cover and the summer is

Short. Evidence of it in Australia during the glacial period is

seen in the peat deposits in southern Victoria and Tasmania;

peat formation calls for a rainfall of at least 40 inches and a

mean temperature above 40°F.

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 37

ILI. DEPOSITS CONTAINING ARTEFACTS.

The first appearance of the Proto-Indies or Australoids in

Australia, in its present form, is of some antiquity; they came

many thousands of years ago, but the time that has elapsed since

their arrival is short compared, for instance, to that which has

passed since the Neanderthal appeared in Europe. In reviewing

here the stratigraphic positions of artefacts and the climatic

changes disclosed by the sections, only the more reliable finds

have been selected. One from outside Victoria has been included,

Hale and Tindale’s classic investigation at Tartanga and Devon

Downs; it is felt that their evidence may be accepted without

reservations and should be summarized here as many of the

problems raised occur in Victoria. The Victorian records are

less reliable; like many archeological discoveries nearly all of

them were made by unskilled observers, but the evidence is at

least as trustworthy as that of some accepted finds.

Little has been attempted in Australia in correlating the

Recent or Postglacial and the Pleistocene sediments with climatic

change. Archeological research in Australia has not as yet sup-

plied the close subdivision worked out in Europe, nor are there

any literary records or traditions to corroborate the more recent

events: for these reasons the dating of them must always be an

approximation. The bearing of climatic change in the Postglacial

and Pleistocene has hitherto only been touched on in a perfunc-

tory way and it is realized that the problems they raise can only

be settled by marshalling more evidence; it is hoped, nevertheless,

that their discussion may stimulate this. We are very much in

the same position in Australia at present as they were in America

when comparative records were not available there as to the

conditions that prevailed before the coming of the white man.

But a record of the climatic changes has been pushed back in

America for 3,000 years by a close study of the growth-rings of

trees. It has been said that the eucalypts do not lend themselves

to dendrochronology like the American trees, but there is evidence

of what appear to be largely climatic fluctuations in the former

levels of lakes. Many of these lakes have no outlets and would

appear to be suited to such an investigation. It is possible that by

correlating the evidence they reveal with such as may be obtained

from the study of growth-rings, a more or less reliable record

might be obtained. One could not expect the comparative accur-

acy of the Caspian levels which are substantiated by literary and

archeological records, but such a record would, nevertheless, be

valuable.

38 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

A. Evidence at Tartanga and the Devon Downs Shelter.

This important investigation was conducted by Hale and Tin-

dale (1930) who excavated the Tartanga deposits and the Devon

Downs Shelter on the lower Murray, South Australia. They

summarize the evidence of Tartanga, where there are human

remains associated with food-debris and old industries, by the

statement that the “geological and physiographical features

show that these occupational records are at least of some

antiquity." Because it throws some light on climate and supplies

a standard for comparison, the Devon Downs succession is

given here with that at Tartanga.

Devon Downs Shelter. Tartanga. ;

| I. Late Murundian. Hammer-stone, I. Signs of human occupation. A

chippings, flakes, red-ochre. few hand-mills, no definite stone

artefacts. A few stone chippings.

II. Murundian. Human remains, H. Numerous signs of intensive oc-

bone implements, stone chippings, cupation, hearths, ash, etc.

red ochre.

ПІ. Murundian. Human remains, б. A single flake, exhibiting what

bone and stone implements of ау be poor attempts at second-

indefinite type.

IV. Early Murundian. Human re- F.

mains. Bone and stone imple-

ments of definite shape.

V. Mudukian. Bone implements and E. Human remains. Bone imple-

definite stone implements similar ments. Stone chippings.

-to VI and УП.

VI. Mudukian. Human remains. Bone D.

implements including muduk or millstones, pounding and grind-

fishing-bone. Stone implements. ing stones, chippings.

VII. Mudukian. . Bone and stone im- ©. Human skeleton.

ary chipping.

A crude millstone.

Human remains. Implements,

Stone imple-

plements. | ments and chippings.

VIII. Pirrian. Typical stone and bone В. - Burnt stones, stone chippings or

Implements including pirri. flakes. Bone implements.

IX. Pirrian. Stone and bone imple- A. Burnt stones suggestive of cook-

ments including pirri. ing-hearths.

X. Pirrian. Stone and bone imple- Af. Occupational debris.

H ments, including pirri,

XI. Pre-Pirrian. Human remains. No A2. Occupational debris.

stone implements but chippings.

Bone implements.

XII. No implements either bone or

stone. Chippings.

In the succession at Tartanga, the term Tartangan is restricted

to the period during which beds E to A were deposited, except AI

and A2, the oldest of the series. Hale and Tindale consider the

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 39

sequence, in ascending order, to be Tartangan, Pre-Pirrian, Pir-

rian, Mudukian, Murundian, the first-mentioned being separated

from the rest by а time-interval of unknown duration.

The sequence with the salient faunas is tabulated

Culture-phases Site Salient fauna. Industries

Late Murundian Devon Downs All are existing Degenerate stone culture.

I species, Unio Rock-markings, Type C

vittatus. | Melania (illustrated).

much more abund-

ant than Bulinus.

Early Murundian Devon Downs АН are existing Degenerating stone indus-

II to IV. species of animals tries; adze-stones (tula)

Unio vittatus. common only at begin-

ning. Bone artefacts very

rare. Rock markings,

Type B (illustrated).

Mudukian Devon Downs Small mammals Rich stone and bone in-

V to VII numerous. Sarcop- dustries including tula

hilus ef. harrissi. and double-pointed bones

Unio vittatus. (muduk). Rock mark-

ings Type A (illustrated).

Pirrian Devon Downs Large mammals Rich stone and bone in-

VIII to X common Sarco- dustry. Tula rare in up-

| . philus cf., harrissi per and absent from lower

Chelodina cf. ex- layers. Leaf points (pirri)

pansa, Unio vitta- abundant. Double-point-

tus. ed bones (muduk) absent.

Pre-Pirrian Devon Downs Bulinus much more Scant bone industry.

XI to XII abundant than Stone chippings, but no

Melania, Unio vit- implements recovered.

tatus. Not well known.

Tartangan Tartanga Unio protovitta- Stone and bone industry.

beds. A-E. tus. Large patinated, discoidal

scrapers, coarsely re-

touched. Coarse bone 1m-

plements.

Hale and Tindale collected the molluscan shells in the food

debris at the Devon Downs Shelter all of which they point out,

were brought there. The number of shells of a species found on a

cultural level is taken by them to indicate the relative abundance

or scarcity of the species in the vicinity at the time, and they show

this by a graphical representation of about a thousand specimens

of Melania balonnensis, Bulinus texturatus and Corbicula angasi.

They show that Melania balonnensis is rare in the lowest layers

but in the highest more plentiful; Bulinus texturatus and Corbi-

cula angasi are plentiful in the lower layers, the former very

plentiful, and rare in the higher layers. | Incidentally Melania is

found in the clays with the bones of Diprotodon at Lake Calla-

40 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

bonna east of Lake Eyre, and is well represented in the warmer

rivers of Queensland ; Hale and Tindale suggest that its distribu-

tion in the layers at Devon Downs implies climatic change ‘‘in the

direction of the semi-arid conditions of the lower watershed of

the present time.” The author is of the opinion that the arid con-

ditions at the time of the Postglacial Optimum are indicated.

Bulinus is a fresh-water genus most abundant in Layer XI (Pre-

Pirrian) and its distribution is taken to suggest the cooler climate

of the Postglacial that prevailed previous to 8,000 years ago. The

relative abundance of the three molluscs seems, therefore, to sup-

port the Postglacial climatic changes emphasized here. If the

chelonian in Layer X was actually Chelodina expansa, such

would be inconsistent with them, for that species is only found in

northern Australia; it is, however, only compared with C. expansa.

It would seem from the physiography of the Lower Murray that

all the industries and cultures of Tartanga and Devon Downs

belong to the Postglacial period. They have certainly been

deposited during a period of accumulation succeeding a period of

removal, presumably the vertical erosion accompanying the lower-

ing of sea-level during the last glacial period. That being so, they

are certainly Postglacial.

B. Artefacts Associated with Dunes.

Altona Bay is on the north-west shore of Port Phillip Bay, the

dune area. there extending 3 or 4 miles south-west along the

shore from the Kororoit Creek and 13 miles inland. It has been

described and mapped in detail by Hills (1940). Extending

along the shoreline is a beach ridge and inland behind this are

ridges (referred to here as the inner ridges) of interealated dune-

sand and shell-beds 4to 5 feet above the floors of the intervening

swales. The contained shells are all living species and well pre-

served; some of them have paired valves. The shell-bed showing

in the eutting on the Altona railway line about 200 yards west of

the Kororoit Creek, is 8 feet thick and its upper surface is about 94

feet above L.W.M. (low-water mark at Hobson’s Bay—the datum

usual in Victoria): it rests on the lava-plain-Newer Volcanic

Basalt (Middle Pleistocene). Some layers in it are almost entirely

composed of shells, others of fine, loose sand with shells and

travertine. Pritchard (1909) states that ‘‘there is no hesitation in

saying that the shells are marine but occasionally a layer of

brackish water shells composed of such genera as Truncatella,

Coxiella, Assiminea, Salinator and Ophicardelus make their

appearance.” The water in which the beds were laid down was,

seemingly, in close proximity to a shoreline.

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 41

Tn the swales there is a small aceumulation of sand from the

disintegration of the ridges since they were formed. Inland

behind the inner ridges are ephemeral lakes—Lake Seaholme,

Lake Altona, and Lake Truganina—the bottoms of which are

black mud resting on the lava-plain. In the banks of Lake Trug-

anina, 5 feet 9 inches above L.W.M., are marine shells 4» situ;

some of the pelecypods are paired. The lower reaches of the

Kororoit Creek flow over a similar mud in which marine shells

occur. Marine shells are also found in the tidal deposits slightly

above present high-tide level on the flats north of the Williams-

town Racecourse which is on the right bank of the Kororoit

Creek.

The highest inner ridge shown by Hills (1940 Fig. 3) is 10 feet

2 inches above high-tide level, or, as the tidal range at Altona is

about 2 feet, 12 feet 2 inches above L.W.M. It is apparent, then,

unless there has been very recent subsidence, the inner ridges

were submerged to a depth of from 3 to 8 feet by the Recent or

Postglacial rise of sea-level of from 15 to 20 feet above present

L.W.M. This inundation also filled the lakes behind the ridges.

Recent subsidence cannot however be discounted, for the writer

(1946) believes that the coastal strip on the eastward side of a

line from Footscray to Werribee and beyond is a down-warped

area partly responsible for the recent configuration of Port Phillip

Bay. |

Submergence during interglacial periods has occurred on the

Nepean Peninsula, the south-eastern land arm of Port Phillip;

there dune-deposits have been levelled and sediments and shell-

beds deposited on their levelled surfaces. The succession at

Altona is taken to be: |

A.—Newer Volcanic Basalt (Middle Pleistocene).

B.—Margaret glaciation period.

a.—Hmergence (W2).

b.—Submergenee (W2/W3). Deposition of shell-beds.

c.—Emergence (W3). Formation of dunes.

C.—Postglacial. ба

a.—Rise of sea-level, progressive submergence and levelling

of dunes.

b.—Maximum rise of sea-level from 15 to 20 feet above pres-

ent L.W.M. at Postglacial Optimum.

c.—Progressive emergence. Dunes uncovered with levelled

surface, commencement of formation of beach ridge.

The symbols W2, W3 and W2/W3 represent the Wurm glacial

and inter-glacial stages.

42 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

If sea-level started to recede 4,000 years ago and it has fallen

from 15 to 20 feet.at the same rate since, the inner ridges at Altona

emerged from 2,400 to 3,200 years ago.

Point Cook, where there is evidence of inner ridges and swales,

is topographically and apparently structurally like Altona. The

basal bed consists of fluviatile deposits at the mouth of the

Skeleton Water Holes.

Both Altona and Point Cook have been prolific collecting

grounds for all kinds of stone artefacts. Altona is a growing

suburb of Melbourne and the opportunities are fast disappearing ;

it is deplorable that so few records of the positions of artefacts

when they were found have been kept. Enquiries suggest the

probability that they were on the surfaces of the inner ridges or

the floors of the swales. It will be realized that if any were

in situ in the surface sand of the inner ridges, such would be

evidence of the presence of the aborigines during the last glacial

period or the opening stages of the Postglacial. It is obvious

from the parallel bedding of the ridges that the whole area was

formerly covered by these bedded deposits and the swales respon-

· sible for the ridges were formed later. Whether or not the imple-

ments found on the floors of the swales were incorporated in the

. material that has been removed must remain an open question.

An intelligent search of the upper sands of the inner ridges

would be informative.

At Point Cook, the artefacts are found on the dunes or on the

basal bed where it has been exposed by the shifting of the dune-

sands. Whether those on the basal bed have been let down on to

it by the removal of the dune-sands, or were there before the dune

was formed, cannot be determined. The extant native fire-places

in the dunes consist of a subeireular collection of fire-stones so

placed by the aborigines; they occur at all levels. Where the

dune-sand on which a fireplace rested has been shifted by wind

action from under it, the stones are scattered, but many fireplaces

retain their original shape. At one place the author observed one

that had been placed on the basal bed. The fact that they occur

at different levels might be taken as evidence that the aborigines

were there throughout the whole dune period and even before,

but there is the possibility that they selected a depression, or

made one, in which to place their hearths; if so, they could be

readily covered by drifting sand.

Summarizing these notes, up to the present, the evidence at

Altona and Point Cook points to the earliest occupation of those

areas by the aborigines about 3,000 years ago, when the inner

ridges at Altona were first uncovered. The beds in the areas

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 43

require investigation by intelligent collecting for evidence of an

earlier occupation; such, whether it was positive or negative,

would be valuable.

The artefacts found at Altona and Point Cook, on the evidence

available, belong to the Murundian, the newest of Hale and Tin-

dale’s industries.

C.—Deposits under Lava-flows and Volcanic Ejectamenta.

In Victoria, artefacts have been found under lava-flows and

voleanie ejectamenta. Much of the evidence must be accepted on

its face-value, for most of the finds were made more than half a

century ago. They were found at widely separated places by

individuals who, with a single exception, did not realize the

significance of their finds: the thought of antiquity never occurred

tothem. Where possible inquiries have been made by the writer

and statements checked. It has been ascertained, for example,

that they who were connected with the finding of the Pejark

Marsh Millstone (p. 46 post) were trustworthy and all of them

lived in the locality at the time. It was not possible to locate

those who found the Buninyong Bone (p. 50 post) but the writer

knew the Hon. R. T. Vale who was the parliamentary member

for Buninyong towards the close of the last century and chairman

of the Board of Directors of the Great Buninyong Estate Mine;

he resented any implication that the bone had not been found

in the circumstances stated, or that it had been tampered with.

The Maryborough Axe was found in 1854. Its authenticity

cannot be probed, but it was facetiously queried by a boring

engineer who visited the site some 50 years later and gave it as

his opinion “that it might have fallen down a wombat hole or a

natural hollow." · Тһе Colongulae Bone was picked up on the

shore of Lake Colongulae together with a number of other bones,

including some of Diprotodon; it came from a bone-bed that has

not yet been located, but is known to occur in the immediate

vieinity. There is ground for the belief that the bed is contem-

poraneous and probably identical with that at Pejark Marsh.

Spencer and Walcott (p. 51 post) were convinced of the genuine-

ness of the Colongulac Bone. The section from which the Bushfield

Axe is stated to have come was inspected by S. R. Mitchell and

myself (p. 56 post): E. W. Hamilton; who found it, is, too, an

untrained observer and his account must also be taken at its

face-value. The sole instance of a discovery of implements by a

competent and reliable observer was the finding of the Myrniong

artefacts (p. 54 post) under “The Island" lava-flow; their

authenticity cannot be doubted.

44 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

The voleanies of western Victoria may be considered under two

headings—the earlier lava-plains phase and the recent scoria-cone

phase, the latter comprising scoria, scoria-cone lava-flows and

tuff.

The lava-plains or lava-field phase extends westwards from the

meridian of Melbourne to near the western Victorian border; it is

bounded on the south by the Otway Ranges and further west by

the Southern Ocean, the coastline of which is fringed with dunes.

It extends northwards almost to the Dividing Range in its former

position. No artefacts have been found under it, but an under-

standing of its place in regard to the scoria-cone phase is desirable.

The scoria-cone phase is, from the standpoint of archeology,

highly important, for under some form of it have been found

the Pejark Marsh Millstone, Buninyong Bone, Maryborough Axe,

Bushfield Axe, and the Myrniong implements. The most compre-

hensive survey of both of these volcanic phases is that by Grayson

and Mahony (1910) who mapped in Quarter Sheets 8 N.E. and

8 N.W. (New Series) over 580 square miles and described the area.

The legend of these Quarter Sheets does not give geological ages

for any of the features mapped other than the basal marine

sediments on which the lava-plains rest. The legend given in

Fig. 4 is compiled from their statements and our own observations.

Quater-

H ; Volcanic Climate and

Age EAM Soils, Clays, Tuffs and Gravels Phases Rainfall

Black alluvial soil Surface í

unes of quartz sand and Surface lacustrine

redeposited tuff flood-plain +

T Ham kr a increasi

RECEN Postglacial ac clay | containing i s, creasing

wind-blown sand and н one rainfall

tu flows & tuffs | | arid period

Diprotodon Bed postglacial

Yellow clay of wind-blown Sub-surface optimum

sand and tuff flood-plain decreasing

Buckshot gravel rainfall.

cool, rainfall

Margaret ^ Sub-surface period |

glacial Н lacustrine increasing

Vertical pene

Yolande- erosion - aro

De Margaret, Buckshot gravel perioda

à Interglacial rainfall 8

cool, rainfall

Yolande period

| [lava plain]

FIG. 4.

Legend compiled from Quarter Sheets of Camperdown and Mt. Elephant Districts.

Grayson and Mahony state that the scoria-cones and scoria-cone

flows are of very recent origin, and though they are ‘‘approximate-

ly of the same age, some of the flows are no doubt considerably

older than others, and no sharp line can be drawn between them

and the earlier [lava-plain] basalts.” Nevertheless, that there is

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 45

a time interval between the scoria-cone phase in the Camperdown

distriet and the lava-plains, is evident from the fact that while no

scoria-cone flow shows sign of fluviatile dissection, the stream-

system on the lava-plains is mature.

Earlier accumulations of the Hampden Tuffs, a tuff-series so-

named by Grayson and Mahony, cover extensive areas near

Camperdown and Lake Keilambete as well as the floors of Lake

Bookar and Lake Terang. Since it covers the floors of these and

other lakes and swamps, their basins were formed either during

or before its accumulation. Its earlier phases are distinct from

the scoria and scoria-cone lava-flows which in places rest on it,

while it in turn rests on the mature topography of the lava-plains.

The time taken for the lava-plains physiographical cycle to reach

maturity is the interval between the accumulation of these earlier

press of the Hampden Tuffs and the extrusion of the lava-

plains.

That the final accumulations of the Hampden Tuffs are quite

recent, is shown by their position in the Pejark Marsh section

(Fig. 5) where the series is covered by only 3 feet of soil; there it

is only 2 feet thick and the attenuated edge of a thick series of

tuffs on the slopes of Mt. Terang (cf. Walcott, 1919), it rests on

black clay which rests on yellow clay that also contains volcanic

ejectamenta. The texture of this yellow elay suggests that it was

deposited during the the arid period of the Postglacial Optimum,

and the black carbonaceous clay resting on it was deposited after

the Postglacial Optimum. From the evidence afforded by the

beds in the Pejark Marsh section, it appears that the scoria-cones

in the area were active during the arid period and spasmodically -

during the increasing rainfall period up to less than 2,000 years

ago, when, approximately, the Pejark Marsh Tuff accumulated.

Gill (1943) points out that the tuff at Warrnambool is of very

recent age, and gives as part of his evidence that it rests on

Holocene shell-beds which means that the tuff is later than at least

the beginning of the Postglacial recession of the sea (if the 15-

foot relative rise of the land at Warrnambool is due to this

cause). The writer, on the other hand, believes (p. 58 post) that

the Warrnambool tuffs accumulated earlier in the more recent

half of the Postglacial.

The Hampden Tuffs, in most places, rest on buckshot-gravels

of lateritie origin formed during the tropical and subtropical

climates of the arid periods of the Postglacial and interglacial

stages. The flood-plain deposits of the mature Emu Creek are

at no place covered with scoria, a scoria-cone flow or tuff; they

seem to have been at all times beyond their reach.

46 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

The lacustrine sediments in some of the oldest depressions on

the lava-plain have been accumulating since the lava-plain was

formed. The flood-plain deposits commenced to form after these

older depressions were connected up by the dissection of the lava-

plains, and continuous drainage channels formed; it is possible

that some of the sub-surface flood-plain deposits rest on the

earlier lacustrine deposits. As both lacustrine and flood-plain

deposits are still accumulating in places, the surface deposits of

each are Recent and contemporaneous; below the surface parts

of each are also contemporaneous but their respective positions in

terms of footage are in no-wise comparable. Lacustrine sediments

on this area are mainly composed of wind-blown material and

accumulate at a much slower rate than the fluviatile sediments: a

few feet of the first may be represented by many feet of the

second—there is no way of equating the deposits except at the

surface.

The valleys of the mature topography show some evidence of

terracing, but these have not been correlated with any Pleistocene

eustatic levels. From the mouth of the Hopkins River to Cape

Otway, the coast is a young, receding one, with cliffs up to 100

feet high of horizontal Tertiary beds capped with dune-limestone.

On the face of these cliffs are remnants of the 15 to 20 feet Post-

glacial raised beach, but the Pleistocene shorelines have either

been removed by erosion or are submerged under the waters

of the Southern Ocean.

Included here with the scoria-cone phase are the confined

lava-flows that extend as tongues down valleys falling both north

and south from the Dividing Range in its present or former

positions. Most of these flows belong to the scoria-cone phase,

but, where the lava has poured on to the lava-plains from the

scoria-cones, it is difficult to distinguish it from the older flows.

The facts concerning the discovery of the Pejark Marsh Mill-

stone were stated by Spencer and Walcott in their unpublished

manuscript on early man in Victoria (1914 circa). As they made

personal contact with the finder who gave them all the particulars,

they were best fitted to describe the circumstances of the find and

to form an opinion as to its authenticity. Their remarks are

quoted in extenso:

In the beginning of February 1908 we received from Mr. A. J. Merry of

Terang, a letter in which he states “T am forwaring some bones and what I

think is a stone implement I unearthed in an excavation for a concrete culvert,

over a drain, half a mile from the township (Terang) and 23 miles this side of

Mount Noorat. . ... The excavation was about 10 feet deep from the natural

surface, and consists of 3 feet soil, 2 feet solid sandstone, 3 feet black clay, 2

feet yellow clay, as far as I had to go down. Through the whole length of the

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 47

trench—69 feet—in the yellow clay were pieces of bone in nearly every shovel

full, samples І am forwarding you. [Mr. Merry says in letter 23 July 709 that

bones also in last foot of black clay.] I have been told by men who excavated

the drain in the first place, that from end to end about 2 miles in length, they

took out bones in cart loads and all in the clay, some feet under the sand-

stone,”’...

In reply to questions Mr. Merry adds, ‘‘The implement was embedded with

the bones in the yellow clay, it was impossible for it to have fallen in from the

overlying beds and I was very careful with it, as when I struck it with the

shovel I thought it was a large bone, and wanted to get it out without breaking

it. It was 3 feet in from the bed of the drain, and 2 feet below same in the

solid clay under the sandstone 3 feet in width which I had cut away."

In a later letter he states “I showed it to Dr. Breaton [sic.] in its rough state

at the works with the yellow clay adhering to it, and he did not notice that it

was an implement. І then took it home and washed all the clay off it, and

could see that it was a piece of stone implement.’’ Mr. Merry also states that

well sinkers have found bones at depths of over 100 feet under the ‘‘sandstone’’

bearing out his experience quoted before. Mr. R. Harvie, one of the men who

worked in the opening of the drain in the first place, informed Mr. Merry that

he dug up a stone implement, said to be a grindstone, about a chain below the

culvert, 9 feet from the surface, which is about the top of the yellow clay, and

4 feet below the ''sandstone." He also told Mr. Merry that they dug up а

““Petrified Skull’’ with the teeth intact, but they placed no value on it, and after

knocking the teeth out, threw it on one side. This skull was found about 100

yards to the west of the culvert with a number of fossil bones just on top of a

bed of ‘‘buckshot gravel’? about 5 feet under the ‘‘sandstone’’.... In another

letter Mr. Merry writes ‘‘Whilst removing some clay I had previously thrown

out from the excavations I came on another broken implement, this time of a

dark blue colour. . . . I missed, seeing it when I first threw it out, I think it

must have been in a big spit, and the clay all round it hid it from my view.”

Although he does not know what part of the trench it came from he is positive

it came from below the sandstone. It should be mentioned here, that the sand-

stone Mr. Merry refers to is not sandstone but a compact bedded tuff which is

locally known as sandstone.

We have no reasonable cause to take exception to the authenticity of the first

implement found by Mr. Merry. Не is а man whose statements are reliable

and who had, moreover, no knowledge of the interest attached to the discovery,

` and personal enquiries only bore out the correctness of his statements. The

only doubt then must be as to whether the implements could possibly have

fallen in the trench from above. Mr. Merry is most emphatic that such was

not the case and as the bottom of the trench was lower than the drain and bones

were also found with the implement there can be no doubt that the ground has

not been disturbed since their deposition. ...

The other implement found by Mr. Merry and described by him as being of

a ‘‘dark blue colour’’ is formed of a small boulder of fine-grained laminated

basalt. It weighs about 34 pounds and represents roughly a little more than

half the boulder. It has been roughly chipped on both sides of one end to

produce a rough cutting edge, forming a by no means uncommon implement

called by Messrs. Kenyon and Stirling in their scheme of classification an axe

chipped on both sides. With the exception of a fracture made by Mr. Merry,

the surface is of a dull light bluish-grey colour, due to weathering. Тһе variety

of basalt is quite distinct to that occurring locally and the fact that the

implement has been made from a boulder proves that its source must have

48 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

been the sea coast or a distant watercourse. Its antiquity would be quickly

disposed of if the origin of the stone were known for the newer lavas of the

Hampden [area] are in all probability younger than the tuffs. As, however,

the implement was not found in situ it cannot be used in support of the antiquity

of man in Australia.....

The following is a composite section based on observations by

Merry, Spencer and Walcott, and the writer.

aft. Swamp alluvium

2in. white tuff

grey tuff 2ft.Hampden Tuff

6ft. black clay with

wund-blown material

bone bed

LR ironstone nodules

3ft 6in. yellow clay with

wind-blown material

3ft reddish clay

softer stratum

FIG. 5

Composite Section of Excavations made near drain in Pejark Marsh.

Pejark Marsh is an irregularly shaped fresh-water swamp that

has been drained, about 440 feet above sea-level, in a depression

between the scoria-cone of Mt. Noorat (1,026 feet) about 14 miles

north of it, and Mt. Terang about 40 chains south of it. Before it

was drained, it was covered with thick ti-tree scrub and eucalypts.

To the east and west, the surface is covered with buckshot-gravel,

and there is a narrow strip of buckshot gravel on its northern

margin where the scoria-cone flow from Mt. Noorat almost reaches

the Marsh. On its southern margin are the lava-plains basalt and

Hampden Tufts.

The country surrounding the Marsh is generally flat, Mt. Noorat

and Mt. Terang providing the only relief. No streams have at

any time emptied into the Marsh and the water it contained was

the rainfall that fell over its restricted basin. The surface-soil

and black clay are rich in carbonaceous material indicating the

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 49

existence, when they were formed, of a swamp-flora flourishing in

a climate with moderate rainfall; on the other hand, when the

yellow clay was deposited these conditions did not exist and no

carbonaceous matter was found in it.

In 1908 Spencer and Walcott (1911) made an excavation near

where Merry reported his find in search of implements but found

none. The succession passed through confirmed that reported by

Merry.

With the same object in view, it was decided to seek the permis-

sion of the Shire of Camperdown to put down a hole near Merry’s

original site. Mr. Rooney, the Shire Engineer, instructed Mr.

Blackburn to do this for the Museum. The site selected was in

the drain on its northern sloping bank on its south side, a few

yards from the old culvert and between it and the new one over

which the stock-route passes.

The hole for the Museum was put down early in 1947. Except

that the thickness of the beds varied, the succession confirmed

that given by Merry and Spencer and Walcott and shown in the

composite section (Fig. 5). At the bottom of the black clay, the

bone-bed was passed through and in it a molar, a lower incisor,

and part of the diastema of Diprotodon australis (Owen) were

found. Elsewhere, the writer (1945) has placed the Diprotodon

bed of Grayson and Mahony above the Hampden Tuffs but here

it is, at least apparently so, below part of them. In the lower

layers of the tuff itself numerous examples of the reed Cladium

tetragonum (Lab.), the black, square Twig Rush, were identified

by J. H. Willis, of the National Herbarium; their presence had

been previously noted by Waleott (1919). Pressed against the

bedding-planes, their method of preservation suggests that they

had been flattened under successive aceumulations of tuff, and

although the explosions responsible for the bed of tuff occurred

over a relatively short interval of time, they were spasmodic.

In one of the lower layers of tuff a fossilized insect larva was

found; this was identified by A. N. Burns, Entomologist to the

National Museum, as approximating to Oxycanus fuscomaculatus

Walk. It was replaced by a fungus also identified by Mr. Willis

as Cordyceps cf. lavarum Olliff, the mycelium of which permeated

its tissue and facilitated fossilization. During the accumulation

of the tuff, the swamp-depression, although damp—the reeds

evidence this—apparently seldom held up water. 'lo permit of

the metamorphosis of Oxycanus, the floor of the swamp must have

been exposed in May and June, at present wet months in this

region; the loose aggregation of the tuff seemingly made it ex-

tremely porous. | \

50 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

Mrs. Sylvia Whineup, Mineralogist to the Museum, separated

out the minerals composing the yellow clay. Quartz-grains were

common, the larger well rounded, the smaller angular; clear

quartz was abundant and reef-quartz common. Other minerals

present were magnetite, olivine, and volcanic glass indicating that

a scoria-cone was in action while the clay was being deposited. She

also found zircon, tourmaline, and rutile—minerals that have

obviously been transported from some distant source. In view of

the fact that no streams now enter, or have entered Pejark Marsh

in the past, one can only assume that these minerals are wind-

borne. A small microscopic freshwater shell found in the clay

may have had a similar origin.

The Pejark Marsh succession is typical of surface and sub-

surface transported deposits on other parts of the lava-plain.

The records of a number of bores put down through such, show

that the surface to some depth consists of dark or black sediments

under which is a yellow clay.

Howitt (1904) attributes to James Dawson the tradition of the

aborigines of western Victoria that fire came out of a hill near

Mortlake, and “stones which their fathers told them had been

thrown out of the hill by the action of fire." Tf there is an histor-

ical baekground to the tradition, Mt. Shadwell is the nearest

Scoria-cone to Mortlake, but Noorat, Keilambete, and Terang are

all vents not far distant.

Summarizing the evidence that has accumulated in connection

with the Pejark Marsh Millstone, it may be confidently stated

that it is of Recent or Postglacial age. The yellow clay in which

the Millstone was found is covered by black clay, bedded tuff, and

soil, that have been deposited up to the present time without a time

break, but there may have been a short time interval between the

yellow clay and the overlying black clay. Estimated by the meas-

ure of climate, the millstone is less than 3,000 years old, having

been covered by the wind-borne material at the concluding phase

of the arid period of the Postglacial Optimum. It belongs to some

aan of the Murundian in Hale and Tindale’s succession (supra

p. ;

The Buninyong Bone (Plate 2, Fig. 8) was found in the Great

Buninyong Estate Mine at Buninyong, near Ballarat, towards the

close of last century. Apart from the question of its authenticity,

a doubt persists as to whether it is an implement and has been

fashioned by man.

_ Kenyon (1936) claims to have examined it “while it was still

in a fairly fresh state." He condemned it because it had no

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 51

semblance to a bone-implement made by the aboriginal and

“probably not by any more primitive forerunners.” He states

that ‘‘the cuts were manifestly made by a steel-edged implement,

such as a shovel, which crushed and broke crystals of pyrites

filling the interstices of the cancellous tissue. This was con-

clusive proof that the cuts had been made after pyritization of

the bone, which must have taken place after immersion in the

sub-basaltie river gravel and the contained mineralized waters.

Kenyon made this statement 34 years after De Vis, who saw the

bone in its original condition, had declared it was an implement

fashioned from a portion of a rib of a Nototheriwm (De Vis, 1900).

De Vis was an authority on the cuts made on bone by predatory

animals and he examined closely the nature of the cuts; he did

not refer to the state of the pyritic impregnation. Spencer and

Walcott (1914 cirea) also specialized in cuts made on bones by

animals and they state that they were convinced that some of the

cuts were the work of Thylacoleo, but others were not. They state

that ‘‘the late Dr. A. W. Howitt, who had the opportunity of seeing

the Buninyong Bone before it was coated with size to preserve it,

informed one of us that he was quite satisfied that none of the

marks were of recent origin, and that they had one and all been

made before the bone was deposited where it was discovered. This

statement of Dr. Howitt’s seems to be correct from the general

aspect of the marks, and Mr. De Vis has corroborated him by

making a cut in the bone himself for comparison.” They scout,

too, the suggestion by Gregory (1904) that the bone may be the

result of an accident, the shovel of one of the miners having

possibly cut into the bone and broken it where it was lying in

the silt, the shovel at the same time having driven mud into the

cut-surface thus hiding its recent formation. Anyone who has

carefully studied the bone, they say, could not possibly give any

credence to such an explanation ‘‘for the shovel has not yet been

invented which could produce accidentally marks of this kind.”

But they consider that the fact that there is no record concerning

the whereabouts of the bone from the time it was found until it

came into the mine manager’s hands is a flaw in the chain of

evidence regarding its authenticity.

De Vis thought the implement was a scraper but Spencer and

Walcott considered it extremely doubtful that the specimen was

ever intended for use: Howitt expressed no opinion as to its

purpose.

The section in the Great Buninyong Estate Mine shown in

Fig. 6 was compiled from particulars given by Hart (1900).

52 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

He states that the lava-flows from Mt. Buninyong that covered

the lacustrine clays need not be of any great age. That the clays

are quite recent is evident from the fact that the Buninyong Bone

was a portion of the rib of Nototheriwm; the bones of Nototherium

are sometimes found under a scoria-cone flow but never under

the older flows of the lava-field or lava-plains. Mt. Buninyong is

a scoria-cone from which the lava Hart mentions flowed down a

valley that formerly emptied its drainage into the Murray but

was later reversed and became part of the drainage-system to the

Southern Ocean. The black, lacustrine clay was deposited in a

depression which was covered by the lava; the age of the clay is

nearly that of the overlying scoria-cone flow. The black clay was

Surface

Basalt

Lacustrine |

black pyrutuc

clay.

` cpus

ПОН

rom surfa

ШШ

FIG. 6

Section in Great Buninyong Estate Mine,

deposited during a period when the rainfall was great enough to

support a humus-forming vegetation. Such conditions prevailed

during the earlier part of the Postglacial and the last glacial

period. The yellow clay of Pejark Marsh is not present in the

Buninyong section, and the black lacustrine clay appears to have

been covered by the scoria-cone flow before the dry period of the

Postglacial Optimum.

Lakes such as that in which such lacustrine deposits formed

have been common in the district but most of them have been

emptied by the breaching of their perimeters. Baragwanath

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 53

(1923) states that west of Mt. Buninyong, in the Yarrowee Creek

valley "а small lake was formed against the basalt .. . its surface

showing at about the 1,290 ft. contour at one period; whether it

was the original limit cannot be settled. Abundant chips such as

are found at the sites of aboriginal camping-places occur along

the former shore-line, and clearly mark points where the natives

congregated, but above or below this limit the chips are rare.’’

Mr. Baragwanath took the writer to the locality but it has, since

the former made his observations, been planted as a pine forest

and the evidence is not now obtainable.

It is interesting to note that Howitt (1904) states that there

was an aboriginal tradition “that Mount Buninyong had at a

distant time thrown out fire."

On the scanty evidence available, the Buninyong Bone possibly

belongs to the Tartangan of Hale and Tindale’s industries (supra

p. 38).

In 1855, A. C. Swinton and M. C. Shore sank a shaft near the

town of Maryborough, Victoria, in one of the heads of the

tributaries of the so-called Bet Bet Lead. A lead is the lowest

fluviatile deposit in an old river-valley usually eovered by later

fluviatile deposits but often with lava. The Bet Bet Lead was

formerly thought to oceupy a single trunk-valley having an outlet

to the north-west, but it has since been found to consist of two

valleys falling in opposite directions, one towards the Avoca

Lead, the other towards the Berry-Moolort-Loddon Lead System.

Swinton and Shore's shaft was sunk for a depth of 5 feet to

“bottom,” presumably Paleozoic bedrock. At a depth of 4 feet

from. the surface, Shore drove his pick into a basalt axehead

(Howitt, 1898). The shaft had passed through a hard band of

cemented gravel and also three “false bottoms." A false bottom

is a stream level above the lowest fluviatile deposit at which

former fluviatile deposition has occurred. The presence of three

of these in a depth of 5 feet below a surface deposit aecumulating

at the present time, points to three very recent, short-lived cycles |

of erosion. We are not told whether the axehead was in false

bottom material, but the shallow depth involved and the position

at which it was found, suggest this.

It is not possible now to pin-point the shaft on a map, although

for our purpose, its position in relation to the local physiographi-

cal divide is important. If it was on the west of the town, the

fluviatile sediments belong to the westerly stream-system; if on

the east of it and in a tributary flowing northerly or easterly,

they are part of the eastern stream-system. Both these systems

54 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

formerly emptied into lakes and the sediments now covering their

lower reaches are covered with lava. The scoria-cone flow over

the western one is evidently very recent, for the subsequent

streams have not yet become marginal streams; the lava in places

is a narrow flow that appears to have occupied a small gutter cut

in fluviatile deposits. The lava covering the sediments over the

eastern trunk-stream appears, on the other hand, to be older, for

fairly mature lateral valleys have been formed along its margins.

Some of the tributaries of this eastern trunk stream have been

dammed back by encroaching lava, a lake has been formed, and

lacustrine sediment deposited on the tributary flood-plain. Such

has occurred at Talbot (Back Creek) 8 miles to the south, where

the remains of Diprotodon were found supposedly in diatoma-

ceous lacustrine deposits (Keble, 1945).

Myrniong CK Werribee River

V і

Palaeozoic rocks

FIG. 7.

Section through The Island, Myrniong.

The absence of information as to what bed the axehead came

from makes its age uncertain but the geological history of the

area indicates the Recent or Postglacial.

- The Myrniong implements from The Island, 6 miles N.W. of

Bacchus Marsh, were found in a bed of gravelly clay (X, Fig. 7)

18 inches thick underlying basaltic lava, by ©. О. Brittlebank,

Government Plant Pathologist, who was also a skilled and reliable

geologist. The Island is so-called because it is a high lava-residual

almost separated from the rest of a scoria-cone flow by the deep

erosion of marginal valleys, the streams in which almost junction

at its north-west end and actually become confluent to the

south-east of it. A section of the lava-residual is shown in Fig. 7.

The pre-basalt valley, PBV in Fig. 7 was filled with basaltie

lava to the level PV after which, to find an outlet, the drainage

started. to erode in the less resistant rocks at P and V, channels

that have developed into deep marginal valleys. That developed

at P, the Myrniong Creek, is now 430 feet below the original sur-

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 55

face of the infilling basalt, and that at V, the Werribee River,

615 feet below it.

It is apparent, and Brittlebank realized this, that if the rate in

years of the erosion of the marginal valleys could be determined,

it would be possible to ascertain the age of the basalt, and with it

the age of the gravelly clay and the age of the implements. He

experimented (Brittlebank, 1900) by inserting short lengths of

wire in holes bored in the rock at the bottom of each of the valleys

and recorded the times when a particular length was exposed. He

obtained a rate of erosion of 0-58 in. per century, which, applied

to the mean depth of both valleys, gives an age of over a million

years. Apart from the crudity of the experiment, which ignores

a number of factors, the main objection is that it was conducted

at a time when the rate of erosion was near its minimum—a short

lapse of time after the Postglacial Optimum. The rate of erosion

had consistently decreased up to that time, and its mean was

formerly very many times greater than the figure obtained by

Brittlebank.

The basaltic lava of the Bacchus Marsh district issued either to

form extensive lava-fields, or scoria-cone flows that occupied pre-

existent valleys, at various times from the Middle Pleistocene

(Keble, 1946) up to a recent period in the Postglacial. Those of

The Island were scoria-cone flows having their main source at

Mt. Blackwood (Fenner, 1918). They infilled the channel PBV,

the middle reaches of a valley that opened, about a mile S.E. of

Rowsley, on to the Werribee Plains lava-field. Across this

opening is the Rowsley Fault trending S.S.W. Fenner (1918)

gives sections across the fault showing the displacement or other-

wise due to it. Near Dog Trap Gully, east of Rowsley, about

where the Island flows debouched on to the Werribee Plains lava-

field, he shows (sup. cit. Figs. 7, 8b). The Island scoria-cone

flows pouring over the scarp of the fault, but south of the Anakies

(sup. cit. Figs. 7, 8d) the fault displacing the lava-plains basalts.

He refers to a post-Newer Basalt movement and it is apparent

from his Figs. 7, 8d, that this occurred after the Werribee Plains

lava-field, but it is apparent, too, that it was before The Island.

scoria-cone flow poured over the scarp near Rowsley. The Pleisto-

cene movement on the fault is newer than Middle Pleistocene and

The Island lava possibly late Pleistocene but probably Post-

lacial.

а The erosion of the marginal valleys of The Island—the Werri-

bee to a depth of 615 feet and Myrniong Creek to 430 feet, has

been taken as evidence of their great age as well as that of the

infilling basalt. That this is not necessarily so, is apparent when

56 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

one considers the Bullengarook lava-residual, 8 miles to the

east, which has many features in common with The Island. There

the marginal valleys, Goodman’s Creek and Coimadai Creek,

have been cut to a depth of over 400 feet below the original surface

of the Bullengarook scoria-cone flow. The limestone at Coimadai

was deposited in one of the marginal valleys and according to

Coulson (1924) was chemically precipitated in a small lake just

before, during, and after the eruption from Mt. Bullengarook.

The lake was probably formed by the damming of a lava flow

(Keble, 1945). Its recent age is indicated by the occurrence of the

remains of Nototheriwm in it.

There is the possibility that the Myrniong implements were

buried in a cache, a common practice among the aborigines,

particularly with stone axes; in view of the fact that more than

one implement was found, this seems improbable. A doubt, too,

has been expressed by a few archeologists that they are implements

at all, but they have been accepted by most.

= 90 ft above

== river level.

оці Пра D met J س‎ ad

FIG. 8.

Section in the hole at Bushfield.

If The Island basaltie lavas belonged to the lava-plains phase

the age of the implements would be over 200,000 years! Their

occurrence under a scoria-cone flow makes them probably early

Postglacial and no older than any of the more ancient implements

found in Victoria. They presumably belong to one of Hale and

Tindale's earlier industries, perhaps the Tartangan.

The Bushfield Axe was found by E. W. Hamilton, of Warrnam-

bool while he was sinking a hole to a depth of 8 feet on the right

bank of the Merri River to anchor a power-winch to clear the

bank of the river of trees. The site of the hole was about a quarter

of a mile north of Bushfield, on Allotment I, Parish of Meerai.

3 Mr. S. R. Mitchell examined and checked with me the section

in the hole shown in Fig. 8, in which tuff rested on tuffaceous

limestone in which the axe was found.

The tuffaceous limestone is a lacustrine deposit which, when it

was formed in the lake, incorporated the tuff falling at the time.

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 57

Miss J. Hope Macpherson, conchologist to the National Museum,

has identified the land shells found in it as Ameria acutispira

Tyron and Lymnaea brazieri Smith, forms found in slow moving

water or a marsh.

The hole was put down in an accumulation (Fig. 9, YDZ) of

stratified tuff and tuffaceous limestone on a river-terrace, C (Fig.

9) that was formerly covered by 5 feet of stratified tuff, now

removed by slip-erosion. The axe was found at a depth of 3 feet

9 inches, but its original depth, when the uppermost stratified

layers, D (Fig. 9) covered it, was about 9 feet.

It was not possible to obtain a single section giving all the

features in evidence. Fig. 9 is a composite section.

MERRI RIVER 30ft D Soft.

ITH AXE Meerat

Y TUFF

FIG. 9.

Composite section across Merri River in the direction of a fence-line on the left

bank bearing N. 53° E.

Purnim

The succession of events may be summarized as follows:

The valley X YZ was cut in Tertiary limestone, probably during

the last glacial period, and was periodically covered during the

Postglacial by tuff from Tower Hill, 7 miles to the west, until the

tuff reached the level XDZ. While the valley XYZ was being

infilled, the Merri River continued to flow, although it was from

time to time impeded by the accumulating ash when lacustrine or

marsh conditions prevailed. It ultimately cut the channel X YD

along the eastern contact of the tuff with the Tertiary limestone

to a depth of 40 feet below the surface layer X DZ. In this channel,

the flood-plain A, about 150 feet wide, formed and has since been

entrenched to a depth of from 15 to 16 feet by the vertical erosion

following the last lowering of sea-level. The surface of the flood-

plain was at the time of inspection 11 feet above the level of the

water in the Merri River, which was 4 or 5 feet deep; the bed of

the River opposite the hole in which the axe was found is about

30 feet above the level of low water at Warrnambool Bay. The

time taken for the accumulation of the 9 feet of tuff covering

the axe together with that taken for the valley XYD to reach

maturity is the age of the axe. The flood-plain A was formed at

or about the Postglacial Optimum, probably just before the rising

sea-level of the Postglacial reached its maximum, and after Tower

Hill had ceased to be active: the vertical erosion of the Merri

58 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

River preceding its formation was contemporaneous with the

concluding stages of the Tower Hill activity. It is therefore

apparent that the axe is more than 4,000 years old, and allowing

for the maturing of the valley XYD, its age is perhaps 6,000

years. The appearance of the sides of the hole sunk for the

power winch exclude the possibility of its having been from the

surface in a cache.

The axe (Pl. 2, Fig. 7) was of basalt and not complete. It has

a cutting-edge that may have been polished but now shows no

sign of it, and a hafting-groove towards the head, most of which is

missing. It shows slight signs of patination but there was not

adherent matter; possibly the ash-matrix was not adherent.

Before it was covered with the uppermost layers of tuff (D. Fig

9) it was, doubtless, lying on the surface exposed to the elements.

Mulder (1904) states that the meaning of native names for our

voleanoes indicates smoking, hot, ground such as Koroit [Tower

Hill] *suggesting that the natives saw the volcanoes when in

action, but at a period so remote that even the tradition had died

out, the names only surviving.” This has been questioned but

legends—some have been already given—relating to volcanic activ-

ity have been recorded from so many of the tribes who lived on

the lava-plains and among the scoria-cones of western Victoria,

that there seems to be a germ of truthinthem. That the aborigines

could visualize volcanic activity without some of them having seen

it, is inconceivable.

Mr. Morgan, the owner of the property on which the axe was

found, stated that he found an axe in the tuffaceous limestone

where it is exposed on the side of the valley XYD with limy

material adhering to it; he threw it into the river.

The period when the Bushfield Axe was used is contempora-

neous with one of Hale and Tindale’s middle industries, but precise

correlation is impossible.

Summarizing the evidence of the artefacts found at Tartanga

and Devon Downs in South Australia, and those associated with

. dunes and the volcanics of Victoria, such points to a Recent or

Postglacial age for them. In view of this, discussion here mostly

concerns climatic change during the Postglacial.

IV. Bones SHAPED By MAN OR ANIMALS

It must be conceded that Spencer and Walcott (1911) make out

a case for cuts on the bones of marsupials having been made by the

carnassial of Thylacoleo. In this they follow in the wake of De

Vis, whom they freely quote; he had long recognized the work of

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 59

the teeth of that animal and was pre-eminently fitted to judge

which euts on the Buninyong Bone could be: aseribed to it, and

which to human agency. His discussion (De Vis, 1899) on the shap-

ing of the bone is pertinent to a general discussion of the shaping

of bone artefacts and is given here at some length.

De Vis's figures 1 and 2 are reproduced here as Fig. 8, Pl. 2.

.... At first sight the fossil appears to have been intentionally shaped to

adapt it to some instrumental use. It may, then, be convenient to confirm the

first impression by pointing out the marks of human workmanship which it has,

with more loss [sic | certainty, preserved to us. It consists of part of the distal

half of a right rib, the seventh or eighth, of an animal so large that it could only

have been one of the greater Nototheres, in all probability Nototherium mitchelli

Owen. It is perfectly mineralized in the usual manner, differing in no wise in

texture and colour from the well preserved contemporary fossils found else-

where. . . The length of the fragment is 154mm.; by the loss of its central edge,

which has been split off, its greatest breadth has been reduced to 42mm. On its

posterior aspect (Fig. 1), there is at (a) an obvious flattening of the upper

part of the blade, the surface of the bone for a length of 65mm. having been

removed to an appreciable depth, and apparently by some mode of abrasion;

near the distal end of the split edge on the same side appears a marked hollow

(b), at the bottom of which the cancellous structure of the interior of the shaft

has been by the like means brought into view.

So far the abnormal features observable are not of intrinsic importance. They

may have been the result of ordinary physical agencies of attrition. A similar

explanation of the condition of the lower end of the bone, or at least of one

edge of it, is, on the contrary, inadmissible. On its posterior face (Fig. II) the

rib has here been half sundered by a cut through its dense cortex (c) effected

by strokes of a sharp instrument. A little lower down on its opposite face (Figs.

I and IId), it has been divided to a large extent, and the part beyond the two

nicks so made has broken off, the line of fracture naturally occurring between

them. The extreme edge of the fracture was brought to coincide with the inner

edge of the lower nick and this consequently presents a fairly sharp edge, ren-

dered somewhat jagged by adherent remains of the internal cancelli. The surface

of the lower nick (Fig. Id) is convex in both its directions of extent, but whether

this rounding off is the result of an original method of formation by filing, serap-

ing or shearing tool, or by the subsequent grinding of a surface in whatever way

produced, is not to be gathered from the existing surface. In the latter case it

is of course quite possible that this bevelled surface also might have been the

outcome of mere physical action of a piece of rib lying in a watercourse or sand

drift with one end partially exposed; it is even possible that the severance of

the bone on this side of it was due to such cause. But these conjectures seem to

be entirely forbidden by the complete absence of any sign of abrasion on the

inner surface of the edge of the nick; the broken walls of the bone cells, even

at its extreme edge, are as sharp and prominent as they were left by their frac-

ture, and we are therefore driven to the conclusion that this surface, however

formed, was intentionally formed. That the surface of the upper nick—that on the

opposite side of the bone (Fig. IIe)—could not have been yielded by any

physical process, is on the other hand unquestionable. It is certainly the work

of an animal possessed of a chopping instrument, and as far as we know the

only animal of the age of the Nototherium that can excite even a passing sus-

picion is the so-called Marsupial Lion, T’hylacoleo carnifex Owen, a confirmed

60 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

bone-eater, with enormous shearing teeth. With the ossifragous capability of

Thylacoleo we are not at this day unfamiliar, and experience makes it quite

safe to say that the bone was not cut by the molars of that animal.

Powerful as its jaws undoubtedly were, they have left no evidence that they

were able to cut through dense bone to any considerable depth, certainly not to a

depth of 3mm., as in the case before us. They chopped the surface (generally

on opposite sides) but slightly, to a depth of a millimetre or so at the most, and

by the impact of the blow or by continued effort crushed the bone in twain. The

form of the incision is in itself sufficient proof that it was not the work of

Thylacoleo. Its outer or upper edge, crossing the rib obliquely, is irregularly

undulating, its surface inclined, from without inward to an open angle, shows

under a certain incidence of light, three shallow, unequal undulations, or rather

subconchoidal depressions which could have been sculptured by an instrument

having a strong bevel above its cutting edge. The surface of wear of the

molars of Thylacoleo, which so frequently leaves its impression on the substance

of long bones subjected to their action, is level, except that occasionally it is

more or less distinctly bevelled off at its posterior end; the cut effected by it

across the shaft of a bone is therefore a straight-edged and flat-surfaced notch.

Of producing one with an edge which is even slightly scalloped and with a

broad oblique surface of conchoidal facets, it is altogether incapable. We have,

therefore, to fall back on an unknown user of an instrument adequate to the

purpose, and this could not well have been any other than man. If now we are

prepared to accept the view that this bone was wrought by human hands, and

for the nonce assume the genuineness of the fossil, we shall have little difficulty

in understanding how and why it received its shape. We may infer that the

upper nick was first made; afterwards, and probably with the same instrument

—a small, sharp stone tomahawk—the lower nick; the bone then broken between

them, and the lower end ground with a bevel to obtain an edge which should be

curved, moderately sharp, and rather rugose.

The Buninyong Bone is in the collection of the National

Museum, Melbourne, and was available to Spencer and Walcott,

who were members of the staff of that institution. They (1914

circa) sum up their conclusion in the following remarks:

The more carefully and the longer we have examined the specimen especially

in the light of bones, the cuts and marks on which we feel convinced have

been made by a predatory animal, the more certain we feel that the only remain-

ing alternative—human agency—must be invoked to account for the origin of

some of the characters exhibited on the specimen. i ;

This conclusion was arrived at after they had made an exhaus-

tive study of all kinds of cuts on marsupial bones. In a contribu-

tion (Spencer and Walcott, 1911) giving the results of their

research, they deal mainly with bone fragments obtained at

Pejark Marsh by A. J. Merry with the millstone found by him,

and other bone fragments obtained there by themselves; they also

discuss fragments from Buchan and Lake Colongulac in Victoria,

some from South Australia, and others from New South Wales.

In regard to the Pejark Marsh fragments they say:

We were at first, more especially perhaps as the aboriginal implement was

of the nature of an anvil or pounding-stone, disposed to attribute to a human

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 61

ageney the fragmentary condition of the bones forwarded by Mr. Merry; but

further consideration and the securing of a larger colleetion have caused us to

modify this opinion. We also thought that the place where the bones and

implement were found was probably once a camp by the side of a lagoon

or marsh, but our investigations on the spot led us seriously to doubt this

original surmise. In the first place the bones in the patches disclosed were not

accompanied by the concomitants of an aboriginal camp, and, more important

still, many of the fragments obtained showed unmistakable evidence of the

fact that some powerful predatory animal had been at work on them.

The cuts on the bones described by them differ in shape and

length. In shape the shallow surface incisions vary from straight

to slightly curved. They give the impression in many examples

that the whole surface of the bone was scratched by a sharp-

edged or pointed implement. There are, also, infrequent deeper

cuts or gashes, V- or wedge-shaped in cross-section, some of

which have been made at such an angle that they have removed a

sliver of bone from its surface. Most of these they ascribe to

the Dingo, the Thylacine, or Sarcophilus.

In the Pejark Marsh fragments, the cut most characteristic is

a clean one, sloping slightly, in some specimens from 5 to 7mm.

wide. In other specimens it is not single but multiple, directed

to give the bone a pointed end, as, too, does a diagonal cut. The

characteristic cut results in a shallow concavity similar to, accord-

ing to them, that made by the carnassial of Thylacoleo, and it is

their opinion that most of these cuts have been made by that

marsupial. They describe, however, a bone with two cavities,

on each side of the bone, one slightly in advance of the other. The

curves of these cavities are much smaller than in the other

specimens; one particularly seems as if it had been formed by

several blows or applications of some instrument, by which small

pieces were broken out, leaving a somewhat jagged edge. From

the deepest part of the concavity towards the pointed end of the

specimen, the thin outside layer of the bone has been removed and

its margin is similarly defined by scallops. The shape of the

pointed end, they state, is due to cuts.

They quote De Vis’s statement as to the bone-cutting powers of

Thylacoleo and instances where he shows bones exhibiting marks

and impressions of its molars. After examining the Pejark

bones they were convinced that they were cut by Thylacoleo which

had evidently greater power in this respect than is attributed

to it by De Vis. ; Е

Most of the Diprotodon bones obtained by S. E. Mitchell and

myself from the Pejark Marsh bone bed exhibit the shallow

surface ineisions and a few gashes; only one—portion of the

diastema—showed a clean, straight cut through bone about 5mm.

62 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

thick (Plate 2, Fig. 11). Another piece (Plate 2, Fig. 10) of a

lower incisor, 120mm. long, with a longer diameter of 45mm. and

a shorter one of 33mm. exhibits on its outer surface fine incisions

and a gash or two. A lower incisor, broken across, shows at one

end a fairly smooth, wind-polished cross-section, and at the other

end, a very irregular one. The smooth section is due to a break

made soon after the death of the Diptrotodon, for it shows

numerous, shallow incisions made by the teeth of some small pre-

datory animal when the incisor was green. The irregular cross-

section at the other end is due to a break that occurred some time

after death, and seemingly before the tooth was buried by

deposition. The smaller diameter of the incisor is 1-25 in. and it

was too massive for any animal to bite through. It is difficult to

account for either of the breaks unless they were the work of man.

That he was in the district at the time is shown by the occurrence

of the Pejark Marsh Millstone in a bed below the bone bed.

Spencer and Walcott came to the conclusion in regard to the

Buchan Bone that “in the absence of definite proof, that man

was [not] at any time an occupant of the cave in which the Buchan

Bone was found, and the cuts were made by Thylacoleo.”

The bone fragments from Salt Creek, Normanville, South Aus-

tralia, showed mostly straight, blunt gashes, a few the character-

istic curve of the cuts of the Pejark Marsh bone fragments, but no

example of the clean cuts right through the bones as at Pejark

Marsh. They concluded that here too, all the cuts could have been `

made by Thylacoleo.

The cuts on the Myall Creek fragments from New South Wales

are ascribed by De Vis to Thylacoleo; here again the clean cuts

right through the bones are absent.

The Colongulac Bone was picked up on the shores of Lake Colon-

gulac, about 10 miles E.N.E. of Pejark Marsh. The cuts (Plate 2,

Fig. 9) are quite different in shape to any at Pejark Marsh.

Spencer and Walcott state that they were made on the 4th meta-

tarsal probably of the extinct Palorchestes and consist of two,

deep, wedge-shaped notches extending a little more than half way

across the bone. The greatest width of one notch is approximately

12mm. and that of the other about 10mm. Where the two notches

are confluent on the margin of the bone, it has been penetrated to

a depth of 6mm. Тһе notch in the dorsal surface is, as nearly as

can be measured, 10mm. in depth, compared with 6mm, in the

case of the ventral one. Spencer and Walcott give the facts

concerning the finding of the bone and accept its authenticity.

They compare the gashes to one of the Myall Creek fragments

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 63

which De Vis, if he examined it, attributed to Thylacoleo and

state:

There is admittedly, as regards size, a great difference between the Myall

bone and the Colongulae bone, and moreover in the latter instance we have no

corroborative evidence of the work of Thylacoleo in the presence of markings

or cuts of any kind which might safely be attributed to him. At the same

time it throws much doubt upon what might otherwise unhesitatingly be accept-

ed as the handiwork of man, more especially when we know that that work is

not of a nature practised by the natives of Australia in historical times.

It might be inferred from these comments that they were reluc-

tant to attribute the gashes to other than man. In other words

(1914 circa) they expressed the same indecision in connection

with the Buninyong Bone:

The acceptance of the authenticity of the work [on the Buninyong Bone]

as that of prehistoric man including the cuts on the under side of the bone

must discount very seriously the objections we have made to the possible human

origin of the cuts on the Pejark and Colongulae bones on account of Australian

man not being known to cut bones in such a manner, in which respect he must

then have differed from his predecessors. Thus the deciphering of what is

man’s work and what is the work of beast becomes purely a question of decid-

ing the work has been performed for a definite and useful purpose by an

intelligent being or in the haphazard manner of a bone-eating animal.

There is little doubt that the Colongulae Bone came from a

swamp deposit, in the author’s opinion, one probably contempor-

aneous with the bone bed of Pejark Marsh which is above that

from which the Millstone came; this being so, there is indirect

evidence of man existing in the Lake Colongulae area when the

Colongulae bone was fashioned. Its uniqueness and the fact

that it may be man-made is sufficient justification for including it

here with bones affording some evidence of antiquity. That the

bone itself is ancient is shown by the fact that it is a metatarsal of

the extinct Palorchestes.

Perhaps the most striking fact in this review of bone fragments

shaped by man or cut by aninmals is that the clean cuts through

the bones bearing so great a resemblance to the work of man are

characteristic of Pejark Marsh and are not found on bones else-

where, except perhaps, at Buchan. While there is no doubt

that many of the incisions on the Pejark Marsh fragments have

been made by animals, the fact that man lived in the district

when they were made, suggests the possibility that some of them

were made by him. With the illustrations of characteristic

Victorian fragments (Plate 2, Fig. 2), others of bone implements

from the Suffolk Bone Bed of Pliocene age illustrated by Moir

(1932) are given to show the resemblance.

64 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

V. PALAEOGEOGRAPHY OF THE POSTGLACIAL AND LAST

GLACIAL PERIODS.

The Proto-Indies or Australoids by whatever routes they came

to Australia had to pass over some deep channels and no eustatic

lowering of sea-level in the last 50,000 years has been nearly suf-

ficient to expose the floors of them. During the Postglacial, the

last glacial stage (Wurm 3) and the antecedent interglacial,

there has not been a landbridge connecting Australia with Asia

or with the islands to the north except New Guinea. One existed

at some earlier geological period long before the earliest

evidence obtained by the writer of the presence of man in Aus-

tralia. That the Proto-Indies in their migration southwards had

recourse to sea-travel, was realized by Elliot Smith (1930) who

pointed out that they had to cross Wallace’s Line between Borneo

and Celebes. In these notes on the paleogeography of the regions

north of Australia, it will be seen that they had to pass over much

wider extents of water. The distribution of land and sea during

the Postglacial and at the close of the last glacial periods are

discussed together with the climatic changes that are known to

have occurred during those stages—changes that had a profound

bearing on habitation and migration.

During the last glacial stage, Daly (1934) estimates a lowering

of sea-level of about 294 feet. The northern strand line of Aus-

tralia and the south-west strandline of New Guinea were then

continuous; New Guinea was joined to Australia by a more or

less extensive coastal plain (Fig. 10). This extended in places

more than 150 miles north of the existing coastline of Australia,

and on the south-western side of New Guinea some 350 miles,

including what are now the Aru Islands; it extended as far east

as Long. 145° which passes through the Gulf of Papua, east of

Cape York. At its northern extremity, it was nearest Suli

Mangoli, the easternmost of the Sula Islands of the Celebes

Group, and in the west to Timor. |

There аге peoples in Sumatra, Вогпео, and Celebes with a

Proto-Indie background. These three islands were joinel during

the 294 feet lowering of sea level except at the Strait of Macassar

(Fig. 10) which, at its narrowest, was about 30 miles wide. To

migrate to a region further south, the route, even if it were partly

by land, was also necessarily by sea, requiring the use of some

kind of sea-travel. There are certain probable routes leading to

the point opposite and nearest to Australia, the shortest distance

across the deep channels, routes that brought would-be migrants

with their primitive means of transport within possible erossing-

distance. These are the Celebes—New Guinea route, the Timor

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

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66 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

route, and the Timor-Tinamba route (Fig. 10). The least amount

of sea-travel mileage necessary to cross the channels together with

their depths is

Route Least number of travel-miles Depth in

feet.

Glacial Rain-forest Mid-Postglacial

Period reached C. York

Celebes-New Guinea 176 176 176 3,000

Timo 760 180 188 2,000

Timor-Tinamba .. .. 288 300 300 1,500

Soundings on the Admiralty Chart on the whole are too far

apart for detailed bathymetrical eontouring, but they plainly

indicate three coastal plains in the profile (Fig. 12) of the con-

tinental shelf. The lowest shows up at 276 feet below existing sea-

level, and, allowing for the recent 15-20 feet lowering of sea-level,

is undoubtedly the surface of the coastal plain of the last glacial

period. The high pinnacles in Fig. 11 are presumably due to

SEA LEVEL

Feet 7

+18 __Postglacial Optimum___________ E SE о. EE A

o Present sea-level ze DATUM. AAA

TORRES STRAIT

G.YORK

36 Torres Strait sea-level

150 ___Rain-forest at Cape York

168___Mid-Postglactal coastal plain

„jee mi з — mm am men — —— x x эб s m s m s s s mi

2%4___Sea-level Glacial Per

FIG. 11.

Section of sea-floor from outlet of Flinders River in Glacial Period through

Torres Strait.

coral growths. That it was a land-surface formed by eustatic

adjustment is suggested by the following indirect evidence. It

will be noted (Fig. 10) that, during the last glacial period, the

outlets of the Victoria and Ord Rivers of the western river system

emptied into a landlocked bay across the opening of which lay an

island. The floor of this bay was 174 feet below the mean level

of the coastal plain during the glacial period, now about 264 feet

below existing sea-level. Ascertained by soundings, this floor

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 67

is mainly mud and sand but one sounding bottomed at a depth of

396 feet below existing sea-level, or 132 feet below the mean level

of the glacial coastal plain, on “dead coral.” The living range

of coral is 120 feet, so that, taking this extreme range, sea-level

when the coral was alive was 276 feet lower than it is now, an

estimate, excluding adjustments for tectonic movement, that

P2 ме,

130 | 5

COASTAL PLAIN

FIG. 12.

Mid-Postglacial Coastal Plain.

agrees fairly well with Daly’s figure of 294 feet: if the coral lived

on the bottom at a depth of 102 feet, there is complete agreement.

During the last glacial period, the Flinders, the trunk-stream of

the mature eastern river-system of which the Roper, Nicholson,

Leichhardt, Norman, Mitchell and other streams were part,

crossed the coastal plain and emptied into the lowered sea-level of

the Arafura Bight (Figs. 10 and 12). This system is a Pleistocene

one and the trunk-stream had to adjust itself to the lowered sea-

68 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

level of the last glacial stage; from its outlet into the Arafura

Bight, there was probably a gorge some distance upstream cutting

back into the mature erosion of the Pleistocene cycle, but the

soundings are not close enough to show this. There was obviously

in this region some tectonie movement, presumably subsidence,

but its nature and extent are not known. 'Phere is evidence of

another coastal plain at about 168 feet (Fig. 11) referred to here

as the Mid-Postglacial coastal plain, and a more recent one in

Torres Strait—the Torres coastal plain—at 54 feet (Fig. 11) ; but

its surface is generally masked by coral-growths.

During the glacial period, the lower part of the basin of the

Flinders River was, for the most part, in the arid belt but in the

Mid-Postglacial period it was in the savannah (Fig. 13) with the

tropical rain-forest on the north about to encroach on its eastern

side. In the Mid-Postglacial period, the Flinders emptied into

a landlocked bay, an evolutionary stage of the Gulf, about 150

miles north of its present outlet. This bay was about 340 miles

long, subeireular at its southern extremity, but widening to a

width of over 200 miles at its northern end. Its waters covered

the basin of the drowned Flinders River of the glacial period, and

the bay had a narrow entrance from the Arafura Bight through

the drowned gorge. Immigrants, if they came by sea-travel,

passed up the channel and crossed the bay to its southernmost

extremity until they came to the outlet of the Flinders.

In the glacial period much of the Northern Territory was in

the arid belt, as, too. was the Cape York Peninsula south of Point

Duyfhen. The northern part of the Peninsula was in the sav-

annah, also Tanimbar Islands, Aru Islands, and the coastal plain

for 50 miles north of the present shoreline of Melville Island.

The tropical rain-belt, extended north of a line approximately

coincident with the W.N.W. political interior boundary of Papua.

The line of maximum aridity—the middle of the arid belt —was a

few miles south of the present outlet of the Flinders River into

the Gulf of Carpentaria and trended W.N.W. to near the southern

extremity of Cambridge Gulf in northern Western Australia. 'l'he

arid belt itself reached about 350 miles further south to the

steppe-region and east to the rainfall-reliability belt which reached

as far north as the Atherton Plateau. The Flinders and

some of its tributaries carried off the rainfall of the latter,

and although the lower reaches of the trunk-stream flowed

through the arid belt, it was, nevertheless, a river of some volume.

When, however, it and its tributaries flowed over the Mid-Post-

glacial plain, it was not the full-flowing stream of the glacial

period, for its headwaters were not in the rainfall-reliability belt

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 69

which had moved southwards over 300 miles. It then drained

mainly seasonal coastal rain.

The distribution of the climatic belts when the tropical rain-

forest reached Australia is shown in Fig. 13.

VI. PROBABLE LANDING PLACES.

In the light of the paleogeography, the much discussed problem

of the time of the arrival of the Proto-Indies or Australoids in

Australia aequires a different setting to that presented by some

anthropologists. It cannot be answered without taking into

account the changing coastline and climate of the latest Quater-

nary periods, and the realization that some kind of sea-transport

was necessary to cross deep channels.

Elliot Smith (1930) gives the ethnic relationship of the Aus-

tralian:

The aboriginal Australian belongs to a race that is sometimes called Pre-

Dravidian, a term intended to emphasize the fact that certain jungle tribes of

Southern India, the Kadir of the Anaimalai Hills, the Paniyan of Malabar,

the Wynad and Nilgiris, the Irula and the Karumba of the Nilgiris, scattered

among the Dravidian peoples, conform to the same physical type, and

obviously belong to the same race. Before we attempt to discuss the antiquity

of the population of Australia it is clearly important to remember this most

westerly relic of the same people. The Vedda of Ceylon, the Sakai of the

Malay Peninsula and East Sumatra, the Toala of Celebes, and possibly some

other people of Borneo, provide evidence in corroboration of the fact of the

migration of the Australian race.

The northern limit of the Australian Region being the northern

extremity of New Guinea before Torres Strait was formed, the

time of the arrival of the Proto-Indic in those parts must be re-

garded as his first appearance in any part of Australia. No

attempt is made here to fix the time of this; it belongs to the

distant past and the early migrations of man. The time of the

first appearanee of the Australoids in Australia in its present

form is the immediate purpose. Having landed in what is now

New Guinea, the routes taken by the migrants are conjectural,

but they were presumably through the western half of that island;

they eould have moved partly by sea or along the highlands, or

aeross the now submerged coastal plain. 'The only part of the

eoastal plain extant outside Australian waters is, seemingly, Aru

Islands, now oceupied by a Melanesian people of mixed strain.

Keesing (1946) comments suggestively : |

Persons [of the Papuan type] . . . appear to show a considerable strain

of the same racial materials as the nearby Australian Aborigine—the so-called

Australoid features—combined with the dark Negroid elements uppermost in

the region. It might be expected on the ground of geography, they are found

70 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

most frequently in the western and southern parts of New Guinea, nearest -

Australia. This strain also occurs here and there in the interior of the larger

islands farther to the east, and in New Caledonia at the east end of the main

chain.

Contrasting the accepted Melanesian type, he states that it is

concentrated more along the coasts of the larger islands, ineluding the

north and east of New Guinea, and in the small islands east of Fiji. Much

the same physical characters are often found farther west in those parts of

the Molucca-Timor regions and of east Flores not settled by the Malayan

peoples.

In submitting that the Proto-Indies came as a jungle-people

with the tropical rain-forest, the movements of the climatic belts

and incidentally their movements are timed here from the peak

for Wurm 8 in the curve for solar radiation (Zeuner, 1945) viz.

25,000 years ago. Zeuner gives (op. cit.) for comparison the

estimates of others for this figure—De Geer 18,000 years, Heim

16,000 years, Steck 20,000 years and from 14,000 to 15,000 years,

Penck and Brückner 24,000 years. Based on the 25,000 years of

the solar radiation curve, the writer estimates that the tropical

rain-forest reached Cape York, the northernmost point of Aus-

tralia in its present configuration about 15,000 years ago, but it

must be proportionately less if we accept the other estimates,

viz.:

DeGeer | Heim | Steck | Penck and Bruckner

11,000 | 10,000 | 12,000 and 8,500 to 9,500 | TADO

e e i e A ВЕСЕ

Assuming a progressive Postglacial rise of sea-level since Wurm

3, the coastal plain of the glacial period was submerged about

24,000 years ago, the Mid-Postglacial plain about 16,000 years ago

and the 54 feet coastal plain to form Torres Strait about 8,000

years ago. These estimates are necessarily approximate for it is

known that there were, in glaciated regions, fluctuations in the

recession of the ice-sheet during the general retreat of the ice that

are possibly reflected in the movements of sea-level.

That portion of New Guinea nearest Suli Mangoli has always

been in the tropical rain-forest, and immigrants from Celebes to

New Guinea passed from one part of the forest to another. In

the west, if the 60 mile channel separating Timor from Australia

was crossed by a hypothetical people during the glacial period, the

crossing was from one arid region to another. Conditions were

more inviting when the rain-forest reached contiguous points on

Timor and the mainland about 11,000 years ago, but the strait had

then widened to about 150 miles.

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 71

A good deal of interest attaches to the means of transport as

the most primitive craft known are recorded from north-west

Australia. Pitt-Rivers (1906) traces back the development of

sea-going craft to the pointing of the ends of a solid tree-trunk—

the first stage of the dug-out canoe. He cites Gregory who relates

that when his ship was off the north-west coast of Australia in

1861, it was visited by two natives who came on logs about 7 feet.

long and a foot thick shaped like canoes, not hollowed out, but

very buoyant, which they propelled with their hands only, their

legs resting on a little rail made of small sticks driven in on each

side. Pitt-Rivers corroborates Gregory’s statement with a

description of such craft from another source. He also mentions

the dug-outs used by the aborigines on the shore of south-eastern

Australia near Cape Howe seen by Captain Cook in 1770. The

dug-out reached Britain before the Neolithic industry. Childe

(1929) mentions that deep-sea ships sailed between the Indus and

the Euphrates over 6,000 years ago. No certain representations of

these are known, but some depicted on a Babylonian vase suggest

that they evolved from river craft.

VII. CRITICAL MILLENNIA.

Elkin (1938) commenting on the arrival and migrations of the

aborigines states :

They landed in northern Australia, probably on Cape York Peninsula and

perhaps also at different times on other parts of the coast. From there they

gradually spread across the continent, though we cannot speak with certainty

about the routes followed. They probably spread around the north and down

the east and west coasts; down the Queensland rivers on to the Diamantina

and Cooper and so into South Australia; from the Queensland coast on to the

headwaters of the Barwon and along the Darling River system and on to the

Murray right to its mouth; and gradually across the deserts from north to

south until the Bight was reached.

These are, for the most part, the routes suggested by the vicissi-

tudes of the Postglacial climate. :

Although the tropical rain-forest reached the Cape York Penin-

sula (Fig. 13) approximately 15,000 years ago, its advaneing edge

was probably not sharply defined and it was preceded by forest

country merging into savannah; this the jungle-people penetra-

ted. “Desert and dense forest are the extremes,” says Marett,

between them—anywhere in fact between open steppe and park-

land, lies the happy mean, not only for the hunters but likewise

for the food-raising peoples.” But the Proto-Indies were essen-

72 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

tially a jungle-people and in no sense a food-raising people.

How far habitable conditions for such existed on the so-called

savannah south of the fringe of the tropical rain-forest is proble-

matical. If we could determine it with certainty, we might say

with more precision when they appeared on the Australian main-

land. The northern half of the savannah to which these habitable

4 ° ooo

2°

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FIG. 18.

Climatic Belts and Rain-reliability Belt when the Tropical rain-forest reached

i Cape York.

conditions were seemingly confined, reached the Cape York

Peninsula about 21,000 years ago. An estimate based on these

considerations is that the Australoids came between 15,000 and

18,000 years ago, at a time when the savannah was habitable and

before it showed signs of the approaching aridity. That the

Australoid could acclimatize himself to arid conditions is evident

from his subsequent history; that he did not at first choose an

arid environment is obvious.

When Torres Strait was formed, he was completely cut off

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 73

from communication by land with other races. It is probable

that during the 7,000 years between his first appearance and his

isolation, there were at least three waves of migrants.

Those who used the western route either came by the littoral as

migrants from the east or as immigrants by some kind of craft.

Although the shortest distance from Timor to the mainland was

the most likely route taken, other routes were possible. As con-

tiguous sides of the strait separating Timor from the mainland

were both in the tropical rain-belt for the first time in the Post-

glacial period 11,000 years ago, it seems likely that immigration

by this route started then. There are no records of Proto-Indies

east of Java in the Sumatra-Timor chain of islands; this is peopled

by Malays and Melanesians. It may be found that the Proto-

Indies were there 11,000 years ago, but their suspected absence

makes the spread of the tropical rain-forest to 'l'imor and the

mainland less significant. |

Тһе following tabulation gives ће years previous to ће present

time when geographical, climatic, and environmental conditions

existed.

Years. Geographical, climatic and environmental conditions.

2,000 End of period of extreme aridity.

4,000 Postglacial Optimum. Arid belt reaches southernmost limit.

6,000 Beginning of period of extreme aridity in southern Australia.

8,000 End of pluvial period in southern Australia. Torres Strait formed;

Australia isolated from New Guinea.

11,000 Rain-forest reached both sides of Timor Strait.

15,000 Tropical rain-forest reached Cape York Peninsula.

16,000 Mid-Postglacial coastal plain.

18,000 Probable first appearance of Australoids in Australia.

24,000 Beginning of submergence of the glacial coastal plain.

As stated (supra p. 70), these figures are based on the radiation

curve and a maximum estimate for Wurm 3, but if Steck’s mini-

mum estimate for this be taken at 9,000 years, the appearance

of the Australoids in Australia in its present form was less than

6,500 years ago, and the other figures correspondingly less.

VIII. MIGRATION ROUTES IN AUSTRALIA

As Cape York Peninsula as part of the old land-bridge that

joined New Guinea to Australia was the first and main place of

entry for the Proto-Indics, the degree of habitability in the past

of the traets leading from it suggests the favoured routes for

migration on the mainland. The availability of food and water

was the assurance that intending migrants sought, and this was

regulated by the movements of the elimatie belts and with them

the rainfall-reliability belt. As pointed out, the latter moved

furthermost north in the glacial period and widened to its maxi-

74 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

mum, while during the greater part of the Postglacial, it slowly

moved southwards and contracted to its minimum at the Post-

glacial Optimum. The fertility of eastern Australia has been

influenced by the fact that the Great Dividing Range skirts its

eastern coastline and is responsible for the coastal corridor and

the orographic rainfall belt; on the other hand, the fertility of

the coastal belt of western Australia has been complicated by

conditions not found in the east.

In connection with migration, climatic conditions are discussed

25,000 years ago during the glacial period; 15,000 years ago or

thereabouts when the tropical rain-forest advanced into the Cape

York Peninsula; 8,000 years ago when Torres Strait separated

New Guinea from the mainland, and 4,000 years ago at the Post-

glacial Optimum. The fertile tracts at these times are best con-

sidered by grouping the rivers into basins in respect to the

sources, intake, and outlets of the drainage channels of the con-

tracting rainfall-reliability belt and the advance southwards of

the arid belt. This grouping is tabulated.

Basins Rivers Source Outlet Rainfall

I Carpentaria Roper, McArthur, Selwyn High- Gulf of Carpen- Tropical

(western part) Gregory, Leich- lands taria.

hardt, Clon-

curry.

II Carpentaria Mitchell, Gilbert, Great Dividing Gulf of Carpen- Tropical

(eastern part) Flinders. ange taria. orographic,

monsoonal,

III Diamantina Diamantina, Selwyn High- Lake Eyre Tropical

Georgina, Hay. lands, Macdon- :

nell Ranges ы

ТУ Соорег Cooper, Thom- Great Dividing Lake Eyre Tropical

son, Barcoo. ange orographic

V Darling Darling, Barwon, Great Dividing Murray River Orographic

Paroo, Warrego, Range

Condamine,

Macintyre,

Gwydir, Namoi,

Castlereagh,

Macquarie,

Bogan.

VI Murray Murray, Lachlan, Great Dividing Southern Ocean Orographic

Murrumbidgee,

Goulburn.

In the glacial period, the rainfall-reliability belt extended on

the west side of the Main Coast Range as far north as the Ather-

ton Plateau, aud west from the Great Dividing Range beyond

Lake Eyre covering most of the Diamantina Basin (III) and the

Cooper Basin (IV) ; west of it to the western coastal belt. Central

Australia and a large part of Western Australia was in the arid

belt and steppe region. The whole of south-eastern Australia,

Range

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 75

south of the latitude of Grafton, was covered by it including the

drainage systems of the Darling (V) and the Murray (VI).

About 15,000 years ago, when the tropical rain-forest reached

Cape York, the rainfall-reliability belt had somewhat contracted.

It then extended as far north as Georgetown in Queensland, and

as far west as Lake Eyre, covering the eastern half of the Diaman-

tina Basin (III) and the whole of the Cooper Basin (IV); the

rest of its cover was much the same as in the glacial period.

Approximately 8,000 years ago, when Torres Strait was formed,

the climate was as it is now. The line of maximum aridity (Fig.

1) passed from a little south of N.W. Cape in Western Australia,

about 50 miles north of Lake Hyre, to near Walgett in New South

Wales. Theoretically, the coincident line of the northern front of

the arid belt passed through Boulia in Queensland and its south-

ern front was covered by the westward extension of the belt of

rainfall-reliability. North of the arid belt was savannah and

south of it steppe. The rivers of the Diamantina Basin (III),

had their sources in the savannah and outlets into Lake Eyre in

the arid belt; the Cooper Basin (IV) was wholly in the arid belt.

At the Postglacial Optimum, 4,000 years ago, the northern peak

of the rainfall-reliability belt had receded south to about the

latitude of Maryborough in Queensland; the line of maximum

aridity then passed approximately through Marree south of Lake

Eyre, the northern front of the arid belt through Alice Springs,

and its southern front was covered by the rainfall-reliability belt.

The headwaters of the Darling—the upper reaches of the Con-

damine and some of its southern tributaries, were during the

Postglacial Optimum within the rainfall-reliability belt. The

rest of its valley (V), almost to its confluence with the Murray,

was in the arid belt which began to encroach on it about 5,000

years ago. The take-off or orographic rainfall in the Darling

Basin has been, during this period, small; it has been estimated

that now, 4,000 years after the Postglacial Optimum, due mainly

to evaporation, less than 2 per cent of the rain falling in the

upper Darling valley passes the town of Bourke on its middle

reaches. The headwaters of the rivers of the Diamantina and

Cooper basins were in the savannah, but their middle and lower

reaches in the arid belt. It has been already pointed out that

since the early part of the Postglacial, the rivers of the Diaman-

tina Basin (LID) have not been channels for orographie rainfall,

and their drainage has been, for the most part, the scanty tropical

rainfall of the sub-tropics.

From the climatic standpoint, the problem of migration along.

the west coast of Australia is a difficult one. In Fig. 13 delimiting

76 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

the climatie belts when the tropical rain-forest reached Cape York,

a belt of coastal rainfall is shown extending up the coast of

Western Australia as far north as Cambridge Gulf. This is

based on the assumptions that the average path of the lows was

considerably north then to where it is now, (Fig. 3) orographical

rainfall was intercepted by the Great Plateau of Western Aus-

tralia of an average height of from 1,000 to 1,500 feet, and this

rainfall belt extended north across the western end of the arid belt.

Several considerations arise, however, to confuse this simple

solution; these include the converse effect to that of the east coast

of the prevailing winds in the north-west blowing from the inter-

ior of the continent instead of from the ocean, the prevalence of

deserts on the west coasts of the continents, and the presence off-

shore of the branch of the Southern Ocean Current. That there

has been a wetter climate in this region is established by ample

evidence. Quite recently, Teichert (1946) added to this by noting

the presence on Houtman’s Abrolhos, 50 miles west of Geraldton,

of a rat, a variety of a species now only found on the south coast

and southern islands of Western Australia, also a wallaby, a

variety of one whose distribution does not now extend much

further north than Perth. As representatives of the original

stock are now restricted to latitudes considerably south of the

Abrolhos Islands, he infers that there has been emergence and a

change in climate—a rise in the temperature of about 5°F.

It is evident from this review of former climatic conditions,

Australia north of the Murray and west of the Great Dividing

Range, or precisely west of the rainfall-reliability belt, has passed

through periods of fertility and aridity. Regions that were

formerly well-watered and fertile have, with the march of the

climatic belts, become deserts, and desert areas have become

fertile. The river valleys have been singled out because food and

water available along their banks during periods of fertility made

them attractive to migrants. This may be inferred from a state-

ment by Elkin (1938):

The area of the tribal territory varies, for the most part, with the nature

of the country, more especially according to its fertility and food supply. Thus,

on the north coast of New South Wales a narrow strip of country, roughly 300

miles long by sixty to ninety miles in width but well watered by rivers and a

good rainfall, there were several tribes on each river, numbering altogether

about twelve with several sub-tribes, whereas in the drier interior of the State

the Wiraduri alone occupied more territory than all these tribes put together.

Likewise, along the Queensland coast, the country along the Daly, Fitzmaurice

and Victoria rivers of the Northern Territory, and in the upper Murray region

in Victoria and New South Wales, the tribal areas were comparatively small,

whereas the Aranda of Central Australia occupied a large tract of country

stretching from about Hermannsburg eastwards well beyond Alice Springs and

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 77

south-east right down the whole course of the River Finke for a distance of 400

miles.

And again, in discussing the improbability of the aborigines

being only long enough in Australia to increase to their number

when the white man came, he states:

.. we know that in many tribes even in good country, a balance between

numbers and food resources is maintained by infanticide and sometimes by

abortion. In times of severe drought in the drier parts of the continent,

infanticide is apt to be practised temporarily in the interests of the adults

without any thought of the future of the group.

These quotations indicate how dependent the aborigines were

on the fertility of a region and its implied food resources but

that, even with fertility in their Australian environment, a

balance between numbers and the food available had to be main-

tained. For a former tropical rain-forest people to favour the

arid belt for habitation is unthinkable; their first contact with it

would be a deterrent. As Marett (1938) says:

More especially inhospitable is the arid type of desert, more so even than

the frozen type of tundra; lack of rain being the physical scourge that man has

“to fear most. Nay, as a cause of migration on a grand scale desiccation is

perhaps more effective than any cultural influence . . .

Taylor’s estimate (1927) of the aridity in northern Australia

during the Pleistocene Ice Ages applies also to the arid belts

during the Postglacial period:

We may picture much more repellent conditions in the north during the

Pleistocene Ice Ages than obtain today. These may well have prevented any

higher race from following the aborigines into Australia.

From the standpoint of subsistence, the fertile tracts with their

relative sufficiency of food and water, were the first to be occupied.

These were, 15,000 years ago when the tropical rain-forest reached

Australia, the coastal corridor and the rainfall-reliability

belt which covered the south-east, a narrow avenue at the head of

the Great Australian Bight, south-west Australia, and the western

coastal corridor. It also extended at this time as far west as

Lake Eyre and a triangle (Fig. 13) converging from the head

of the Bight on the west, and Grafton on the east, subtended at

the north by Georgetown in Queensland. _

This triangle embraced part of the Lake Eyre basin, western

New South Wales, and a large part of inland Queensland. From

the aspect of climate and fertility, it may be assumed that it

formerly enclosed an area carrying a relatively large population

of aborigines in small tribal areas, but now, as it is wholly within

the arid belt, it is sparsely peopled and the tribal areas are large

such as Elkin mentions in referring to the Aranda. Some of its

78 AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

former inhabitants have migrated to more hospitable regions but

the remnant has deteriorated with the increasing aridity.

On the other hand, that part of northern Australia now within

the tropical rain-belt was formerly in the arid belt. It is estimated

that the arid belt left the Carpentaria Basin (I and II) about

9,000 years ago and the lower reaches of the Daly, Fitzmaurice,

and Victoria Rivers have been in the tropical rain-belt for 11,000

years. Doubtless, on the lower parts of these rivers, the popula-

tion has grown with their increasing fertility, brought about by

the march of the climatic belts.

On the principle that the fertile tracts were the first occupied

this deterioration and amelioration of climate suggests that those

which have relapsed from fertility into aridity may well contain

remnants of the first-comers to the mainland, while those that have

passed from aridity into a condition of fertility, are peopled by

later migrants.

The aborigines did not wage war for territorial aggrandizement

(Elkin, 1938) ; their habitat was forced on them by the urge for

food and water, not by an aggressor.

IX. DIGEST or CONCLUSIONS.

The main submission in these notes is that the Australoids were

a jungle-people who entered Australia before New Guinea was

Separated from it, in their natural environment—the tropical

rain-forest, or a short time before, when forest began to cover

what is now the Cape York Peninsula. In the last 150,000 years

there has not been a land-bridge connecting Australia with Asia

‚and the Proto-Indies had to cross deep channels whether they

came by the Celebes-New Guinea route or the Timor route. The

time when these geographical, climatic and environmental condi-

tions existed was between 15,000 and 21,000 years ago, in the early

Recent or Postglacial period; the time of their entry is estimated

at about 18,090 years ago; this figure is based on the maximum

assumption of 25,000 years for the last glacial stage, but if one

accepts Steck’s minimum estimate for this, it was as recent as

6,500 years ago. It is highly probable that they entered by the

Mid-Postglacial coastal plain (p. 67). It is thought some of the

aborigines of the north-west and west migrated from eastern

Australia, but others may have entered by the Timor route

(p. ante) in the last 11,000 years.

In the east, migration southwards was along the coastal corridor

and the orographic rainfall-belt to fertile south-eastern Australia.

With the march of the climatic belts and the contraction of the

rainfall-reliability belt, regions that were formerly well-watered

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 79

and fertile have become desert, and desert areas have become

fertile. This deterioration and amelioration in the climate sug-

gests that regions that have relapsed from fertility into aridity

may well contain remnants of the first-comers to the mainland, and

those that have passed from aridity into a condition of fertility

may be peopled by later migrations. The coastal corridor, oro-

graphic rainfall-belt, and south-east Australia have always been

more or less fertile, and in these areas we should find the earlier

migrants.

Evidence of antiquity from the south-east—Victoria and South

Australia—points to a Postglacial age for the appearance of the

aborigine. The following are the estimated ages of some arte-

facts, comprising Neolithic, Mesolithic, and Palaeolithic types,

found in the south-east: Altona, 3,000 years; Colongulac Bone,

3,000 years; Pejark Marsh Millstone, 3,000 years; Bushfield Axe,

6,000 years. The age of the Buninyong Bone and Maryborough

Axe, the Myrniong implements, and the earliest industry of

Tartanga cannot be given in years but they are believed to belong

to the lower half of the Postglacial or Recent.

If the first wave of migrants came just before the tropical rain-

forest, say 18,000 years ago, they passed over a land-bridge that

8,000 years ago became the floor of Torres Strait. During the

intervening 10,000 years, other waves of migrants, no doubt,

entered Australia by this land-route, but the Australoids have

been cut off from contact with other ethnic types, except by sea,

since Torres Strait was formed.

It has been stated that they were originally a jungle-people.

This is inferred from communities elsewhere, the Proto-Indics

of southern India—the Kadir, the Irulas, the Vedans (identical

with the Veddahs) and others who live in the forest on its produce

and the wild animal-life in it. The Veddahs of Ceylon and the

communities in Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, the Malay Peninsula,

and Siam differed little in their pristine state from the southern

Indian Proto-Indies; they, too, were essentially jungle-peoples.

They came to Australia as such and, doubtless, remained so until

they were compelled to migrate to the savannah and the steppe;

when these relapsed into aridity with the march of the climatic

belts, those who could not pass on remained to become a “broken

people, battered vessels seeking harbour where they could.”

REFERENCES

1898 Howitt, A. W. On the Origin of the Aborigines of Tasmania and Aus-

tralia. Pres. Add. Aust. Ass. Adv. Sei. VII. -

1900 De Vis, М.А. Remarks on a Fossil Implement and Bones of an Extinct

Kangaroo. Proc. Roy. Soe. Vietoria 12 (N.S.) I.

1900

1904

1906

1909

1910

1911

' 1913

1914

1918

1919

1920

1921

1922

1923

1924

1926

1927

1929

1930

1932

1933

1934

1937

1938

1940

1943

AUSTRALIAN QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION

Hart, T. S. The Bone Clay and Associated Basalts of the Great Bunin-

yong Estate Mine. ibid. 12 (N.S.) I.

Brittlebank, C. C. The Rate of Erosion of Some River Valleys. Geol.

Mag. (N.S.) Dee. 4, 7 (7).

Howitt, A. W. "Tribes of South-East Australia. 8vo London.

Gregory, J. W. The Antiquity of Man in Vietoria. Proc. Roy. Soe.

Vietoria XVII (N.S.).

Mulder, J. F. Stone Implements of the Natives of Victoria and their

Age. Geelong Naturalist, Second Series, IV (I).

Pitt-Rivers, A. L. The Evolution of Culture and Other Essays. буо

London.

Pritchard, G. B. The Recent Shell-beds of Williamstown. Victorian

Naturalist XXVI (2).

Grayson, H. J., and Mahony, D. J. The Geology of the Camperdown

and the Mount Elephant Districts. Geol. Surv. Victoria. Mem. 9.

Spencer, W. B. and Waleott, R. H. The Origin of Cuts on Bones of

Australian Extinct Marsupials. Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria 24 (N.S.) I.

Howehin, W. Pres. Add. Aust. Ass. Adv. Sei. XIV.

Spencer, W. B. and Walcott, R. H. Record of Early Man in Victoria.

Mss. Nat. Mus. Melbourne, circa. 1914.

Fenner, C. The Physiography of the Werribee River Area. Proc. Roy.

Soe. Victoria, 31 (N.S.) I.

Waleott, R. H. The Origin of the Voleanie Tuff of Pejark Marsh, Vie-

toria. ibid. XXXII (N.S.) I.

Taylor, G. Climatie Cycles and Evolution. The Geog. Review VIII July-

Dee. N. York.

Taylor, G. Australian Meteorology. 8vo. Oxford.

Halligan, G. H. The Ocean Currents around Australia. Journ. Roy.

Soc. N. S. Wales, LV. .

Brooks, C. E. P. The Evolution of Climate. 8vo London.

David, T. W. E. Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man in the

Commonwealth, ete. Pap. and Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasmania, 1923.

Baragwanath, W. The Ballarat Goldfield. Geol. Surv. Victoria. Mem. 14.

Coulson, A. L. The Geology of the Coimadai Area, Victoria, with Special

Reference to the Lime Series. Proc. Roy. бос. Victoria, 36 (N.S.) II.

Brooks, C. E. P. Climate through the Ages. 8vo London.

Taylor, G. Environment and Race. 8vo Oxford.

Childe, G. V. The Most Ancient East. 8vo London.

Hale, H. M. and Tindale, N.B. Notes on Some Human Remains in the

Lower Murray Valley, South Australia. Ree. S. Aust. Mus. IV.

Smith, G. Elliot, Human History. 8vo. London.

Moir, J. Reid. The Culture of Pliocene Man. Pres. Add. Proc. Pre-

Hist. Soe. East Anglia VII (I).

Kenyon, A. S., Mahony, D. J., Jones, F. Wood, and Baragwanath, W.

Fossil Man in the State of Victoria. Rep. XVI, Internat. Geol. Cong.

Washington.

Daly, R. A. The Changing World of the Ice Age. 8vo. New York.

Kendrew, M. A. The Climates of the Continents. 8vo Oxford.

Elkin, A. P. The Australian Aborigines. 8vo Sydney and London.

Marett, R. R. Anthropology. Eney. Britt. 4to London.

Hills, E. S. The Question of Recent Emergence of the Shores of Port

Phillip Bay. Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, 52 (N.S.) I.

Gill, E. D. The Geology of Warrnambool. ibid. 55 (N.S.) II.

Mem. Nat. Моз. Vicr., 15.

1945

1946

Fig.

AUSTRALIAN. QUATERNARY CLIMATES AND MIGRATION 81

Keble, R. A. The Stratigraphical Range and Habitat of the Diprotodon-

tide in Southern Australia. ibid. 57 (N.S. ) I and II.

Lewis, A. N. Pleistocene Glaeiation in Tasmania. Pap. and Proc. Roy.

Soe. Tasmania, 1944,

Zeuner, E. The Pleistocene Period, its Climate, Chronology and Faunal

Successions. 8vo London.

Keble, R. A. The Sunklands of Port Phillip and Bass Strait. Nat. Mus.

Melb. Mem. 14, II.

Keesing, Felix, M. Native Peoples of the Pacific World, 8vo New York.

Teichert, C. Contributions to the Geology of Houtman’s "Abrolhos, West-

ern Australia. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, LX XI, 3 and 4.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE. .

PLATE 2.

1. Suffolk, England. Pliocene bone implement from beneath the Red

Crag, illustrated by Moir (1932).

2. Pejark Marsh, Victoria. Fragment of a limb bone, with one of its

corners sliced off by an oblique eurved cut. About natural size. From

Speneer and Waleott (1911).

3. Pejark Marsh. Concave and convex fractures, producing a pointed

fragment. According to Spencer and Walcott (1911) the convex

fracture is due to the entry of pointed teeth penetrating the

bone, both from above and below; the concave fracture may

have originated from an incision in the broad end of the bone. Nearly

natural size. From Spencer and Walcott (1911).

. 4. Pejark Marsh. Piece of limb-bone with curved cuts attributed by

Spencer and Walcott (1911) to Thylacoleo. About natural size.

5, Pejark Marsh. Oblique cuts believed by Spencer and Walcott (1911)

to be similar to those cut with the upper pre-molar of Thylacoleo.

About natural size. |

Suffolk, England. Pliocene bone implement from beneath the Red

Crag, illustrated by Moir (1932).

Bushfield Axe, from Bushfield near Warrnambool, Victoria. Two-

thirds natural size.

Buninyong Bone from Buninyong, Victoria. From De Vis (1900).

About two-thirds natural size.

Colongulae Bone from Colongulac, Victoria. Side view, showing the

confluence of the two notches. From Spencer and Walcott (1911).

About natural size.

2 Ed oe $

. 10. Pejark Marsh. Lower incisor of Diprotodon obtained in bone bed

below tuff. About two-thirds natural size.

g. ll. Pejark Marsh. Portion of the diastema of Diptrodon. dics a

straight cut; the concavity is the socket of the lower incisor. About

natural size.

Mem. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

A NEW SALTICID SPIDER FROM VICTORIA

| By R. A. Dunn

Frc. І.

(Received for publieation June 6, 1947)

This paper deals with a new spider belonging to the genus

Saitis Simon. Although world-wide in distribution, it is,

according to Simon, “еп Australie que le genre possede—les plus

belles especes,’’ and certainly the present species does not lose by

comparison with the previously described forms.

FIG. 1

A. Saitis pavonis sp. nov., 3.

B. Ventral view of right palpus.

Notwithstanding a superficial resemblance to S. splendens

(Rainbow), it is more closely related to S. speciosus (O. P. Cam-

bridge). A key to the males of the Australian species of Saitis

is given, followed by the description of 8. pavonis sp. nov.

A NEW SALTICID SPIDER. 83

Family SALTICIDAE

Division UNIDENTATI.

Subfamily Plexippinae.

Genus SAITIS Simon, 1876.

Synopsis OF MALES OF AUSTRALIAN SPECIES. *

1. Leg iii longer than leg iv. : 2.

— Leg iii shorter than, or only equally as long as leg iv. Л.

2. Abdomen clothed with squamose hairs, with distinct pattern. 3.

Abdomen clothed with silky hairs, without distinct pattern.

S. lacustris Hickman,

8. Lateral margins of dorsal epidermis, when folded, covering the

| ventral surface of the abdomen, where ‘they overlap.

— Lateral margins of dorsal epidermis extending only slightly, not

covering the ventral surface of the abdomen.

4. Abdomen, from above, square and angular. Cephalothorax black.

S. vespertilis Simon.

— Abdomen, from above, long and parallel.

5. Cephalothorax black. Caput with alternative longitudinal bands

of greyish-green and scarlet.

S. volans (O. P. Cambridge).

— Cephalothorax steel-blue. Caput with curved transverse bar of

scarlet. S. splendens (Rainbow),

6. Lateral margins of dorsal epidermis with a rather dense fringe x

of long silky hairs. S. speciosus (O. P. Cambridge).

— Lateral margins without such fringe. S. pavonis sp. nov.

7. Legs 1, 4, 3, 2; leg i being much the longest,

S. pallida (Keyserling).

= Legi equally as long as, or only slightly longer than legs iii and iv. 8.

8. Tibia iii and iv with one dorsal spine. Legs 1=4—3, 2, . _

S. piscula (Li, Koch),

— Tibia iii and iv without dorsal spines. Legs 1, 4—3, 2. d

S. nigriceps (Keyserling),

SAITIS PAVONIS sp. nov.

Male. y mm.

Лоа ела. den ыш e er арлот: 4:34

Length of Cephalothorax QUE WA USE T ас EN: 2:12

Width of Cephalothorax d» ЕГ mee SAE ttl ae

Length of Abdomen A mp epe camen acy ed 2:88

Width of Abdomen =; zi 2 fen y n: #3 1:53

Femur Patella Tibia Metatarsus Tarsus Total

[ерл 0791 0:58 0:58 0:50 0:35 2:92

Mt, nos OG anos 0:91 0:58 0:58 0:50 0:35 2:92

Ше ery eee 1755 0:62 1:03 1:02 0:43 4:65

ТҮ ua AS 0:52 0:72 1:05 0:43 3:97

рар ee 0249 0:32 0:15 — 0:55 1:51

Carapace black, thoracic part with a dark brown median longitudinal stripe

clothed with white hairs, cephalic part densely covered with brown squamose

hairs, clypeus fringed with long white hairs. Anterior eyes greenish opalescent,

84 A NEW SALTICID SPIDER

Chelicere and maxille yellowish-brown. Labium and sternum brown. Coxe

yellowish. Legs i, ii, and iv, yellowish, irregularly marked with brown, clothed

with yellowish hairs and fine black bristles, femore somewhat lighter in colour.

Leg iii with femur and patella yellowish-brown, tibia and metatarsus brown,

clothed with reddish-brown hairs and black bristles, except for the base of the

femur, which has yellowish hairs; black spatulate hairs are present ventrally

on patella and apex of femur, ventrally and dorsally on tibia and metatarsus,

being much denser and extending over the lateral surfaces of the metatarsus ;

tarsus yellow, clothed with long white hairs which are particularly thick and

fringe-like dorsally. Palpi yellowish, clothed with yellowish hairs; tarsus

brownish-yellow; patella, tibia, and apex of femur densely clothed dorsally

and prolaterally with long white hairs. Abdomen with scarlet squamose hairs

forming a crescent-shaped figure at the centre of the dorsal epidermis, surround-

ed by a circular band broken anteriorly and, in most cases, posteriorly; except

along the inside edge and at the anterior and posterior divisions of this band,

in the concavity of the crescent, and along a median longitudinal stripe from

the rear of the crescent, where the bluish metallic hue of the epidermis can be

seen, yellowish-white squamose hairs are present, but on the lateral margins

- they become less dense towards the rear; at the posterior extremity the epider-

mis is of a greenish metallic hue ; a few long black hairs are scattered over the

surface. Ventrally, the abdomen is yellowish-brown, mottled with black,

and covered with short white hairs. Spinnerets brown.

Carapace high, convex, truncate in front, rear margin rounded and with an

almost semicircular concavity, cephalic part fairly flat and sloping forward

from near the P.L.E., thoracie part sloping more strongly towards the rear.

Clypeus sloping backwards, equal to approximately 13/24 of the diameter of

А.М.Е.

` Eyes arranged in three rows, the front row recurved with the apices in a straight

line. Ratio of eyes A.M.E. : A.L.E. : P.M.E. :PLE. — 24 : 15 :5 : 14. The

A.M.E. are separated from each other by 5/24, and from A.L.E. by 6/24 of

their diameter. The P.M.E. are separated from A.L.E. by 15/24, and

from P.L.E. by 13/24 of the diameter of A.M.E. The P.L.E. are separated

from each other by 78/24 of the diameter of A.M.E: The ocular quadrangle is

broader than long in the ratio 56 : 37, and slightly broader in rear than in

front in the ratio 56 : 55.

Chelicerae conical, placed well behind clypeus. Lateral condyles wanting.

Promargin of furrow with a single double-pointed and deeply-notched tooth;

retromargin with a single large cone-shaped tooth.

Махае slightly converging, with scopule. Labium somewhat triangular

in shape, almost as long as broad, apex provided with a group of moderately

long bristles. j

Sternum oval, convex, broadly truncate in front, longer than broad in the

ratio of approximately 4 : 3. Fourth coxe close together.

Legs 3, 4, 1 = 2. Trichobothria in two rows on tibie, in one row on metatarsi

and tarsi. Tarsi with elaw-tufts and two claws, each elaw with about five teeth

which inerease in length distally. Palpi short, with a long, eurved, pointed

apophysis at the retrolateral apex of tibia. Palpal bulb has the form shown

in Fig. B.

Spines on legs arranged as follows, First leg—Femur: dorsal 1.1.1, prolat-

eral 1, elsewhere 0. Patella : prolateral 1, elsewhere 0. Tibia : prolateral 1.1,

ventral 2.2, elsewhere 0. Metatarsus : prolateral 1.1, ventral 2.2, elsewhere 0.

Second leg—as in leg i. Third leg—Femur: dorsal 1.1.1., prolateral 1.2, retro-

lateral 1, ventral 0. Patella: prolateral 1, retrolateral 1, elsewhere 0. Tibia:

A NEW SALTICID SPIDER : 85

dorsal 1.1, prolateral 1.1.1, retrolateral 1.1.1, ventral 1.2. Metatarsus: dorsal 0,

prolateral 1.2, retrolateral 1.2, ventral 2.2. Fourth leg—Femur: dorsal 1.1.1,

elsewhere 0. Patella: prolateral 1, retrolateral 1, elsewhere 0. Tibia: dorsal

1.1, prolateral 1.1.1, retrolateral 1.1.1, ventral 1.2. Metatarsus: dorsal 0, pro-

lateral 1.1.2, retrolateral 1.1.2, ventral 2.2. There are no spines on any of the

tarsi, nor on the palpi.

Abdomen somewhat oblong in shape, truncate and concave at the rear; pro-

vided with an almost round dorsal epidermis which folds down to cover the

sides, reaching to but not covering any portion of the ventral surface. Spin-

nerets six, situate in the concavity at the end of the abdomen, the anterior pair

close together.

Locality: Carnegie, Victoria. Six specimens, all males, collected on October

20, 1946. I have also a specimen collected at Altona on November 5, 1946. A

co-type has been lodged with the National Museum, Melbourne; another will be

forwarded to Dr. V. V. Hickman, of Tasmania; the remainder being in the

author’s collection,

REFERENCES

Simon, E., 1901.—Histoire Naturelle des Araignées, ii, p. 560.

Rainbow, W. J., 1911.—-Ree. Austr. Mus., ix, 2, р. 286.

Hickman, V. V., 1944.—Trans. R. Soc. S. Austr., Ixviii, 1, p. 46.

Mem. Nar. Mus. Vict., 15, 1947

NEW GEOGRAPHICAL RACES OF AUSTRALIAN

BUTTERFLIES, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE

FEMALE, LARVA, AND PUPA OF PSEUDALMENUS

CHLORINDA BARRINGTONENSIS Whs.

By A. N. Burns, B.Sc., F.R.E.S., F.R.H.S.

Entomologist, National Museum of Victoria.

Plates 3-8; Figs. 1-5. 4

(Received for publication October 6, 1947) —

Family SATYRIDAE

Xenica klugi mulesi n. subsp.

Male, Above.

Forewing smoky black with orange brown markings, a white pupilled

ocellus near apex, dorsum brownish black, a streak of dull black and silvery

grey sex scales from vein 4 to vein Ia near its middle. This sex mark is much

narrower than in typical klugi. Cilia greyish brown.

Hindwing smoky black with orange brown markings, a dull black band

in centre crossing lower end of cell, a white pupilled ocellus near tornus,

another smaller one in the subapical area.

Beneath:

Forewing similar to upperside, orange brown markings paler, apex pale

dull black suffused grey, sex mark absent, ocelli as above, tornus narrowly

smoky black.

Hindwing varying shades of greyish brown with darker irregular strie,

central band as above but longer, ocellus near tornus reduced to a minute spot,

subapical one smaller and more obscure.

Female, Above:

Forewing smoky black with orange brown markings which are more extensive

than in the male, a white pupilled ocellus near apex, sex mark absent, dorsum

brownish black, cilia greyish brown.

Hindwing smoky black with orange brown markings, a dull black band in

centre crossing lower end of cell, a small white pupilled ocellus near tornus,

another in the subapical area which is sometimes reduced to a circular dull

black spot, cilia greyish.

Beneath:

Forewing similar to upperside, orange brown markings paler, apex pale

brownish black suffused greyish white, in some examples greyish white faintly

tinged yellow. Ocellus as above.

Hindwing varying shades of greyish, from ashy grey to greyish brown, with

darker irregular strie which vary in distinctness in individuals. Ocellus near

tornus obscure or almost absent, subapical one very faint.

NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES 87

This race is considerably smaller than X. klugi klugi Guer.

and has been captured only by M. W. Mules at Wardang Island,

South Australia. It has not so far been taken on the mainland.

The main differences between this race and the typical klugi are

its smaller size; paler markings on both upper and under sides;

the orange brown areas more extensive; the dark markings smoky

and not black: and the dorsum dark brownish black. Xenica

klugi Guer. is a butterfly which is normally found in grassy

forested country, usually associated with mountains. It is widely

distributed in Australia, ranging from southern Queensland,

through New South Wales, Victoria, at Wardang Island S.A.,

and in south western Australia. It is common also in Tasmania.

In Queensland and New South Wales, it is confined to the coastal

mountains, but does not actually reach the coast; in eastern Vic-

toria it is found on the mountains further inland as well as on the

coast, whilst in western Victoria it has been taken on the Gramp-

ians, and at Dimboola and Kiata, as well as nearer the coast. In

Western Australia, it frequents the open forest country on coastal

areas in the south-west corner of the State.

The occurrence of a subspecies at Wardang Island is certainly

remarkable. У,

A very closely related species, Xenica minyas Whs. and Lyell,

is common in many places in south western Australia, and it was

thought for a time that this species might be the West Australian

form of X. klugi; both species, however, have since been captured

together there. X. minyas appears on the wing earlier (October-

November) than klug: (late October to December), though both

occur together later in the season. |

Wardang Island is quite unlike any other locality where X.

klugi has been found. With the exception of very few Casuarinas

there are no trees on the island. The principal vegetation con-

sists of saltbushes, native hop, and a species of small bushy and

very prickly acacia. Sand dunes run along the western side of

the island, and it was in small grassy patehes amongst these dunes

that Mules captured this subspecies. Its flight season is from

late October until December. The total area of Wardang Island

is about 5,000 acres. ;

Specimens of klugi from the Grampians are smaller than those

from eastern Victoria; apart from size they do not differ very

much from eastern examples. From Kiata males only have been

seen by the author—these are slightly smaller than the Grampians

specimens; the black markings of the upper side are not quite as

dark as klugi, but the underside is typical. These specimens were

88 NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES

captured in early November in a grassy spot amongst large gum

trees on the extreme northern edge of the Little Desert.

For distribution of X. klugi and its race see Fig. 1.

Types, male and female, in the collection of M. W. Mules.

Addendum.— During late October and in November, 1947, the

writer visited Western Australia, and there made many observa-

tions regarding the habits and distribution of Xenica klugi klugi

Guer. in that State. The closely allied species Xenica minyas

minyas W hs. and Lyell. occurs in the same localities as klugt,

but is on the wing a month earlier; a period of overlapping with

Кіа. 1. Distribution of Xenica klugi Guerin, and its race.

(1). Xenica klugi klugi Guerin. Found also in Tasmania.

(2). Xenica klugi mulesi n. subsp.

both species takes place, however. Specimens of klugi from the

west are very similar to those taken in Victoria and New South

Wales, and do not in any way compare with the race mulest from

Wardang Island, S.A., nor with the small pale examples from

Kiata and the Grampians in western Victoria.

It is interesting to note that klugi is plentiful on Rottnest Island

whieh is about 8 miles from the mainland, but as far as is

known X. minyas does not occur there.

Considerable intergrading takes place between the two species;

early examples of X. minyas are typical, but towards the end of

NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES 89

its season females especially are lighter in colour because of

restriction of the black markings. The underside in both sexes

is definitely greyer and more like that of X. klugi. Much interest-

ing work remains to be done with respect to both species.

Heteronympha cordace wilsoni, n. subsp.

Male, Above:

Forewing black with bright orange brown markings, an ocellus near apex,

blue pupilled.

Hindwing black with bright orange brown markings, a larger ocellus near

tornus, blue pupilled.

Beneath:

Forewing similar to the upper side, black markings much reduced, outer

ШАГЫП broadly brown, ocellus reduced to a small black spot faintly pupilled

wsi. у : 1

Hindwing uniformly dull ‘yellow-brown, a central and several irregular

markings obseurely brown, océllus faintly visiblé from above. |

Female. Above: '

Forewing as in the male, black markings slightly broader, ocellus larger.

Hindwing as in the male, black markings broader, ocellus larger than in the

male. i

Beneath: | /

_ Similar to the upperside, outer margin broadly brown, ocellus much reduced

in size. : ‘

Hindwing almost uniformly yellowish grey, a large central and ‘several

irregular. markings yellowish brown. Two ocelli, the upper one just visible,

the lower one much reduced. The two bluish-white spots between the ocelli in

typical cordace, absent.

This race is slightly smaller than the typical species, and so far

is recorded only from Dartmoor in south western Victoria, at

least 200 miles west of the nearest locality where cordace had pre-

viously been taken, i.e., Mt. Macedon.

The first specimens were captured by F. E. Wilson in January,

1940, after whom this new race has been named.

The greatest difference between this race and typical cordace is

in the underside which is almost devoid of markings, especially in

the hindwing; the upperside is much more golden on account of

the restriction of black markings. This butterfly is always taken

in swampy places, where its foodplant occurs.

There is some doubt whether Heteronympha cordace really

belongs to the genus Heteronympha; until the complete life his-

tory has been worked out and studied, this cannot be decided. Dr.

Waterhouse and the writer have had eggs and small larvæ only.

The egg is almost globular, pale creamy green in colour, and

faintly ribbed. The young larva is very pale green with a black

head.

90 NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES

All the other species of Heteronympha have a well defined sex

mark in the forewing of the male—this is absent in cordace. The

general appearance of the butterfly does not agree with other

species of the genus, which fall naturally into two well defined

sections, (a) those with dimorphie females (H. merope and H.

mirifica), and (b) the remaining species, which are all very

similar, even in the sexes. (H. banksi, solandri, paradelpha and

penelope).

Ета. 2. Distribution of Heteronympha cordace Hubn. and its race.

(1). Heteronympha cordace cordace Hubn. Found also in Tasmania.

(2). Heteronympha cordace wilsoni n. subsp.

Heteronympha cordace has a fairly wide distribution in south-

ern Australia, and occurs also in Tasmania. Specimens from the

northern limits of its range where it is essentially a mountain

butterfly, are considerably darker than those from Vietoria, where

it occurs at lower elevations as well as in the mountains.

Tasmanian specimens are more like Victorian ones, with the

exception of those from Cradle Mountain, which are decidedly

smaller than specimens from any other locality.

Hor distribution of H. cordace and its race see Fig. 2.

Types, male and female, in the collection of the author.

NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES 91

Family HESPERIDAE

Subfamily Trapezitinae

Trapezites sciron eremicola, n. subsp.

Male. Above:

Forewing smoky brown-black, three subapical spots yellow, a larger yellow

spot near end of cell and three others, two in discal area and one below cell,

the latter very faint. Cilia greyish white.

Hindwing smoky brown-black, a central area palely dusted yellow. Cilia

greyish white.

Beneath:

Forewing dull grey-brown, apical and subapical areas greyish, markings

similar to upperside, subapical spots obscure.

Hindwing greyish brown, with a series of spots greyish white edged black.

Female. Above: ; .

Forewing smoky brown black, three subapical spots yellow, a large yellow

spot near end of cell, and three others, two in discal area and one below cell,

yellow; the latter being the largest. All spots larger and brighter than in the

male. Cilia greyish white. š

Hindwing smoky brown black, a central area palely suffused yellow. Cilia

greyish white,

Beneath:

Forewing brown-black suffused greyish along dorsum, apical and subapical

area greyish brown. Spots as above but restricted and paler.

Hindwing greyish brown, with a series of spots dull white edged black.

The species T. sciron sciron W hs. and Lyell. has been recorded.

from south-western Australia only, the holotype male coming

from the Stirling Ranges. Two very worn specimens of this new

sub-species were captured by M. W. Mules and the author at the

Little Desert, Victoria, in early November, 1945. Both specimens

were in a very wasted condition, and it was decided to visit the

locality earlier the following year. This was done in late October,

and both males and females obtained in excellent condition. The

butterfly is apparently local, because it occurred only on three

slight elevations, each about thirty feet above the surrounding

country, and all within half a mile of one another. Although a

week was spent collecting on the desert, no other spots were found.

_ Both males and females came to sport on these little ridges, the

general habits and mode of flight being comparable to those of

T. luteus which this subspecies somewhat resembles, especially

on the upperside. і

A diligent, though fruitless search for larvae and pup was made

оп all likely foodplants, one in particular greatly resembling the

dwarf Xerotes on which Trapezites luteus Tepper feeds. This

plant has been identified as Lepidosperma carphroides.

92 NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES

In general appearance T. sciron eremicola is darker above than

typical scirom, and the underside shows much difference and is

uniformly much greyer.

Itis probable that the life history when determined will resemble

that of T. luteus, which has a spring and an autumn brood. T. sciron

eremicola flies with Motasingha dirphia trimaculata Tepper, with

which species it can easily be confused. Actually the first two

Fra. 3. Distribution of Trapezites sciron Whs. and Lyell and its race.

(1). Trapezites sciron sciron Whs. and Lyell.

(2). Traperites sciron eremicola, n. subsp.

specimens taken by Mules and myself were at first thought to be

small males of trimaculata, but when examined, the absence of a

sex mark in the male at once separated them.

The Little Desert is situated approximately six miles south of

Kiata, and extends east and west for some twenty miles. It is

quite likely that T. sciron eremicola will be found on the Ninety

Mile Desert which is situated a few miles north west of Little

Desert. The vegetation and type of country in both places are

very similar. A butterfly which has extended its range over such

great distances must surely occur at places between Western

Australia and western Victoria; no doubt when more collecting

nee peen done in the intervening country, this butterfly will be

ound.

NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES 93

For distribution of 7. sciron and its race see Fig. 3.

Types, male and female, in the collection in the National

Museum of Victoria.

Family LYCAENIDAE

Subfamily Ogyrinae

Ogyris amaryllis hopensis n. subsp.

Male. Above:

Forewing shining metallie blue with very narrow black outer margins. Cilia

grey. ;

Hindwing shining metallie blue with very narrow black outer margins,

broader at tornus. Cilia grey.

Beneath:

Forewing smoky black, broadly grey at apex narrowing to tornus, crossed

with darker markings. Cell crossed by greyish white bars edged with metallic

blue.

Hindwing dark blackish suffused grey and lightly tinged brown, crossed by

interrupted darker markings, brown-black,

Female. Above:

Forewing shining metallie blue, in some examples slightly silvery blue,

margins narrow, black, interrupted with grey. In some specimens a narrow

black bar at end of cell, in many absent altogether.

Hindwing shining metallic blue, sometimes slightly silvery, margins narrow

and black, interrupted with grey, broadest at apex and tornus. Cilia grey.

Beneath:

Forewing similar to the male. Cell dark orange red between second and

third greyish white bars.

Hindwing brown-black faintly overlaid with grey, erossed by interrupted

darker brown-black markings, those on the central area black.

In typical amaryllis there is almost always an orange red spot

between the base of the forewing and the first cross bar. The

chief characteristics of this race are its darker and more smoky

appearance beneath, and the greater expanse of metallic blue on

the uppersides of the wings in the female. It was first taken by

F. E. Wilson and the author at Mt. Hope, northern Victoria, in

the larval and pupal stages. These were found sheltering beneath

the bark of black wattle trees on which the foodplant, a greyish

leaved mistletoe, (Phrygilanthus eucalyptifolius) was growing.

There were no ants in attendance. r^ š

The other Victorian race, O. amaryllis meridionalis Beth.

Baker, oceurs over much of western and north western Victoria,

where the larve feed on Loranthus quandang, which grows on

Casuarina trees. I have many times taken larve and pups of

this race, and have found them attended by no fewer than three

species of ants. O. amaryllis hopensis appears on the wing during

94 NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES

October and November, and is almost certain to be double brooded,

as is the case with the race meridionalis.

It is most likely that hopensis will also occur on Pyramid Hill

which is 10 miles from Mt. Hope in a south-westerly direction.

These two localities are very old granite residuals which have

been completely surrounded and partly covered with alluvium.

Between them, and the undulating Mallee country some thirty

miles to the west, lies the flat flood plain of the Loddon, which

Fig. 4. Distribution of Ogyris amaryllis Hew. and its races.

(1). Ogyris amarlyllis amaryllis Hew.

(2). Ogyris amaryllis hewitsoni Whs.

(3). Ogyris amaryllis meridionalis Beth. Baker.

(4), Ogyris amaryllis amata Whs.

(5). Ogyris amaryllis catherina. Whs.

(6). Ogyris amaryllis hopensis n. subsp.

extends northwards to the Murray. The vegetation on Pyramid

Hill is similar to that on Mt. Hope.

O. amaryllis was described by Hewitson in Catalogue Lycaeni-

dae Brit. Museum, 1862, p. 3, and since that time a number of

distinct geographical races has been found and described.

The range of this butterfly is remarkable, extending from

Cairns, in North Queensland, through that State, New South

Wales, Victoria and South Australia to Western Australia. In

NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES 95

Queensland and New South Wales, it occurs along the coast as

well as far inland, but is confined to inland distriets in Vietoria,

and to a lesser extent in South and Western Australia.

For distribution of O. amaryllis and its races see Fig. 4.

Types, male and female, in the collection of the author.

Subfamily Lyceninae

| Candalides heathi doddi n. subsp.

Male. Above:

Forewing dark bronze brown suffused purplish, outer margins brown-black;

more broadly so than in C. heathi heathi. Cilia grey.

Hindwing dark bronze brown suffused purplish, outer margins brown-black.

Cilia white.

Beneath:

Forewing silky white suffused cream, a series of black spots, usually six in

number, near the margins, those nearest tornus being the largest.

Hindwing silky white suffused cream, a series of black spots, usually six in

number, near the margins, diminishing in size from tornus towards apex.

Female, Above:

Forewing brown faintly tinged bronze, central area purplish, only faintly so

' jn some examples. Outer margins brown-black, cilia white. А

Hindwing brown faintly tinged bronze, eentral area purplish, faintly so in

some examples. Outer margins narrow, brown-black, eilia white. ;

Beneath:

-Forewing pale greyish white inclined to be silky, with a series of black spots

as in the male.

Hindwing pale greyish white inclined to be silky, a series of six black spots

diminishing in size from tornus towards apex.

This race is much larger than the typical heathi, or any of its other races,

males averaging 30mm. across the expanded wings, and females from 31 to

34mm. Large specimens of male heathi on the other hand average 26mm., and

females 28mm. across the wings.

C. heathi doddi was first captured by F. J. Dodd after whom it

is named, on the headwaters of the Tubrabucca River, (altitude

4,300 feet) on the northern end of the Barrington Tops, New

South Wales, in late December 1946. Several days later, the

author in company with Dodd, took further specimens on the head-

waters of the Manning River, some six miles from the original spot,

and on the following day again at the original place.

` No doubt this butterfly occurs at other places on the Barrington

"Tops. The author spent two weeks collecting there on two previous

occasions, but did not encounter this butterfly. This may have been

due to the fact that on these trips only the southern end of the

Tops was visited, near the site of Edward's hut. This is 17 miles

from the source of the Tubrabucca River. l

96 NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES

The country in which doddi was found is very steep and rocky.

The butterflies were flying up and down the almost precipitous

slopes, and seemed to be attracted to a native species of Veronica

which was growing there. Though not in flower at the time, these

bushes were frequented by the butterflies, but a search on them

failed to reveal any eggs ог larve. There were many other appar-

ently similar gullies within easy distance, but in these Veronica

was not growing, and no butterflies were seen.

Fig. 5. Distribution of Candalides heathi Cox and its races.

(1). Candalides heathi heathi Cox.

(2). Candalides heathi erata Montague.

(3). Candalides heathi alpina Waterhouse.

(4). Candalides heathi doddi n. subsp.

The other mountain race of C. heathi—alpina Whs., is much

smaller than this race, and can at once be distinguished by the

grey-brown underside of both sexes.

Candalides heathi heathi Cox was first described in 1873 from

specimens caught at Bridgewater near Adelaide. This species

has a wide distribution in southern and eastern Australia, ranging

from Blackwater which is 110 miles west from Rockhampton on

the Longreach railway, southwards, and round to Geraldton in

Western Australia. It has developed several geographical races,

Prate III

M. Nat. Mus. Міст., 15.

nn ЭММИ ЧЕЧЕР Ч

PLATE IV

Мем. Nat. Mus Vicr., 15.

Мем. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15.

PLATE V

Мем. Nat. Mus Vicr., 15.

PLATE VI

Mem. Nat. Mus. Vicr., 15. PLATE VII

I 2

у ` |

! і

wam mM

]

Мем. Nar. Mus. Мст., 15. Рідте VIII

yt о

ANE

NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES 97

C. heathi aerata Mont. from Monte Bello Is. and Geraldton, W.A.;

C. heathi alpina Whs. from Mt. Kosciusko and the high country in

the Federal Capital Territory, and C. heathi doddi n. subsp. from

the Barrington Tops. C. heathi heathi Cox is found in south

Queensland, near Sydney, sparingly in Victoria, and near Adel-

aide. It is a very local butterfly in Victoria, being found in

the Moe-Trafalgar area, Gippsland, at Mt. Macedon, and at Day-

trap in the Mallee. In South Australia it appeared to be confined

to the Adelaide region until recently, when a female specimen of

C. heathi from Holowiliena Station in the Flinders Ranges near

Cradock, and 250 miles north of Adelaide was shown to the author

by M. W. Mules, who captured this specimen in the ranges on

December 26, 1942. The country there is normally very dry, and the

vegetation scanty.

Examination of this specimen shows it to approximate to West-

` ern Australian examples, which are paler than those from the east.

In this specimen, the forewings are dusky brown with the central

purple areas extending almost to the tornus, tbis is so in the hind- `

wings also. "The underside is greyish white and not inclined to be

silky. The size is slightly larger than typical heathi. It will be

interesting to see further specimens of this butterfly from this

locality. It is much more plentiful in south Western Australia

and ranges up as far as Geraldton.

For distribution of C. heathi and its races see Fig. 5.

Types, male and female, in the collection of the author.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For generous assistance in the preparation of this paper, the author thanks

Mrs. 8. Whincup of the National Museum for assistance with the geology of

the Mt. Hope area; Mr. L. Chapman, also of the Museum, for assistance

with maps; Messrs. F. E. Wilson and M. W. Mules, of Melbourne, for valu-

able data; Mr. R. E. Trebileock, of Kerang, for assistance in gathering

material, and Mr. F. J. Dodd, of Dorrigo, New South Wales, and Mr. T.

Meehan, of Tubrabucca, New South Wales, for help in collecting specimens

and transport respectively.

Subfamily Theclinae

Notes on the Butterfly, Pseudalmenus chlorinda barringtonensis

Whs., with a description of the female, larva and pupa.

The genus Pseudalmenus Blanchard is represented by one

species only, namely chlorinda chlorinda, which was described in

1852 from specimens taken in Tasmania. Since that time, geo-

graphical races have been described from Victoria (zephyrus), and

the Blue Mountains, New South Wales (chloris) by Waterhouse

and Lyell (2). On October 30, 1927, a male specimen of Pseudalme-

98 NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES

nus was picked up on the snow near Edward’s hut on the Barring-

ton Tops, New South Wales, altitude about 5,000 feet. This speci-

men differed considerably from any of the other races of the

species, and was described by Waterhouse (3) as Pseudalmenus

chlorinda barringtonensis.

Whilst at Newcastle during December, 1946, the writer visited

the northern end of the Barrington Tops, which has been rather

neglected from a collecting point of view. On arrival at Tubra-

bucca on December 26, a chance meeting with another entomolog-

ist took place, and this coincidence resulted in the discovery of

the life history of this hitherto very little known butterfly; Mr.

F. J. Dodd, then of Murrurundi, N.S.W., had anticipated the

writer by a day or two, and, on December 27, Dodd remarked that

he had seen some Lycaenid larvee which he thought were those of

another well known and widely distributed butterfly, Ialmenus

. evagoras evagoras Don., feeding on a wattle tree, at the same time

stating that he thought that they looked slightly different from

others he had seen. An examination was immediately made of

the larvae which were about half grown—these were certainly not

larve ої Ialmenus evagoras, but they resembled somewhat larve

of the Victorian race of Pseudalmenus (zephyrus). Further

searching resulted in the finding of fully grown larva, and even-

tually the writer found a pupa under the bark of one of the food

trees, this too resembling the pupa of zephyrus. Actual confirma-

tion therefore could not be established until the following spring,

when the butterflies normally emerge.

„Р. chlorinda chlorinda in Tasmania feeds on Silver Wattle

(Acacia dealbata) and Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon), and as

far as is at present known favours fairly large trees only. The

Victorian race zephyrus feeds on the same two species of wattle,

favouring fairly large trees. The Blue Mountains form chloris,

feeds on Acacia ovata, and is only to be found on large trees. It

was an interesting discovery to find Pseudalmenus larvze on trees

varying in height from 18 inches to 25 feet, and as far as was

found, on silver wattles only (Acacia dealbata). The same very

strong smelling small black ant which occurs with the race

zephyrus in Victoria was swarming over the larve and pups.

The former fed quite openly and singly in full sunlight on the

young tips of the foodplant. Pupæ were found beneath loose

bark on the food trees, under stones at their bases, and even in

hollow sticks nearby. In the case of larvee found on trees only a

foot or so high, the ants were followed, and in several instances

led us to pup: under the bark of eucalypts five feet away, also

under leaves and pieces of wood on the ground nearby.

NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES 99

All the trees on which barringtonensis was found were growing

on a slight ridge about a mile in length, and at an elevation of

4,356 feet. This differs generally from the type of locality in

both Victoria and New South Wales where the species appears

to favour trees growing right down in gullies. One exception is

in Gippsland, Victoria, where the food trees are on a hillside.

Larve were in all stages of growth, from very small ones less

than 4 inch in length to fully grown ones measuring 5 inch in

length, which indicated that the butterfly apparently has a fairly

long flying season. Quite a number of pup was also found. It

was decided not to take any larve other than those fully

grown and ready for pupation, because of the difficulties of feed-

ing them. The pupae were therefore placed carefully in а breed-

ing box which was kept dark, because it had been proved from

experiments with the Victorian race that if the pupz are kept

in the light they will fail to emerge.

On September 9, 1947, the first specimen, a female, emerged.

This was the first record of the female. This was followed by a

male, and then two more pairs in the same sequence. Coloured

drawings have been made of the larve and pupe by Mr. Р. J.

O’Brien of the National Museum. |

ADDENDUM

A stay of two weeks early this year (1948) resulting in a compre-

hensive survey of the northern, eastern and central portions of the

Tops has yielded further data worthy of note. Adults of barring-

tonensis were seen as late as January 20, at which time larve

were in all stages and a few рирге were collected.

The distribution of this butterfly is quite extensive; in addition

to Tubrabucea itself, life stages were collected at Tomalla, a

distance of 8 miles from Tubrabucea; near the headwaters of

the Tubrabucea river (1 mile distant); on the Upper Manning

near the Falls (5 miles distant) ; and at a spot 8 miles from Tubra-

bucca, on the track to Mt. Barrington. In each instance all speci-

mens were found between 4,000 and 4,600 feet elevation. At

Polblue, which is 9 miles from Tubrabucca, and at an elevation

of at least 5,000 feet, no larve ог pups were seen, although a

thorough search was made of all food trees encountered.

The male specimen described by Waterhouse in What But-

terfly is That? on page 194 as having been picked up on the

snow near Edward's Hut (elevation approx. 5,000 feet) was

probably carried there by rough weather from a lower altitude.

Larve were collected from Blackwood trees (Acacia mela-

noxylon) near the headwaters of the Tubrabucca river, and near

100 NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES

the falls on the Upper Manning. As far as food plants are con-

cerned, this brings barringtonensis into line with the Victorian

subspecies zephyrus.

Larva:

Length, + inch (average), 21-23mm.

Head: Dark brownish green, small, retractile beneath the first segment.

Body: dull black suffused olive green, dorsal line very fine, pale yellow, on

either side from segments 2 to 9 a broad interrupted yellow longitudinal

stripe, on its inner side a paler and narrower stripe which is suffused with

green, on its outer side to more than half way to lateral area another inter-

rupted longitudinal stripe creamy yellow, faintly suffused green. Lateral

marking pinkish and gradually widening from its beginning at segment 1 to

segment 10 where it extends to the subdorsal region. First segment dull black

suffused olive green two fine pale yellow central markings at the anterior

end followed immediately by another transverse pale yellow marking which

is curved backwards. Anal segment flattened, dull yellowish black tinged

green, depressed centrally with a square shaped dull black marking which is

- connected to another transverse marking on the pre-anal segment with three

fine black lines. Region immediately above the prolegs and claspers dull green. A

few scattered dark brown hairs to each segment laterally and dorsally. Area

immediately above prolegs and claspers clothed with fine brown hairs. .

Larve feed quite openly during the day time on the young leaves of the

foodplant; they are semi-gregarious until about one third grown, after which

they feed singly. They are always attended by small black ants. Larve

occur from November until the end of January or early February.

Pupa: А

Attached by the tail and central silken girdle, found under loose bark on

the food trees usually near the base, in borer holes and under sticks, leaves, and

stones nearby, even in hollow logs adjacent to the food trees.

Length (average) š inch, 15-17mm.

Colour dark brownish black, almost devoid of markings, colour deeper at

junction of the thorax and abdomen dorsally ; abdominal segments with a darker

dorsal line. Front portion flattened so that the front of the head, wing cases,

and the ventral portion of the abdominal segments are in a straight line. Anal

segment much flattened anteriorly. The pupal period lasts from late Decem-

ber until the following Spring.

Foodplant :

Silver wattle (Acacia dealbata).

Butterfly.

Male, Above:

Wing expanse (average) 14 in —28-29mm.

Forewing black, a broad orange band across wing, veins dusted black, a

mars spot at end of cell, some long silky grey hairs at base of wing, cilia greyish

white.

Hindwing black, a deep orange red band from near apex to tornus, two

black spots at base of tail one on each side, a few blue scales between the black

spot at dorsum and the tail; some long silky grey hairs at base of wing, cilia

greyish white, tail black tipped greyish white.

NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES 101

Beneath,

Forewing silvery white, a discal band black; another black spot at end of

cell, extreme edges of wing black, cilia greyish white. Hindwing silvery white,

a discal black marking to half way, a black spot at base, a cinnabar marking

round termen to tornus and extending to dorsum, a minute black dot on

its inner side at end, between cinnabar marking and edges of wing from one

third to dorsum, black; cilia greyish white.

Female, Above:

Wing expanse (average), lis in.—31-33mm.

Forewing black, a broad orange band across wing, veins not dusted black,

a black spot at end of cell, a few long silky grey hairs at base of wing, cilia

greyish white. Hindwing black, a broad deep orange red band from near

apex to tornus, other markings as in the male.

Beneath:

As in the male, black markings wider and cinnabar marking also wider

and slightly more extensive.

This race is decidedly larger than the other races and is much brighter in

colour. і

Locality :

Tubrabueca, Barrington Tops, New South Wales, at an elevation of from 4,000

to 4,500 feet. No doubt this butterfly occurs at many other spots on the

Barrington Tops where its food trees grow on the ridges.

Holotype male in collection Waterhouse (3); Allotype female in the col-

lection of the writer.

REFERENCES.

Waterhouse, G. A. and Lyell, G. Some Dimboola Butterflies. Vic. 1 2100

pp. 165.166, 1908. y es. Vic. Nat. XXIV

The Butterflies of Australia. Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1914.

Waterhouse, G. A. What Butterfly is That? Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1932.

Notes on Australian Lycaenidae. VII. Descriptions of New Races. Proc. Linn.

Soc. N.S.W., lix, pp. 416-420, 1934.

On the Identity of the Butterfly known in Australia as Heteronympha philerope

Boisd., 1832. Ibid. lxii, pp. 253-258, 1937.

Australian Hesperidae vii, Notes on the Types and Type Localities. Ibid. lxii,

pp. 107-125, 1937.

sn EN PER ре

PLATE No. 3. k 1

(1). Xenica klugi mulesi n. subsp. Male.

(2). Xenica klugi mulesi n. subsp. Female.

(3). Xenica klugi klugi Guerin. Male.

(4). Xenica klugi klug’ Guerin. Female. :

(5). Xenica klugi mulesi n. subsp. Male underside. і

(6). Xenica klugi mulesi n. subsp. Female underside.

(7). Xenica klugi klugi Guerin. Male underside.

(8). Xenica klugi klugi Guerin. Female underside.

PLATE No. 4.

(1). Heteronympha cordace cordace Hubn., Male.

(2). Heteronympha cordace cordace Hubn., Female.

(3). Heteronympha cordace wilsoni n. subsp., Male.

(4). Heteronympha cordace wilsoni n. subsp., Female.

102 NEW RACES OF AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES

(5). Heteronympha cordace wilsoni n. subsp., Male underside. .

(6). Heteronympha cordace wilsoni n. subsp., Female underside.

(7). Heteronympha cordace cordace Hubn., Male underside.

(8). Heteronympha cordace cordace, Hubn., Female underside.

PLATE No. 5.

(1). Trapezites sciron sciron Whs. and Lyell, Male.

(2). Trapezites sciron sciron Whs. and Lyell, Female.

(3). Trapezites sciron eremicola n. subsp., Male.

(4). Trapezites sciron eremicola n. subsp., Female.

(5). Trapezites sciron eremicola n. subsp. Male underside.

(6). Trapezites sciron eremicola n. subsp. Female underside.

(7). Trapezites sciron sciron Whs. and Lyell. Male underside.

(8). Trapezies sciron sciron Whs. and Lyell. Female underside.

PLATE No. 6.

(1). Ogyris amaryllis meridionalis Beth. Baker, Male.

(2). Ogyris amaryllis meridionalis Beth. Baker, Female.

(3). Ogyris amaryllis hopensis n. subsp. Female. The form with the black

bar at end of cell in forewing.

(4). Ogyris amaryllis hopensis n. subsp. Male.

. (5). Ogyris amaryllis hopensis n. subsp. Female.

(6). Oguris amaryllis hopensis n. subsp. Male underside.

(7). Ogyris amaryllis hopensis n. subsp. Female underside.

(8). Ogyris amaryllis meridionalis Beth. Baker. Male underside.

(9). Ogyris amaryllis meridionalis Beth. Female underside.

PLATE No. 7.

(1). Candalides heathi heathi Cox, Male.

(2). Candalides heathi heathi Cox, Female.

(3). Candalides heathi doddi n. subsp., Male. `

(4). Candalides heathi doddi n. subsp., Female.

(5). Candalides heathi doddi n. subsp. Male underside. `

(6). Candalides heathi doddi n. subsp. Female underside.

(7). Candalides heathi heathi Cox. Male underside.

(8). Candalides heathi heathi Cox. Female underside.

PLATE No. 8.

Pseudalmenus chlorinda barringtonensis Whs. .

Larva, Lateral view.

Larva, Dorsal view.’

Pupa, Lateral view.

Pupa, Dorsal view. . -

Butterfly, upperside of Male.

Butterfly, upperside of Female (Allotype).

Butterfly, underside of Male.

Butterfly, underside of Female. |

EAS сны

Мем. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947.

NEW RECORDS OF LEPIDOPTERA FROM VICTORIA,

WITH NOTES ON SOME RARE SPECIES.

By A. N. Burns, B.Sc., F.R.E.S., F.R.H.S.

Entomologist, National Museum of Victoria.

(Received for publieation June 13, 1947)

1. New RECORDS or LEPIDOPTERA

Division RHOPALOCERA

Family SATYRIDAE

Y ptiima arctous, Fab.

The normal range of this species was from Illawarra in New

South Wales, to Cape York and the islands of Torres Strait,

round to north western Australia.

For some years, it had been thought that Y. arctous might be

present in far eastern Victoria, where several other New South

Wales species have been recorded. The author spent a week

at Mallacoota during February, 1934, and although a careful

survey was made for this species it was not seen.

In January 1935, F. E. Wilson, collecting at Nowa Nowa, was

fortunate in capturing specimens of both sexes of this butterfly

-along the Buchan road, some little distance from Nowa Nowa.

The author visited the same locality in January, 1938, and collec-

ted further specimens, a little to the south of the township. Again,

in early February 1947, in company with F. E. Wilson, more

specimens were collected along the Buchan road. No doubt other

places will be discovered in far eastern Gippsland where this

butterfly will be found. | об шс

Now that enough speeimens have been obtained for purposes

of making accurate comparison with long series of specimens

from Sydney, N.S.W., it has been found that there are no points

of difference between Victorian specimens and those from other

parts of Australia. | at : 5

The genus Y pthima Hubn, eontains many species of Indo-

Malayan butterflies, all of which are very similar in appearance.

Y рита arctous Fab. is the only species of the genus that occurs

in Australia. NE aum

Oreixenica latialis Waterhouse & Lyell.

‚ This species was recorded for the first time in Victoria in Feb-

ruary, 1947, when it was taken in mid-February by F. E. Wilson

i iR о 7 vie Br

104 NEW RECORDS OF LEPIDOPTERA

and the author near Mt. Hotham, along the road towards Cobun-

gra, at an altitude just over 5,000 feet.

"This butterfly is very abundant on Mt. Kosciusko during late

February and throughout March. Waterhouse states “The butter-

flies there (at Mt. Kosciusko) are so plentiful that at dusk they

may be picked from the bushes with the fingers." In view of this

statement, it was reasonable to predict that this butterfly would

occur on parts of the Victorian Alps, between 5,000 and 6,000 feet.

A closely allied species, O. orichora orichora Meyr. which is

very similar, but slightly larger, is very plentiful at places of

similar altitude on the Alps, also on Mt. Kosciusko. O. orichora

is on the wing throughout January, but by the middle of February

is nearly over. Its place is then apparently taken by O. latialis,

as is the case at Mt. Kosciusko.

An interesting description of the life history of this butterfly

is given by Waterhouse in What Butterfly is That? р. 115.

° Q. latialis was originally described as a subspecies of Oreixenica

lathoniella lathoniella West, which has several well defined geo-

graphical races in southern Australia and Tasmania. Since then

both species have been collected in the same localities at the

same time. This was the case in the above instance.

Family LYCAENIDAE

Subfamily Lycaeninae

Candalides cyprotus ОШ.

This butterfly has a fairly wide distribution in Australia, being

recorded from Illawarra, N.S.W. to Brisbane, the Blue Moun-

tains, South Australia, and the southern coastal portion of West-

ern Australia.

It was not until November 1945, however, that this species was

captured in Victoria, when a few specimens were caught on the

Little Desert, a few miles south of Kiata. Examples of both sexes

were secured, but were in rather wasted condition, showing that

it was a little late for the species. In October 1946, another visit

was made to the Little Desert, and more specimens were obtained

all in much better condition.

It is surprising that with such a wide range, C. cyprotus does

not appear to have developed any geographical races. Specimens

from Western Australia, South Australia, and Victoria however,

are slightly smaller than those from New South Wales and Queens-

land.

Rarely, the central areas of the wings in the female are blue

or bluish purple. In the many specimens examined by the author.

NEW RECORDS OF LEPIDOPTERA 105

this coloration has been noted only in specimens from Brisbane.

The foodplant of C. cyprotus in Queensland and parts of New

South Wales is a leafless shrub locally known as dogwood, but

in Victoria there is most likely some other foodplant. This the

author suspects to be the leafless parasitic climber Cassytha sp.

The reasons for this assumption are that a closely related species

Q. hyacinthina hyacinthina Semper. feeds on this creeper, and

where C. cyprotus was captured in Victoria this plant was very

plentiful, and a careful search for any shrub similar to the

dogwood was unsuccessful.

A search was made on Cassytha for larve and pupa, but without .

success. At the time, because the butterflies were on the wing, it

is probable that eggs only would have been present.

Neolucia sulpitius sulpitius Miskin.

This species was first recorded from Victoria when it was col-

lected by the author near the mouth of the Wingan Inlet, far

eastern Gippsland, in February 1946.

This small butterfly has a very wide range in eastern Australia,

being found commonly from Sydney to North Queensland. In

the Cairns-Cooktown area the race N. sulpitius obscura Whs. &

Lyell is taken. |

It is essentially a coastal species, being found only on Ше mud

ftats or salt pans in the estuaries of rivers or creeks, where the

foodplant, Rhagodia billardiert grows freely. There are possibly

other plants allied to Rhagodia on which N. sulpitius also feeds.

Tt is to be expected that this small butterfly will be captured at

other places along the Victorian coast, because of the occurrence

of its foodplant and the number of suitable localities. Waterhouse

suggests the possibility of this butterfly being a form of Neolucia

serpentata H. Sch. which is a very similar insect, and which feeds

on species of Rhagodia and Atriplex. ||

The author has collected the latter species at many places from

Queensland to Victoria, and although found at places on the coast,

it is also very abundant at localities far inland. When the two

are collected together this point will be settled.

Family HESPERIDAE

Subfamily Trapezitinae

Anisynta dominula drachmophora Meyr.

This skipper butterfly is very plentiful during January and

February on the Dorrigo plateau, and Barrington Tops, N.S.W.;

106 NEW RECORDS OF LEPIDOPTERA

much rarer during the same months at Mt. Koseiusko, and at

lower altitudes in Tasmania during February and March.

On account of this extended range, it was expected that it

would be found on some of the higher mountains in Victoria.

Therefore in late January and early February, 1946, when F. E.

Wilson and the author were collecting on the Victorian Alps in

the Mt. Hotham area, it was decided to explore all likely looking

spots. This eventually proved successful, and a number of male

specimens was captured in a grassy gully along the road towards

Cobungra, at an altitude of 5,000 feet. All the specimens were in

excellent condition, which showed that it was early for the species.

In 1947, the same locality was visited about the middle of Feb-

ruary, and further specimens, including females, were obtained

in the originally gully, and at another place a few miles further

on, at an elevation of about 4,500 feet.

At the New South Wales localities, this butterfly frequents the

grassy plains, where it comes freely to the flowers of a species of

Pimelea; in Victoria however, this was not the case. Although

numerous flowers, including Pimelea, were in abundance in open

spots, the butterflies kept “to the gullies where they rested on

grass stems.

In the same areas, another rare skipper butterfly, Oreisplanus

munionga Oll. was taken. Though abundant at Mt. Kosciusko

this species is very scarce in Victoria.

Anisynta dominula dominula Plotz. was originally recorded

from Tasmania and was thought to have come from the Launces-

ton district. Most ‘Tasmanian examples have come from Cradle

Mountain where the race pria Whs. is found: this is much smaller

than typical dominula or drachmophora. Quite recently, the

author received specimens of dominula from southern Tas-

mania and near sea level; these are almost as large as drachmo-

phora, and the spots on the underside are joined to form a con-

tinuous band, which would indicate that they are most probably

typical dominula.

Ẹxamination of the Victorian specimens shows them to be

rather variable, especially on the underside of the hindwing. In

some specimens the spots are inclined to be silvery as in northern

examples, in others creamy yellow and forming a band. Com-

parison of the latter type with the recently acquired Tasmanian

specimens shows little difference. New South Wales specimens

are darker and more suy eoloured beneath and the spes are

more silvery.

NEW RECORDS OF LEPIDOPTERA 107

2. NOTES on RARE SPECIES OF LEPIDOPTERA IN VICTORIA.

Division HETEROCERA.

Family SPHINGIDAE

Chromus erotus Cram.

This hawk moth is apparently very rare in Victoria, less than

half a dozen specimens having been collected, and many years

having elapsed since the last record.

A living specimen was forwarded to this Museum from Everton

in the north east of Victoria, in March 1947. С. erotus is com-

moner near Sydney and Newcastle, and it occurs even more

freely further north and near Brisbane.

It is the finest of the Hawk Moths to be found in Victoria, the

forewings being rich brown in colour, and the hindwings orange.

The family Sphingidae is poorly represented in Victoria, three

species only being anything like abundant and widely distributed.

Division RHOPALOCERA

Family LYCAENIDAE

Subfamily Lycaeninae

Candalides Xanthospilos Hubn.

The range of this species in Australia is given as from Victoria

to southern Queensland, though a few specimens have been taken

_ as far north as Kuranda near Cairns. Its occurrence in Victoria,

however, is apparently limited to a few specially favoured spots.

The late J. A. Kershaw collected several specimens of this

species near Lake Tyers over 25 years ago, one other was collected

at Cann River by J. Clark in 1928, and in February 1947, more

specimens were taken by F. E. Wilson and the author near Lake

Tyers. :

Te is a very common butterfly near Sydney, where it breeds

on several species of Pimelea, chiefly P. linifolia. The larvee

feed at night, sheltering during the day amongst dead leaves, ete.,

near the base of the foodplant. The caterpillars are attended by

a species of small black ant. In Victoria the foodplant is not

pee Family HESPERIDAE

Subfamily Trapezitinae

Hesperilla picta Leach.

This is another common Sydney butterfly which has extended

its range down the south east coast of New South Wales into far

eastern Victoria, though it is local and by no means common in

the latter State.

108 NEW RECORDS OF LEPIDOPTERA

It was found freely by the author near Wingan Inlet and near

Lake Tyers during late February, 1946, and again by F. E. Wilson

and the author at the last named locality in February 1947. It

breeds on the Black Fruit Saw Sedge (Gahnia melanocarpa),

which is confined to swampy gullies, usually near estuaries.

Many years ago, several specimens of H. picta were collected

near Lake Tyers by the late J. A. Kershaw, and, as far as the

author is aware it had not been taken again until 1946. The range

of the species is from far eastern Victoria, along the coast of

New South Wales, to south Queensland, where it is, however, rare.

Мем. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

ADDITIONS TO AND ALTERATIONS IN THE CATA-

LOGUE OF THE LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA

(INCLUDING DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES)

Dy C. J. Gabriel, (Honorary Conchologist, National Museum

of Victoria).

(Plates 9-10).

(Received for publication June 25, 1947)

In the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria Vol.

XLIII, pp. 62-88, 1930, the writer published a catalogue of the

Land Shells of Victoria, recording forty-five species and two

varieties including eight new forms. In the interim, the list has

been considerably augmented, bringing the total to 62 species

and two varieties including eight new to science, the descriptions

of which are now offered. Many of the additions have been

located in the Gippsland area, and it is my earnest conviction that

diligent search in this region will prove the existence of further

species, and that they merely await the collecting. Several

"apparently new forms are in the cabinet of the writer but as

noted in the above catalogue, with single specimens it is considered

advisable to postpone descriptions until further examples appear.

The present novelties, types of which have been presented to the

National Museum of Victoria, are as follow: Charopa jemmy-

sensis, C. illustra, C. okeana, C. collweri, C. inexpectata, О. prob-

lematica, C. lakesentranciencia, Allodiscus marysvillensis, and

special attention is drawn to the first named species, a small but

most exquisite form, located with several species near Jemmy’s

Point, Lakes Entrance. In his Basic List of the Land Mollusca of

Australia, Iredale (loc. cit.) has erected many New Genera, sev-

eral of which appear in the present communication. The List of

Introduced Forms is increased by the presence of Vallonia pul-

chella Müller, discovered at Stanhope by Mr. P. R. Johnson.

The type specimens mentioned in the 1930 Catalogue as being

in the collections of the writer have now been deposited with the

National Museum of Victoria.

Opportunity is here taken of expressing my best thanks to Mr.

О. W. Brazenor of the National Museum for his splendid illus-

trations accompanying this paper.

109

110 LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA

Family RHYTIDIDAE

Genus PROLESOPHANTA Iredale, 1933.

Prolesophanta dyeri (Petterd).

1879. Helix dyeri Petterd, Mon. Tas. Land Shells, p. 40.

1930. Paryphanta dyeri Pett. Gabriel, P.R.S. Vie., XLIII, pt. 1, (N.S.), p. 71.

1933. Prolesophanta dyeri (Pett.), Iredale, Rec. Aust. Mus., xix, p. 40.

1938. Id., Iredale, Aust. Zool., ix, p. 116.

Size of Type.—Maj. diam., 3:5; min., 2-5; alt., 1-5mm. |

Localities—Tarraville, South Gippsland (Т. Worcester and C.

Oke); Belgrave, Ferntree Gully, Hall’s Gap Grampians (C.

Oke) ; Olinda Falls, Splitter’s Falls Lorne, Mt. Dandenong (Self) ;

Warburton (F. E. Wilson).

Observations.—A small, glossy shell, easy of recognition. Trans-

ference to the above genus is necessary. Iredale (loc. cit.) regards

this as incorrectly placed under Paryphanta remarking “The

spire is a little elevated, the apical whorls roughened, the surface

consists of fine radial growth lines only, the mouth is somewhat

oblique, and there is no umbilieus." Not uncommon, being widely

distributed throughout the state. This is a moist-loving species

found nestling in moss (Rhizogonium novaehollandiae Brid.),

and the Hepatic (Blyttia spinosa Gotch). Type from banks of

Distillery Creek, near Launceston, Tasmania.

Genus DELOS Hutton, 1904.

Delos nelsonensis Brazier.

1871. Helix (Hyalinia) nelsonensis Brazier, P.Z.S. Lond., (1870), p. 661.

1871. Helix (Paryphanta) fulgetrum Cox, in Legrand Coll. Mon. Tas. Land

Shells, sp. 31, pl. 1, fig. 11.

1894. Rhenea nelsonensis (Brazier). Suter, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (6), xiii,

p. 64.

1909. Delos nelsonensis (Brazier). Petterd and Hedley, Rec. Aust. Mus., vii,

288

1921. Id., May, Check-list Moll. Tas., p. 92, No. 904.

1923. Id., May, Ill. Index Tas. Shells., pl. 42, fig. 14.

Size.—Maj. diam., 0:15; min., 0-11; alt., 0:06 of an inch.

Ci Моши Higginbotham (C. Oke); Mount Hotham

. Oke).

Observations.—A thin, polished shell belonging to a genus hith-

erto unrecorded from Victoria. The type locality of the species is

south Tasmania, but it is generally distributed throughout the

island. Iredale (loc. cit.) notes that a little variation exists in

the northern shells and figures a subspecies abitens which is

larger but with a narrower umbilicus, the type from Launceston

measuring 4mm. in breadth and 2mm in height. - Iredale has

LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA 111

made H. nelsonensis Brazier the type of his new genus Tasmadelos,

Aust. Zool., ix, p. 118, 1938.

Genus ECHOTRIDA Iredale, 1933.

Echotrida strangeoides (Cox).

1864. Helix strangeoides Cox, Cat. Aust. Land Shells, p. 20.

1868. Id., Cox, Mon. Aust. Land Shells, p. 27, pl. 17, figs. 3, 3a, 3b.

1933. Echotrida strangeoides (Cox). Iredale, Rec. Aust. Mus., xix, p. 48.

1938. Id., Iredale, Aust. Zool. їх, p. 117.

Size —Maj. diam., 0-40; min., 0-33; alt., 0-15 of an inch.

Locality.—Gippsland (exact locality unknown), J. A. Kershaw

(one specimen).

Observations.—A small, shining species, irregularly and rather

coarsely striated; decussated above and below with numerous

close-set spiral lines, a feature distinguishing it from the allied

species H. splendidula Pfeiffer. This is an interesting addition

to the Victorian fauna. Type of genus Echotrida.

Family LAOMIDAE

Genus PARALAOMA Iredale, 1913.

Paralaoma morti (Cox).

1864. Helix morti Cox. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (3), xiv, p. 182.

1930. Laoma morti Cox. Gabriel, P.R.S. Vic., xliii, pt. 1 (N.S.), p. 78.

1937. Paralaoma morti Cox. Iredale, Aust. Zool., viii, pt. 4, p. 313.

Size.—Maj. diam., 2-03; min., 1-77; alt., 1-01mm.

Localities.—Widely distributed throughout the State.

Observations.—A. small, exceedingly common species, present-

ing features which are subject to considerable variation, hence .

the heavy synonymy. It enjoys an extensive range, being record-

ed from New South Wales, Vietoria, South Australia, Western

Australia and Tasmania. Found under stones, dry timber and

fallen leaves. The description of the genus appears in P. Mal.

Soe. Lond., x, 1913, p. 380. Haplotype, P. raoulensis from Sun-

day Island, Kermadee Group.

Paralaoma mucoides (Tenison Woods).

1879. Helix mucoides, Tenison Woods, P.L.S., N.S.W.. iii, p. 125, pl. 12, figs.

5, 5a. :

1930. Laoma mucoides (T. Wds.). Gabriel, P.R.S., Vie. xliii, pt. 1, (N.S.).

1937. io iE mucoides (T. Wds.). Iredale, Aust. Zool, viii, pt. 4, p. 314.

Size of Type—Maj. diam., 3; min. 2:5; alt., 1-5mm.

Localities—Melbourne (Type); Meredith (J. H. Young);

Gong Gong Reservoir (C. Oke) ; Trentham Falls (J. K. and R. C.

Gabriel); Splitters’ Falls Lorne (Self).

112 LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA

Observations.—In form and sculpture a close ally of Г. morti

Cox. Both species possess radial lamellze, which are less developed

in L. mucoides. The last whorl is obtusely carinated, a feature

absent in L. morti.

Type in Australian Museum, Sydney.

Paralaoma halli (Cox).

1871. Helix (Rhyssota) halli Cox, in Legrand Coll. Mon., sp. 34, pl. 2, fig. 9.

1930. Гаота hall Cox. Gabriel, P.R.S. Vic. xliii, pt. 1, (N.S.), p. 81.

1937. Paralaoma halli (Legrand). Iredale, Aust. Zool, viii, pt. 4, p. 314.

Size of T4pe.—Maj. diam., 1:52; min., 1-26; alt., 1-01mm.

Localities.—Castlemaine (F. L. Billinghurst); Frankston and

Tarraville (Т. Worcester); Ferntree Gully, Mt. Donna Buang

(C. Oke) ; Trentham Falls (J. К. and R. C. Gabriel) ; Grampians,

Lorne (Self); French Island (A. В. Trebileock).

Observations —A minute form, found under decaying wood,

and in moss. Narrowly umbilicated and finely striated. It is

widely distributed in Victoria. Consistency in shape is not

apparent, as considerable variation is seen, more particularly in

regard to height. Iredale (loc. cit.) regards Legrand as the

author of the species. ;

Genus LAOMAVIX Iredale, 1933.

Laomavix collisi (Brazier).

1868. Helix minima Cox, Mon. Aust. Land Shells, p. 10, pl. 12, fig. 8. (non

Helix minima Schlotheim, Min. Tasch., p. 340, 1818) (non Helix

minima H. Adams P.Z.S. Lond., p. 303, 1867).

1877. Helix (Pitys) collisi Braz., P.R.S. Tas., for 1876, p. 168.

1930. Laoma minima Cox. Gabriel, P.R.S. Vict., XLIII, pt. 1 (New Series),

p. 80.

1933. Thryasona diemenensis Cox. Iredale, Rec. Aust. Mus., XIX, p. 54.

1937. Id., Iredale, Aust. Zool., VIII, p. 315.

Size of Type.—Maj. diam., 1-77; min., 1-52; alt., 0-76mm.

Localities.—Bairnsdale and Tarraville (T. Worcester); Car-

rum (C. Oke); Jemmy’s Point Lakes Entrance under stones,

decayed timber and fallen leaves (Self).

Observations —A small, shining, broadly umbilieated species,

with nothing comparable in Victoria. Further study of this

peculiar little shell convinces one of its misplacement in Laoma,

and the writer is in agreement with Iredale that a new genus is

necessary for its reception and Laomaviz is now adopted. Cox’s

name being invalid, the shell will be known as above. Type of

H. minima Cox is in the Australian Museum, Sydney.

LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA 113

Genus MISELAOMA Iredale, 1933.

Miselaoma sinistra (Gabriel).

1930. Laoma sinistra Gabriel, P.R.S., Міс, XLIII, (N.S.), pt. 1. p. 81, pl. 2,

fig. 8.

1937. Miselaoma sinistra (Gabriel), Iredale, Aust. Zool, VIII, p. 316.

Size of Туре. —Мај. diam., 1-0; min., 1-0; alt., 1-2mm.

Localities—Tarraville (Type, Т. Worcester); Ferntree Gully

(C. Oke).

Observations—A peculiar sinistral form. In 1933 Ree.

Aust. Mus. XTX, p. 53, Iredale erected this genus for the recep-

tion of the Tasmanian Helia weldii Tenison Woods, naming it as

the Type, and later (loc. cit.) included Laoma sinistra mihi,

from Victoria. These two species are somewhat similar, the

Tasmanian form being a much broader shell. This interesting

genus is further represented by M. reevesbyi Cotton from Reeves-

by Island, South Australia. Type of M. sinistra in National

Museum, Victoria.

Genus TROCHOLAOMA Iredale, 1937.

Trocholaoma parvissima (Cox).

1871. Helix (Conulus) parvissima Cox, in Legrand Coll. Mon. Tas. Land

- Shells, sp. 39, pl. 2, fig. 1.

1879. Helix parvissima Cox. Petterd, Mon. Tas. Land Shells, p. 22, sp. 33.

1894. Endodonta parvissima (Cox). Pilsbry, Mon. Conch., IX, р. 34. .

1896. Endodonta parvissima (Cox). Hedley, Rec. Aust. Mus., II, p. 104.

1909. Laoma parvissima (Cox). Petterd and Hedley, Rec. Aust. Mus., VII,

p. 296.

1921. Id., May, Check-List Moll. Tas., p. 95, No. 928.

1923. Id., May Tll., Index Tas. Shells, pl. 48, fig. 13.

1937. Trocholaoma parvissima (Legrand). Iredale, Aust. Zool., VIII, pt. 4,

p. 316.

Size —Maj. diam., 0-05; min., 0:04; alt., 0:06 of an inch.

Localities— Victoria (Iredale) ; Trentham Falls (J. K. and R.

C. Gabriel). |

Observations.—A minute, conical species not comparable with

any Victorian form. The Trentham record is based on two frag-

mentary specimens found in moss near the falls and although a

trifle smaller, they appear to represent the series. The author’s

locality is near Brown’s River, Tasmania, but is generally dis-

tributed throughout the island. It is also recorded from Mt.

Kosciusko, New South Wales. Helix spiceri Petterd from Tas-

mania is selected as the type of the genus. |

114 LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA

Genus TURBOLAOMA Iredale, 1937.

Turbolaoma turbinuloidea (Gabriel).

1930. Donna o leidas Gabriel, P.R.S. Vic., XLIII (N.S.), pt. 1, p. 81,

1937. Da turbinuloidea (Gabriel). Iredale, Aust. Zool., VIII, p. 317.

Size of Type.—Maj. diam., 2-2; min., 2-2; alt., 2-0mm.

Localitj.—bBairnsdale (T. Worcester).

Observations.—A small, umbilicated, shining, thin, chocolate-

brown, turbinately-globose shell, with nothing approaching it in

Victoria. So strikingly peculiar is this form that in the original

description a suggestion was made that the species may represent

a new genus. Naming the above as the type, Iredale erected

Turbolaoma and added “the species differs in its few very

rounded whorls with deep sutures, very fine seulpture, thin shell,

rather rounded mouth, deep narrow umbilicus, columella reflected,

and may not even be related to the Laomid Shells proper." Type

in National Museum, Victoria.

Family FLAMMULINIDAE

Genus THRYASONA Iredale, 1933.

Thryasona diemenensis (Cox).

1868. Helix diemenensis Cox, Р.7.5. Lond., for 1867, p. 723.

1930. Спағора diemenensis (Cox). Gabriel, P.R.S. Vie., XLIII, Pt. 1, (N.S.),

1475:

1933. п diemenensis (Cox). Iredale, Rec. Aust. Mus., XIX, р. 54.

1937. Id., Iredale, Aust. Zool., VIII, Pt. 4, p. 318.

Size of Type.—Maj. diam., 9-39; min., 8-37; alt., 3-55mm.

Locality—Mount William (Nat. Mus. Vie.), collected by J.

Clark, (one specimen).

Observations.—A shell with numerous riblets and many radiate

pale-red bands. It is common in Tasmania and on the islands in

Bass Strait. From the reference list, 1930, it is obvious the

generic location of the shell has proved a difficulty and the writer

concurs with Iredale in his treatment as above. This is the ortho-

type of the genus.

Thryasona elenescens (Cox and Hedley).

1912. Flammulina elenescens Cox and Hedley, Mem. Nat. Mus. Melb., No. 4,

p. 12, pl. 3, figs. 16-18.

1930. Charopa elenescens (Cox and Hedley). Gabriel, P.R.S. Міс, XLIII,

pt. 1, (N.S.), p. 75.

1937. Thryanosa elenescens (Cox and Hedley). Iredale, Aust. Zool., VIII,

pt. 4, p. 319.

Size of Type.—Maj. diam., 6-7; min., 5-4; alt., 2-9mm.

Localities.—Merri Creek (Tenison Woods); Preston (C. L.

LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA 115

Barrett) ; Geelong (H. W. Davey); Sunshine (J. E. Dixon);

Broadmeadows.

Observations.—A rather flat species with a broad umbilicus.

The authors describe the colour as ochraceous-buff, with a few

faint radial streaks of brown, and remark: “in general appear-

ance like F. diemenensis and F. marchianae, between which it is

intermediate in size. The break in sculpture of F. elenescens

readily distinguishes it.” It is a species easy of recognition. Type

in Australian Museum Sydney.

Genus THALASSOHELIX Pilsbry, 1892.

Thalassohelis translucens Gabriel.

1934. Thalassohelix translucens Gabriel, Mem. Nat. Mus. Vie, VIII, p. 157,

pl. 18, figs. 1-3.

Size of T4pe.—Maj. diam., 14-5; min. diam., 12mm.

Locality—Lilly Pilly Gully, National Park, Wilson's Promon-

tory (under logs), (J. A. Kershaw).

Observations.—The other member of the genus in Victoria is

T. fordei (Braz.) var. m’coyi (Petterd), a form frequently loca-

ted in the Dandenong ranges. T. translucens may be distinguished |

by a more angled periphery and by its zigzag colour bands; the

latter character, where.a little variation exists is more evident in

the paratype than in the holotype. This species is placed by

Iredale in his genus Mulathena, Aust. Zool., IX., p. 1, 1937, a

genus erected by the author Rec. Aust. Mus. XIX, p. 53, 1933 with

Helix fordei Brazier as Туре.

Family ENDODONTIDAE

Genus CHAROPA Albers, 1860.

Charopa ricei (Brazier).

1871. Helix (Charopa) ricer Brazier, P.Z.S. Lond. (1870), p. 660.

1871. Helix rotella Brazier, op. cit. (colour variation).

1871. Helix (Charopa) onslowi Braz., P.Z.S. Lond. (1870).

1871. Id., Brazier, in Legrand Coll. Mon., sp. 46.

1894. Endodonta (Charopa) rice (Braz.). Pilsbry. Man. Conch., IX, p. 34.

1901. Helix (Charopa) onslowi Braz. Ancey, Journ. de Conch. XLIX, p. 146,

footnote. y +

1909. Endodonta ricei (Brazier), Petterd and Hedley, Кес. Aust. Mus., УП

(4), p. 291, pl. 83, figs. 11-18.

1921. Id., May. Check-List Moll. Tas., p. 93, No. 914.

1923. Id., May, Ill. Index Tas. Shells, pl. 43, fig. 1.

Size. Maj. diam., 0-18; min., 0-14; alt., 0-11 of an inch.

Locality—Lakes Entrance (T. Worcester).

Observations.—A. finely sculptured species. Petterd and Hed-

ley (loc. cit.) note “This is usually known by the name of H.

116 LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA

legrandi Cox. Authors have compared it with H. juloidea Forbes,

but it more nearly approaches H. funerea Cox, from which it

differs by narrower umbilieus, greater height in proportion to

diameter and finer sculpture." With the excellent illustrations

provided by these authors, no difficulty should be experienced in

identifying the species.

Charopa musta (Cox).

1866. Helix nautilodea Cox, Journ. de Conch., XIV, p. 47, January 1.

1866. Helix nautilodes Cox, P.Z.S. Lond. (1865), p. 696, April 24.

1868. Helix inusta Cox, Mon. Aust. Land Shells, p. 13, pl. 10, fig. 3. nom. nov.

for H. nautilodoea Cox and H. nautilodes Cox. non. H. nautilodes

Ferussac, Hist. Nat. Moll, i, p. 191, 1850.

1886. Charopa inusta Cox. Tryon, Man. Conch., 11, p. 209, pl. 62, figs. 21, 22.

1894. Endodonta nautiloides Cox. Pilsbry, Man. Conch., IX, p. 34.

1894. Endodonta inusta (Cox). Pilsbry, Man. Conch., IX, p. 34.

Size—-Maj. diam., 0-23; min., 0-19; alt., 0-12 of an inch.

Locality—Merri Creek (J. A. Kershaw).

Observations.—A dull reddish-brown shell, closely allied to H.

sericatula Pfr. but a smaller, and a more finely ribbed species.

This Victorian record is based on a single, perfect specimen pre-

sented to the writer by the late Mr. J. A. Kershaw.

Charopa subrugosa Brazier.

1871. Helix (Pitys) subrugosa Brazier, in Legrand Coll. Mon., sp. 68.

1871. Id., Braz. P.Z.S. Lond., p. 697.

1879. Helix subrugosa Braz. Petterd, Mon. Tas. Land Shells, p. 35, sp. 53.

1894. Endodonta (Charopa) subrugosa Braz. Pilsbry, Man. Conch. IX, p. 35:

1909. Endodonta subrugosa (Braz.). Petterd and Hedley, Ree. Aust. Mus.,

VII (4), p. 292. i

1921. Id., May, Check List Moll. Tas., p. 94, No. 916.

1923. Id., May, Ill. Index Tas. Shells, pl. 43, fig. 3.

Size of Type—Maj. diam., 13; min., 14; alt., 1 line.

Locality.—Victoria, exact locality unknown (J. A. Kershaw).

Observations.—This is recorded from several localities in Tas-

mania. The author remarks “Of this beautiful species I received

two samples from Mr. Petterd, collected by him near Hobart

Town; it may be distinguished from any other known species by

the bold projecting out of the ribs, by the interstices being of finer

sculpture, and the depressed and furrowed appearance of the last

whorl just above the periphery." Petterd (loc. cit.), notes,

“The sculpture represents H. matthine (mihi) in miniature by

its widely separated bold striz and striated interstices. The strize

vary somewhat in prominence and compactness, so much so that

Mr. Beddome, at one time, thought it would be advisable to create

a new species for the specimens from The Blue Tier under the

name of H. kannarie, but after careful examination with a large

LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA 117

series of examples I am confident that it is but an individual varia-

tion." Iredale, Aust. Zool, VIII, pt. 4, p. 928, 1937, has made

Helix subrugosa Legrand the type of his new genus Kannaropa.

Charopa jemmysensis sp. nov. (Pl. 9, Fig. 1).

Shell small, discoidal, light horn-colour, widely umbilicated, distinctly dis-

tantly ribbed. Apex slightly sunken. Whorls, including protoconch, about

four and one half, convex, last whorl slightly descending. Sutures well impressed.

Sculpture consisting of subequidistant radial ribs about thirty two on the ulti-

mate whorl; interstices bearing minute and numerous growth-lines, reticulated

by fine microscopic spiral strie. Protoconch finely radially ribbed. Aperture

oblique, rotundly lunate. Peristome simple, acute, callus on the previous

whorl distinct, concealing several of the ribs. Umbilicus deep, exposing all the

volutions and on which the radial sculpture may be clearly seen. j

Size of T'ype.—Maj. diam., 2-5; min., 2-2; alt., 1-Imm.

Locality—Type, near Jemmy's Point, Lakes Entrance (Self) ;

Mitchell Gorge one specimen (C. Oke); Tarra Valley one speci-

men (C. Oke).

Observations.—This ornate little species may not be confused

with any Victorian form. Its nearest ally is C. subrugosa Brazier,

a shell of somewhat similar sculpture, but from which it may be

distinguished by its much flatter form. Considerable variation

exists as regards colour, one specimen appearing almost an

albino. Found at the first named locality a little above tide mark

under logs and decaying leaves. Type in collections of National

-Museum of Victoria. Reg. No. F. 1054.

Charopa illustra sp. nov. (CAL R Ту, В

Shell small, discoidal, light brown, umbilicated. . Whorls, including proto-

conch about four and one half, fairly-regularly radiately ribbed, about eighty

appearing on the ultimate whorl which: is slightly descending. Interstices

microscopically finely reticulated. Sutures well impressed. Aperture broadly

lunar. Peristome acute, Inner lip with a shining white glaze covering sey-

eral of the ribs. Umbilicus moderately wide, deep, showing all the volutions

and with the radial sculpture easily discernible.

Size of Type.—Maj, diam., 3-1; min., 2-5; alt., 1-3mm.

Locality.—Type with several paratypes found under logs at

end of north arm, Lakes Entrance ( Self).

Observations.—This species may be confused with H. legrandi

Cox from Tasmania but is readily distinguished by its smaller

umbilicus. A similarity to Charopa tarravillensis (mihi) appears

the novelty being a much flatter shell. Type in collections of the

National Museum of Victoria. Reg. No. F. 1056.

Charopa okeana sp. nov. (Pl. 9, Fig. 3.)

Shell small, thin, discoidal, umbilicated closely ri i

; р y U , y ribbed, 1 i

numerous, very faint, subequidistant, radiatine те iss wae ata

118 LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA

Whorls including protoconch five, convex. Sutures impressed. Sculpture

consisting of very close, lightly curved axial riblets, approximately two

hundred on the ultimate whorl. Interstices possessing very few growth lines

reticulated by dense microscopic spiral strie, a feature visible only under

high magnifying power. Umbilicus wide, about one third of the greatest

diameter of the shell, exposing all the earlier volutions and the very fine radial

sculpture. Aperture roundly- lunar. _ Peristome thin, sharp. Inner lip with

definite callus glaze, concealing numerous riblets.

Size of Type—Maj. diam, 4-3; min., 3-9; alt., 2-Omm.

Localities Type. Mount Feathertop, 6,136 feet (C. Oke);

Mount Higginbotham, 6,000 feet (C. Oke).

Observations —Two paratypes with colour bands barely dis-

cernible are in the collection of the writer. The species some-

what resembles C. albanensis, Cox, from which it may be separa-

ted by its finer sculpture and flatter form. I have much pleasure in

associating with this interesting novelty the name of Mr. C. Oke

who has rendered such valuable assistance in the collecting of

these puzzling land forms. Type in the collections of the National

Museum of Victoria. Reg. No. F. 1058.

Charopa colliveri sp. nov. (РІ. 9, Fig. 4.)

Shell small, light brown, thin, perforated, spire lightly raised, Seulpture

distinct. Whorls including protoconch four and one half, ornamented with

prominent, subequidistant, slightly curved radial ribs about sixty on the

ultimate whorl which is descending considerably below the level of the penulti-

mate. Interstices with few microscopic growth lines and crowded concentric

strie. Sutures impressed. Entering the extremely narrow umbilicus the radial

sculpture is clearly perceptible. Aperture oblique, rotundly lunate. Peristome

thin and sharp. Inner lip with callus glaze concealing several of the ribs.

Size of Type—Maj. diam., 2:5; min., 2-2; alt., 1-2mm.

Localities —Type under logs at end of north arm Lakes

Entrance (Self); Snuff Gully near Lake Tyers and Buchan

(Self). ; | |

Observations.—With no Victorian species could this be con-

fused. It somewhat approaches H. cochlidium Cox from Clar-

ence River, New South Wales a species with fewer ribs and a

comparatively wide umbilicus. The colour is not constant, one

specimen in the cabinet of the writer being almost white. In

connecting the name of my friend Mr. F. S. Colliver with this

beautiful little shell, it is done so in appreciation of his enthusiasm

and work on Victorian conchology. Type in the collections of the

National Museum of Victoria. Reg. No. F. 1060.

Charopa inexpectata sp. nov. (Pl. 10, Fig. 5.)

x Shell minute, discoid, depressed, umbilieated, fragile, white, silky. Whorls,

including protoconch four, rounded. Sculpture consisting of equidistant,

fine, radial riblets to the number of one hundred and ten on the ultimate

LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA 119

whorl. Interstiees microscopically reticulated. Sutures well defined. Um-

bilieus wide, nearly one third of diameter of shell, volutions well exposed,

with radial sculpture clearly discernible. Aperture oblique, narrowly lunate.

Peristome acute, simple. Inner lip not reflexed, parietal wall with a broad

shining glaze, concealing several riblets.

Size of Type—Maj. diam., 1-3; min., 1-1; alt., 0-5mm.

Locality.—Michel Dene, Marysville under decaying timber

(Self).

Observations.—This tiny species is the smallest of our Vic-

torian Charopid forms and is easily separable by its fine sculpture

and diminutive size.

Type in the collections of the National Museum of Victoria.

Reg. No. F. 1062.

Charopa lakesentranciencia, sp. nov. (Pl. 10, Fig. 6.)

Shell minute, white, thin, fragile, subdiscoidal, spire just slightly elevated,

umbilicated. Whorls, including protoconch, about four and one half, rounded.

Seulpture consisting of subequidistant, radial, fine, slightly-eurved riblets,

about sixty on the last whorl. Interstices with minute growth lines averag-

ing eight to ten, retieulated by fine concentric stri. Last whorl descending

below the level of the penultimate whorl. Sutures impressed. Umbilicus about

one quarter of shell’s greatest diameter, volutions well exposed with sculpture

clearly seen even to apex. Aperture lunate. Peristome simple, acute. Inner

lip not reflexed, callus glaze concealing about four of the radial riblets.

Size of Type—Maj. diam., 2:3; min., 2:0; alt., 1-2mm.

Localities—Type. End of North Arm Lakes Entranee under

` deeaying timber (Self) ; Jemmy’s Point, Lakes Entrance (Self).

Observations.—A. delieate form which could not be confused

with any known Victorian species. ‘Type in the collections of

the National Museum of Victoria. Reg. No. F. 1063.

Charopa problematica sp. nov. (Pl. 10, Fig. 7.)

Shell small, thin, discoid, umbilicated, closely radiately ribbed, Colour

brown, with irregularly-spaced white streaks extending to the umbilicus. Whorls

including protoconch about four and one half, rounded, slowly and regularly

increasing, the ultimate very slightly descending, almost on the plane of the

shell. Sutures well defined. The shell is sculptured with radial ribs to the

number of about опе hunded and fifty on the last whorl. Interstices with very

fine radial riblets averaging about six. Umbilicus wide, broadly conical, about

one third of the shell’s greatest diameter, volutions with radial sculpture

clearly discernible. Aperture roundly lunate: Peristome thin, sharp. Inner

lip not reflexed; callus glaze broad and thin, concealing several ribs.

Size of T4jpe.—Ma;j. diam., 2-2; min., 2:0; alt., 0-8mm.

Locality —Type. Fernshaw (W. Kershaw).

Observations.—A. pretty little species comparable with (C

tamarensis (Petterd) from which it may be distinguished by its

flatness and smaller size. Reference is here made that this species

120 LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA

with several others recorded in this communication were presen-

ted to the writer by that keen land shell enthusiast, to whom I am

much indebted—the late Mr. J. A. Kershaw.

Type in the collections of the National Museum of Vietoria.

Reg. No. F. 1065.

Genus EGILODONTA Iredale, 1937.

Egilodonta bairnsdalensis Gabriel.

1930. Charopa bairnsdalensis Gabriel. P.R.S. Vic, XLIII (N.S.), pt. 1, p.

78, pl. 2, fies. 11, 12.

1937. Egilodonta bairnsdalensis (Gabriel). Iredale, Aust. Zool. VIII, p. 328.

Size of Type—Maj. diam., 2:0; min., 1:8; alt., 0.9mm.

` Localities.—Bairnsdale (Type, T. Worcester); Jemmy’s Point,

Lakes Entrance (Self).

Observations.—The type and two paratypes are imperfect. It

is a beautifully seulptured form found alive at the latter locality,

a little above tide mark under logs and decaying leaves, in asso-

ciation with the new species Charopa jemmysensis. Its removal

to the above genus is obvious, as Iredale points out “the mouth

shows a long entering palatal lamella, and another shorter basal

one, a feature not noticed in the original deseription." (Type of

Genus.) Externally somewhat approaches H. cochlidium Cox,

but is flatter and possesses a larger umbilicus.

Genus OREOMAVA Iredale, 1933.

Oreomava otwayensis Petterd.

1879. Helix otwayensis Petterd, Mon. Tas. Land Shells (April), p. 39.

1930. Allodiscus otwayensis Pett. Gabriel, P.R.S. Vic., XLIII, pt. 1, (N.S.),

1933. хе otwayensis (Pett.). Iredale, Ree. Aust. Mus., XIX, р. 54.

1937. Id., Iredale, Aust. Zool., VIII, p. 330.

Size of Type. —Maj. diam., 2; min., 1:5; alt., Imm.

Localities —Cape Otway (Petterd); Fernshaw (Kershaw) ;

Ferntree Gully, Gong Gong Reservoir, Mt. Hrica, Warburton,

Mitchell Gorge (C. Oke) ; Taggerty (Nat. Mus. Vic.) ; Tarraville

(T. Worcester) ; Mt. Dandenong, Marysville (Self).

Observations —An ornate little species, imperforate and with

the interstices minutely decussate. The type locality is Cape

Otway scrubs. Johnston in Petterd (loc. cit.) records a variety

from north west Tasmania and remarks “Two specimens obtained

by T. R. Atkinson and myself in the vicinity of Surrey Hills

nearly 2,000 feet above the sea level. It is nearly twice the size

of its Victorian representative, and the sculpture is proportion-

ately coarser. On this account, and as it is new to Tasmania, I

Мем. Nat. Mus. Vicr., 15. PLATE IX

MEM. Nat. Mus. Vicr., 15. PLATE X

ERRATA

Some figures on Plate X are transposed:

Allodiscus marysvillensis, p. 122, should read Fie. 6.

Charopa lakesentranciencia, p. 119, should read Fig. 7.

Charopa problematica, p. 119, should read Fie. 8.

LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA 121

propose alpina as the name of the variety." Alpina being pre-

occupied, Iredale (loc. cit.) has renamed it Oreomava johnstoni.

Petterd's species is fairly abundant, easily recognisable and could

not be confused with any Victorian form. Larger specimens

exist, the type dimensions of which are exceeded in a specimen

from Ferntree Gully, which measures 3mm. This is the Ortho-

type of Oreomava.

Oreomava cannflwviatilus Gabriel.

1929. Allodiscus cannfluviatilus Gabriel, Vie. Nat, XLVI, (6), p. 133, figs. 1,

2, and text fig.

1930. Id., P.R.S. Vic., XLIII, Pt. 1, (N.S.), p. 83.

1987. Oreomava cannfluviatilus (Gabriel). Iredale, Aust. Zool., VIII, p. 330.

. Size оў Type.—Maj. diam., 2-8; min., 2-4; alt., 1-7mm.

Localities—Type, Cann River (Nat. Mus. Vic.) collected by J.

Clark; Snuff Gully near Lakes Entranee (Self), under decay-

ing timber.

Observations.—A. distinctive little form. Bordering the umbili-

cus, several rather strong spiral lire are evident; this is a con-

stant feature, providing a helpful and striking diagnostic charac-

ter. Compared with Helix otwayensis Petterd, it may be dis-

tinguished by its fewer ribs, and the presence of an umbilicus.

Found in association with Flammulina excelsior Hedley, Charopa

tamarensis (Petterd), and Rhytida ruga (Cox).

Genus ALLODISCUS Pilsbry, 1892.

Allodiscus dandenongensis Petterd.

1872. Helix (Charopa) subdepressa Brazier, P.Z.S. Lond., 1871, p. 641 (non

Helix subdepressa Orbigny, Prod. Palaeont., III, p. 1, 1852).

1879. Helix dandenongensis Petterd, Journ. of Conch., II, p. 355.

1930. Allodiscus subdepressus (Brazier). Gabriel, P.R.S., Vic., XLIII, pt. 1,

(N.S.), p. 82.

Size of Type.—Maj. diam., 3:17; min., 2:11; alt., 1:05; diameter

of umbilicus, 1-58mm.

Localities.—Snowy River and Fernshaw (Kershaw) ; Dande-

nong Range (Petterd and Self); Oakleigh (C. French); Gem-

brook (Coghill) ; Emerald District (Jarvis) ; Yarragon (Nat. Mus.

Vie.) ; S. Gippsland (Rev. G. Cox) ; Korumburra (F. L. Billing-

hurst) ; Meredith (J. H. Young) ; Balook and Mt. Erica (C. Oke) ;

Marysville, Hordern Vale, Lorne (Self); Trentham (J. K. and

R. ©. Gabriel). à

Observations.—A white shell, with an umbilicus equalling more

than half the diameter. It is of gregarious habit, being commonly

located in large numbers under decayed timber and among moss.

. Many more localities could be recorded but the above are sufficient

124 LAND SHELLS

gadensis (Helix), 122.

halli (Helix), 112.

halli (Laoma), 112.

halli (Paralaoma), 112.

halli (Rhyssota), 112.

Helix, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117,

120, 121, 122.

Hyalinia, 110.

illustra (Charopa), 109, 117.

inexpectata (Charopa), 109, 118.

inusta (Charopa), 116.

inusta (Endodonta), 116.

inusta (Helix), 116.

jacksonensis (Achatinella), 122.

jacksonensis (Bulimus), 122.

jacksonensis (Tornatellina), 122, 123.

jacksonensis (Tornatellinops), 123.

jemmysensis (Charopa), 109, 117, 120, 123.

johnstoni (Oreomava), 121.

juloidea (Helix), 116.

kannariae (Helix), 116.

Kannaropa, 117.

lakesentranciencia (Charopa), 109, 119.

Laoma, 111, 112, 113, 114.

Laomavix, 112.

legrandi (Helix), 116, 117.

marchianae (Flammulina), 115.

marysvillensis (Allodiscus), 109, 122.

matthinae (Helix), 116.

mc’coyi (Thalassohelix), 115.

meraca (Flammulina), 122.

meraca (Pillomena), 122.

minima (Helix), 112.

minima (Laoma), 112.

Miselaoma, 118.

morti (Helix), 111. a

morti (Laoma), 111, 112.

morti (Paraloama), 111.

mucoides (Helix), 111.

mucoides (Laoma), 111, 112.

mucoides (Paralaoma), 111.

Mulathena, 115.

nautiloides (Endodonta), 116.

nautilodea (Helix), 116.

nautilodes (Helix), 116.

nelsonensis (Delos), 110.

nelsonensis (Helix), 110, 111.

nelsonensis (Hyalinia), 110.

nelsonensis (Rhenea), 110.

nelsonensis (Tasmadelos), 111.

nivea (Endodonta), 122.

nweus (Allodiscus), 122.

okeana (Charopa), 109, 117.

onslowi (Charopa), 115. к

ОЕ VICTORIA

onslowi (Helix), 115.

Oreomava, 120, 121.

otwayensis (Allodiscus), 120.

otwayensis (Helix), 120, 121.

otwayensis (Oreomava), 120.

Paralaoma, 111, 112.

parvissima (Conulus), 113.

parvissima (Endodonta), 113.

parvissima (Helix), 113.

parvissima (Laoma), 113.

parvissima (Trocholaoma), 113.

Paryphanta, 110.

Pillomena, 122.

Pitys, 112, 116.

problematica (Charopa), 109, 119.

Prolesophanta, 110.

pulchella (Vallonia), 109, 123.

raoulensis (Paralaoma), 111.

reevesbyi (Miselaoma), 113.

Rhenea, 110.

Rhyssota, 112.

Rhytida, 121.

ricei (Charopa), 115.

ricei (Endodonta), 115.

ricei (Helix), 115.

rotella (Helix), 115.

ruga (Rhytida), 121.

sericatula (Helix), 116.

sinistra (Laoma), 113.

sinistra (Miselaoma), 113.

spiceri (Helix), 113.

splendidula (Helix), 111.

strangeoides (Echotrida), 111.

strangeoides (Helix), 111.

subdepressa (Charopa), 121.

subdepressa (Helix), 121.

subdepressus (Allodiscus), 121.

subrugosa (Charopa), 116, 117.

subrugosa (Endodonta), 116.

subrugosa (Helix), 116, 117.

subrugosa (Pitys), 116.

tamarensis (Charopa), 119, 121.

tarravillensis (Charopa), 117.

Tasmadelos, 111.

Thalassohelix, 115.

Thryasona, 112, 114.

Tornatellina, 122, 123,

Tornatellinops, 123.

translucens (Mulathena), 115.

translucens (Thalassohelix), 115.

Trocholaoma, 113.

turbinuloidea (Laoma), 114.

turbinuloidea (Turbolaoma), 114.

Turbolaoma, 114.

Vallonia, 109, 123.

weldiü (Helix), 113.

LAND SHELLS OF VICTORIA 125

EXPLANATION OF PLATES 9 AND 10.

Charopa jemmysensis sp. nov. Type. Reg. No. F. ,

Point, Lakes Entrance. La o nó

Charopa illustra sp. nov. Type. Reg. No. F.1056, end of North

Arm, Lakes Entrance.

Charopa okeana sp. nov. Type. Reg. No. F. 1058, Mount Feathertop.

Charopa colliveri sp. nov. Type. Reg. No. Е. 1060, end of North

Arm, Lakes Entrance.

Charopa inexpectata, sp. nov. Type. Reg. No. F. 1062. Michel Dene

Marysville. ә

Charopa lakesentranciencia sp. nov. Type. Reg. No. F. 1063, end of

North Arm, Lakes Entrance.

Charopa problematica sp. noy. Type. Reg. No. F. 1065, Fernshaw.

Allodiseus marysvillensis sp. nov. Type. Reg. No. F.1066, near `

Wolfram Mine, Marysville.

a.— Upper surface. b.—Side view. e.—Lower surface.

ол S т go m ы

MEM. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

A NEW LEAF-HOPPER FROM VICTORIA

(HOMOPTERA, JASSIDAE).

By J. W. Evans, M.A., D.Sc., F.R.E.S.

Imperial Institute of Entomology, London.

Fig. 1.

(Received for publication June 27, 1947).

The leaf-hopper which is described below is very plentiful

around Melbourne, Victoria, where it occurs commonly on grass.

Family JASSIDAE

Subfamily Euscelinae

Tribe BALCLUTHINI

Nesoclutha gen. nov.

The ante-clypeus projects well beyond the lora and maxillary

plates, and the vertex is rounded apically. The crown of the

Fig. 1. Nesoclutha obscura n. sp.

a. Tegmen. :

b. Head and pronotum, dorsal aspeet.

с. Male genitalia.

126

NEW LEAF-HOPPER FROM VICTORIA 127

head is wide. The ocelli, which are small, are marginal in position

and are situated slightly in front of the level of the apex of the

cornal suture. The anterior margin of the pronotum is only

slightly curved and is approximately parallel with the hind margin.

Nesoclutha obscura Sp. nov.

Length 5mm. General coloration (dried speeimens) pale

stramineous. Scutellum, white with orange markings. Tegmen

hyaline, veins whitish. Male genitalia as in Fig. 1, c.

Type from Melbourne, Australia (O. W. Tiegs) 1/47, in the

British Museum. Paratypes in the National Museum of Vic-

toria, Melbourne.

Мем. Nat. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

A NEW SNAKE FROM TOROKINA, BOUGAINVILLE

ISLAND.

By C. W. Brazenor, Mammalogist, National Museum of Victoria.

Fig. 1.

(Received for publication July 7, 1947).

Mr. R. Clarke, of Melbourne, Victoria, brought to the Museum

a number of reptiles collected during his war service on Bougain-

ville, Solomon Islands. Amongst them are three snakes, belong-

ing to the genus Denisonia, which do not fit the descriptions of

either of the species previously described from that area. They

are therefore recorded as

Denisonia furva sp. nov.

Eye two-thirds as long as its distance from the mouth. Rostral

much broader than deep; well visible from above. Internasals

about two-thirds the length of the prefrontals, which are broader

than long. Frontal a little longer than broad; more than twice

as broad as the superoculars; one-and-a-half times as long as

the prefrontals, and three-quarters the length of the parietals.

Nasal a single scale, but showing a fold above the nostril; in

contact with a single preocular. One postocular. Temporals

1+ 1. Six upper labials, the third and fourth entering the eye

and the fifth largest. Six lower labials, four in contact with

the anterior chin shields which are about as long as the posterior.

Anal divided. Scales in 15 rows; ventrals 164; subcaudals 32, all

paired.

Dorsal colour “deep slaty-brown’’ (Ridgway, L., 69 ’’ ’, К),

lighter and warmer on the sides of the body where each scale has

a paler edge. Head as back but the parietals very slightly paler,

giving the effect of a faint V-shaped bar on the crown; a whitish

patch on the cheek reaching from the second labial along the

lower border of the orbit to well behind the opening of the mouth.

Lower parts creamy white, the basal half of each ventral scale

barred for the whole of its width with pale, purplish-brown. Sub-

caudals barred with much colder pale grey

Total length 431mm.; tail 44mm.

Locality, Torokina, Bougainville Island, November 12, 1944.

Type in the National Museum of Victoria, No. D. 7738.

128

A NEW SNAKE FROM TOROKINA 129

The three specimens are remarkably uniform both in scalation

and colour. The head scales are identical and the body counts

close.

130 A NEW SNAKE FROM TOROKINA

Specimen D. і

Scales in 15 rows; ventrals 169; subeaudals 33 pairs.

Total length 466mm.; tail 49mm.

Specimen C. `

Seales in 15 rows; ventrals 167; subeaudals 31 pairs.

Total length 421mm. ; tail 39mm.

ate head of this specimen was removed for examination of

skull.

Boulenger described three species of Denisonia from the Solo-

mons, namely D. par. (1), D. woodfordii (2), and D. melanura

(3). Subsequently Kinghorn (3), and later Burt (5) showed

that par and melanura are synonymous, the former name taking

priority. There is considerable variation within these species

both in scalation and coloration, but the present specimens are

quite distinct. Mr. Clarke notes that he saw numbers of this

snake, and that the specimens secured are of average size and are

full grown.

The new species is smaller than par or woodfordü; it has a

a single postocular; it has an undivided nasal; it has fewer sub-

caudal scales. It further differs from par in having paired sub-

caudals, and from woodfordii in being darker and more uniform

in colour.

REFERENCES.

(1) Boulenger G. A., Pro. Zoo. Soc. Lond., p. 210, 1884.

(2) Boulenger G. A., Pro. Zoo. Soc. Lond., p. 89, 1888.

(3) Boulenger, G. A., Pro. Zoo. Soc. Lond., p. 88, 1888.

(4) Kinghorn, J. R., Rec. Aust. Mus., XVI, p. 148, 1928.

(5) Burt, C. E., Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., LXIII, p. 568, 1932.

Mem. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY

Their Geology, Botany and Entomology.

costo ss

The group of islands in Port Phillip Bay known as Mud Islands

was discovered in 1802, but although only 30 miles from Mel-

bourne it is seldom visited. From time to time men have

been employed there digging guano, others have interested them-

selves in oyster culture, they have been visited by fishermen and

by bird lovers studying bird migration, and a few of the more

obvious facts relating to the group have been recorded, but no

systematie examination of these islands has hitherto been

attempted. In November, 1945, 143 years after its discovery, a

party of scientists organized by the N ational Museum of Vic-

toria, went there to investigate the group in relation to their

several spheres of activity, R. A. Keble to investigate its geolo-

gical history, S. R. Mitchell, to ascertain whether there were any

traces of a former native habitation, J. H. Willis to investigate

its flora, and A. N. Burns, its insect life. |

The investigation was of peculiar importance as it was con-

sidered that the islands are of recent origin—according to Keble,

` at the most little more than 3,500 years old—and that they would

furnish the material for an interesting ecological survey.

HISTORY AND GEOLOGY ОЕ MUD ISLANDS.

By В. A. Keble, Palaeontologist, National Museum of Victoria.

The group of islands was first sighted on Monday, February 15,

1802, by Acting-Lieut. John Murray when he was working along

the south shore of Port King, afterwards renamed Port Phillip

by Governor King, to his first anchorage near Point King. He

recorded in his log (Lee, 1915).

... to the N.E. by N., about 5 miles from the south shore lies a cluster

of small rocky islands and all round them a shoal of sand; plenty of swans and

pelicans were found on them when the boat was down, from which I named

them Swan Isles . . At half-past 3 p.m. we got to anchor in a sandy cove in

7 fathoms of water, bottom fine sand—Swan Islands bearing N.E. by N. dis-

tance 5 miles, a bold rocky point which I named Point Paterson E SE 14

miles, a long sandy point named Point Palmer west, 14 miles, and the nearest

point of the shore S.W. 4 of a mile distant. i š

p EE 7

8 pression gained, doubtless, from a distance,

131

132 MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY

through binoculars—the rocks at the guano deposit being prob-

ably visible to him. One approaching the islands sees, from a

long way off, numerous swans and pelicans on the beaches.

Other extracts from the log are:

Wednesday, February 27 ... In the afternoon the boat went to Swan Isles

and caught three live swans of a large size... . Saturday, February 17....

Sent Mr. Bowen and Mr. Brabyn in the gig to get the latitude of the north

end of Swan Isles and at noon I got the latitude of a point about 7 miles North

and South of them from which a base line was got for the survey of the

harbour.

The course Murray took when he charted the south-east portion

of Port Phillip is shown on his chart made in 1802. It passes

Swan Isles a short distance from the group which he shows as

consisting of three long and narrow islands, the largest one to the

north-west. Obviously Murray’s survey party did not actually

survey the group.

Charles Grimes, Acting Surveyor General of New South Wales,

when he surveyed Port Phillip in January 1803, did not land on the

group; he appears to have copied his outlines of them from

Murray’s chart.

The Rey. Robert Knopwood, who kept a diary during Collins’s

settlement at Sullivan’s Bay near Sorrento, referred to the group

as Signet Island. His entry for Tuesday, October 11, 1803, is as

follows:

The same party Lieut. Nicholas Pateshall, Purser Edward White and self

went on the shore of the island in the middle of the Bay, now called Signet

Island, where we see a great number of black swans. I was the first that killed

one on the island. We kill 3, and caught many alive, and caught many

pelicans, and some’ sea birds.

The landing was made two days after the expedition arrived

at Sullivan’s Bay.

Lieut. J. R. Tuckey of Collins’s Expedition who surveyed Port

Phillip in H.M.S. Calcutta in 1804, sketched in four islands; he

does not appear to have landed.

The first actual survey was made in 1836 by Lieut. T. M.

Symonds and Lieut. H. R. Henry of H.M.S. Rattlesnake which

afterwards figured prominently in the survey of northern Aus-

tralian waters, with John Macgillivray and T. H. Huxley as

naturalists. Symonds and Henry were the first to refer to the

group as Mud Islands, and the channels to the east and west res-

pectively as Pinnace Channel and Symonds’ Channel. In 1842

Commander I. C. Wickham and Captain Stokes in H.M.S.

Beagle, the 10-ton brig so closely associated with the wanderings

of Charles Darwin, extended Symonds and Henry’s survey, and

in 1856 it was further extended by C. J. Polkinghorne. On this

MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY 133

small scale chart, three islands are shown in their true positions;

their outlines do not appear to differ from the chart published

later in 1859-60 (Fig. 1) surveyed by Commander M. G. H. W.

Ross assisted by Messrs. Turton, Sturgess and Deck and corrected

up to 1863.

This last chart is the first to give a large scale outline of the

group—the natural scale is затор and is referred to here as

Ross’s chart.

In 1864, Commander Henry L. Cox, assisted by Thos. Bouchier,

J. G. Boulton and P. H. McHugh, made the chart of Port Phillip

at present in use, and the basis of all subsequent corrections and

extensions. The natural scale is 35500: Cox appears largely

to have accepted Ross’s survey for Mud Islands.

PHYSICAL FEATURES.

The outline of Mud Islands as delimitated by the Coast Survey

in 1946 and on Ross’s chart of 1859-60 is shown in Fig. 1. It

will be seen that while at some places there is agreement, at others

there is considerable variation. The question arises, then, as to

what is to be inferred from these variations—whether they are

due to inaccurate charting or progradation and encroachment

during the last 80 years. Considering the difficulties in charting

the islands and the changes now in progress in Port Phillip, the

variations are probably attributable to both, and for convenience

` of reference, Mud Islands is assumed to consist of four main

islands, none of which are named on the charts, but are known or

referred to here as Western Island (69 acres), Middle Island (54

acres), Boatswain’s Island (98 acres), and Eastern Island.

Besides these there are some low banks, one of which, that between

the southern extremity of Western Island and Boatswain’s

Island, is referred to as Low Bank (11 acres) (Fig. 1.)

The islands are situated near the centre of the Great Sand

(Murray’s “shoal of sand”) trending N.E.; the Great Sand is а

little more than 5 miles long by 2-3 miles wide, and outside the

group is covered by from 1 to 7 feet of water. The depth increases

abruptly to the north-west as one approaches Symonds’ Channel

which is from 20 feet to 55 feet deep; to the south-west is South

Channel with 42 feet of water, and on the north east the southern

portion of the Inner Basin of Port Phillip.

The Mud Islands group has been built up on the Great Sand at

the only place inside Port Phillip where consolidated’ dune-rock

is exposed above high water mark; dune-rock is the surface rock

of the adjacent Nepean Peninsula to the south and east, and

partly of the Bellarine Peninsula to the south-west. In the Mud

134 MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY.

Islands group, it outerops at the south-east end of Boatswain’s

Island, the north end of Western Island, and probably, before it

was covered by sand, was exposed at other places. It is known

BEE I I DB

FIG. 1. MAP OF MUD ISLANDS

Scale: 6 inches to nautical mile.

Coast Survey, 1946 7.......

Ross! Chart, 1859-60

from bores put down on the shoals in the southern portion of the

bay (Keble, 1946) that dune-rock underlies all the shoals, sands

and channels south of a line from St. Leonards to Rosebud. In

configuration the group exhibits an atoll-like form—a circlet of

MUD ISLANDS,.PORT PHILLIP BAY 135

curvate islands enclosing a relatively large tidal lagoon—the

Inner Lagoon—under a foot deep; this opens to the south-west into

a smaller lagoon, the Outer Lagoon, which has a wide opening to

the south. This wide opening is being rapidly filled with sedi-

ment, the Low Bank being formed across it. The bottom of the

lagoons is sandy mud. Тһе islands, except near their outer

fringes, have a fairly level surface, about 5 feet above low

water mark, of sandy mud similar to the bottom of the lagoons.

Along the outer (western) shore of Western Island, sand-dunes

are now being piled up and have reached a height of about 12 feet

near the northern and southern ends of that island. АП the

islands support a low, thick scrub in which there are occasional |

open spaces where rookeries are found; the largest is on the

Middle Island and Boatswain’s Island.

Between the eastern island and Middle Island, and flowing over

the south-east portion of the Inner Lagoon, Ross shows a waterway

with an outlet between the southern extremity of Eastern Island

and the south-eastern extremity of Boatswain’s Island.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUD ISLANDS GROUP.

In a previous contribution (Keble, 1946), it has been pointed

out that the so-called ehannels through the shoals in the southern

portion of Port Phillip Bay could more aceurately be called tide-

ways, formed by the outgoing tidal stream of the Inner Basin of

Port Phillip finding an outlet into King Bay or Bass Strait, and

the incoming tidal stream through The Heads finding its way

into the Inner Basin. у

The Great Sand has been prograded to the north-east and south-

west from a dune rock platform, portions of which are exposed

at the south-east end of Boatswain’s Island and the northern end

of Western Island. This sand has been shaped, and the Mud

Islands group given its atoll-like configuration, in the first

instance by both the incoming and outgoing tidal streams. The

main incoming tidal stream comes through the Heads and along

the South Channel, finding its way through Pinnace Channel

and the channels east of it into the Inner Basin; it also sets to a

lesser extent through Symonds’ Channel. The outgoing tidal

stream coming from the Inner Basin flows over the banks as

well as along the channels. `

Аав oF Mup ISLANDS.

' There is evidence around the shores of Port Phillip of the

world-wide raised beach, 15 to 20 feet above sea-level; but it is

136 MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY

complicated along the northern shore of the Nepean Peninsula

by tectonic movements. Hills (1940) draws attention to the

shell-beds up to 5 or 6 feet above ordinary high sea-level between

Sullivan’s Bay near Sorrento and “The Rocks" at Dromana.

He points out that “The gradual fall in elevation of the raised

beaches towards The Rocks indicates that their emergence was

caused, at least in part, by tectonic movements.” If the raised

beaches referred to were formed at the Postglacial Optimum,

these tectonic movements have occurred since then. The Post-

glacial Optimum is estimated to have occurred about 4,000 years

ago (cf. Brooks, 1922), or, as suggested by the solar radiation

curve (cf. Zeuner, 1945), about 10,000 years ago. Assuming Mud

Islands to have remained static, with a progressive fall of sea-

level based on the shorter estimate, they were uncovered between

1,000 and 1,500 years ago, but on the longer period between

2,500 and 3,500 years ago. If the tectonic movements evident on

the north shore of the Nepean Peninsula extended to Mud Islands,

an upward movement would tend to increase slightly these estim-

ates and a downward movement to decrease them.

The author of this paper has stated elsewhere (Keble, 1946)

that the Port Phillip Sunkland on which the Mud Islands group

is situated is oscillating, but subsidence is much in excess of up-

lift. |

SOME FEATURES OF THE Мор ISLANDS GROUP

'The sandy mud of the generally level surface of the islands and

forming the bottom of the lagoons, suggests a former sea bottom

not unlike that of the deeper portions of the Inner Basin. ‘The

section at the guano rocks gives some idea of the geological history

of the islands.

a. Dune sand accumulating at present and contemporaneous with the un-

consolidated dunes at Sullivan’s Bay. |

b. Guano.

e. Sandy mud which has been partly built up into the dunes (a)

. Shell limestone, loosely cemented Recent shells predominating.

Soft limestone with Recent shells. The limestone layers dip southwards.

Pleistocene dune rock comparable with the dune rock at Sullivan’s Bay and

elsewhere on the Nepean Peninsula and also at Queenscliff.

The guano has been completely removed but there is no doubt

as to where its position was in the section. The workings suggest

that it was not extensive and a foot or two thick. Maelvor (1879)

comments on it as follows: ‘‘Flat (or Mud) Island Guano.—This,

a Victorian guano, found upon a small island in Hobson’s (ste)

Bay... is poor in fertilising constituents, and therefore unsuited

њо р

MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY 137

for treatment with sulphuric acid .... The following average

analysis will show its composition in 100 parts.

WIEN 4o ao OL

Organic matter .. .. .. 28:64

Sand Apo eee 44:82

Phosphate of lime .. .. 20°62

Carbonate of lime .. .. 3°31

Other substances .. .. 1:49

100:00.

The organic matter is non-nitrogenous consisting chiefly of

vegetable debris.”

It has been mentioned here that on Ross’s survey a waterway

(Fig. 1) is shown draining the tidal flat that formerly existed

between Middle Island and Eastern Island; this waterway was

joined by a short tributary from the north-west before it entered

the open water of Port Phillip Bay immediately north of the

guano deposit. On Cox’s 1864 chart two other waterways are

shown on the north-east side of Boatswain’s Island and another

was found on the eastern shore of Western Island. An examina-

tion of these shows that they are actually tideways. At high

tide small basins behind the shore line are filled and as the tide

is falling, this water in the basins finds an outlet into the Inner

or Outer Lagoons by the tideways that have been suggestively

indicated as creeks on the charts; when the tide is rising the

- water flows back through the tideways from the Lagoons into

the small basins. This disposes of the possibility of any of these

so-marked creeks being portions of a stream system that drained

the surface during the glacial stage when it was dry land.

Incidentally, it may be mentioned that on the Nepean Peninsula

no streams have been formed on the dune rock and sand which

are too porous to hold up surface water; exactly the same condi-

tions are found on Mud Islands. |

CoNCLUSIONS.

The Mud Islands group has been formed by the incoming and

outgoing tidal streams behind a dune rock platform, portions of

which are exposed above high water mark on the islands.

The islands are not more than 3,500 years old—all vegetation

and ee life found on them has appeared there within that

period.

That no evidence of the former occupation by the aborigines

was found is somewhat surprising in view of the fact that bird

rookeries exist. The tangled vegetation leaves few open spaces

138 MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY.

and the nature of the surface makes the search for evidence

difficult and inconclusive.

REFERENCES.

1879. Maclvor, Ralph W. Emerson, The Chemistry of Agriculture. 8vo. Melb.

1879. Shillinglaw, John J. Historical Records of Port Phillip, 8vo. Melb.

1915. Lee, Ida. The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson, 8vo. Lond.

1992. Brooks, C. E. P. The Evolution of Climate. 8vo. Lond.

1940. Hills, E. S. Recent Emergence of Shores of Port Phillip Bay. Proc.

Roy. Soc. Victoria, LIT (N.S.) I, 3 Fig. 2 pl.

1945. Zeuner, E. The Pleistocene Period, its Climate, Chronology and Faunal

Successions. 8vo. Lond.

1946. Keble, R. A. The Sunklands of Port Phillip Bay and Bass Strait.

Mem. Nat. Mus. Vic. 14 (II).

FLORA OF THE MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY.

By James H. Willis, B.Sc., National H erbarium, South Yarra.

INTRODUCTION.

Although the Mud Islands were visited as early as 1803, no one

seems to have made any record of the flora until Mr. A. G. Camp-

bell paid a visit on December 27, 1906. Mr. Campbell's list of

species was published by A. H. E. Mattingley in the Vietorian

Naturalist XXIV, 12 (May, 1907); it included 20 indigenous

plants and 3 naturalized aliens, but no cryptogams. Mr. Matting-

ley mentions two other plants, viz. Halophila ovalis and Mesem-

bryanthemum aequilaterale, not listed by Campbell.

By courtesy of the Director, National Museum, Melbourne, the

writer was enabled to visit this area on November 30, 1945. Only

four hours were spent ashore; but in that time he walked com-

pletely around the island group, at the same time traversing most

of some 200 acres that remain permanently above high tide level.

The vascular flora was increased to 30 native and 10 introduced

plants, and, although ten of Campbell and Mattingley’s record-

ings were not observed on this occasion (these are indicated by

smaller type in the catalogue that follows), 9 indigenous flowering

plans, 7 alien weeds, 9 lichens and 5 mosses were added to their

ist. |

PRINCIPAL PLANT COMMUNITIES

Mud Islands vegetation displays no feature of unusual interest

and is, as might be expected, almost identical with that of the

neighbouring coastline—e.g. Swan Island, Queenscliff, just over

MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY 139

five miles away to the west. Four distinet plant communities

are recognizable and will now be discussed briefly:

l. Sand Dune. |

The long narrow Western Island consists of blown sand which,

on the northern and southern extremities, is piled into small but

stable dunes (to 12 feet high) supporting the only arboreal growth

in the area. Old be-lichened trees of Leucopogon parviflorus

(Coast Beard-heath”’) at the northern tip form a tiny unmixed

woodland, some 8 or 9 feet tall—apparently the climax community

on dune sand. Seven different lichens and three mosses were

found on the trunks and branches of these venerable trees, beneath

which is an accumulation of leafy litter. The south-western |

point not only supports a group of Leucopogon trees (fewer than

at the north end) but also the only. occurrence (now) of Acacia

sophorae (“Coast Wattle””) in the islands.

Erect wiry Scirpus nodosus (“Knotted Club-rush’’) and herb-

aceous annual Anagallis arvensis (the introduced “Scarlet Pim-

pernel’’) are conspicuous over much of this sand formation, also

such pygmy ephemerals as Sagina apetala, Polycarpon tetra-

phyllum, Tortella calycina and Ceratodon purpureus (the last

two being mosses). Scirpus nodosus is an effective sand-binder

and has doubtless contributed to the stabilization of the dunes.

The pioneer strand grass Spinifex hirsutus was not noted any-

where here—a singular fact, as it is so abundant in many parts

of Port Phillip and outside the Heads, wherever cliffs give place

to a low sandy shoreline. Tetragonia expansa, Mesembryanthe-

mum aequilaterale, and Cakile maritima are succulent species

mentioned in Mr. Mattingley’s account as examples of the sand

dune vegetation; but I did not see any of these edible plants in

1945 and suggest that rabbits may have been responsible for their

disappearance.

There is evidence of some encroachment by the sea upon the

northernmost dune and its Leucopogon woodland, for dead trees

with bared roots are to be seen standing in the water at some

distance from the present dune face. It is most probable that

Such erosion has exterminated at least three shrub species: the

dune composites Olearia axillaris, Helichrysum cinereum, and

Calocephalus Brownii were recorded for the north-west on Camp-

bell's 1906 list, but I failed to find them after a careful search.

2. Salt Marsh

` The low southern Boatswain's Island, “leg of mutton” shaped

and surrounded by shallow waters of the central lagoon, is appar-

140 MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY

ently the most stable part of the region; its outline and area have

not changed appreciably since 1860 (q.v. Admiralty chart).

Except for a few patches of blown sand facing the south-western

dunes across the lagoon, this area consists wholly of black mud

which is densely covered with Arthrocnemum arbusculum

(“Shrubby Glasswort,” to 5 ft.) —the dominant species—in var-

jous mixture with Suaeda maritima, Atriplex paludosa, Salicornia

australis, Frankenia pauciflora and Samolus repens, the last

being abundant throughout. The salt marsh presents a rather

drab and monotonous aspect; the waterlogged soil, supporting

such a thick mantle of chenopodiaceous and other small shrubs, is

rich in organic matter. Again, in this community one misses

such characteristic halophytes as Disphyma australis, Pratia

platycalyx and Selliera radicans which are common plants of the

salt marsh association in other parts of Port Phillip and in West-

ernport Bay.

The ground is honeycombed with Storm Petrel burrows, where

patches of the marsh growth have been covered by drift sand, and

in these situations two weeds have taken possession: Anagallis

arvensis (“Scarlet Pimpernel””) forms an almost continuous car-

pet, while Cucumis myriocarpus (“Gooseberry Cucumber’) is

also abundant and perhaps of more recent introduction—Campbell

did not observe itin 1906. The sole living, and very aged, tree of

Myoporum insulare (**Boobialla””) is to be found on this, Boat-

swain’s Island, near a sandy rise; sprawling shrubs of Atriplex

cinerea (“Coast Saltbush’’) also favour such higher parts of

the marsh, their branches often encrusted with the vivid orange

lichen Teloschistes parietinus.

3. Raised Shell Beds.

Practically the whole eastern section of the group consists of

accumulated shells or shell-grit with a very sparse plant cover.

Isolated clumps of Atriplex cinerea and A. patula (introduced

annual) comprise almost the entire flora in the north-east, Le.

beyond Middle Island; but at the south-eastern extremity, several

other annuals appear among the two saltbushes, viz., Pholiurus

incurvus, Melilotus indica and Sonchus oleraceus.

It is convenient to class with the shell-beds a few acres of guano

(formerly exploited) at the north-east, which carries an entirely

alien flora—doubtless the result of man’s interference. The

dominant weeds here are Urtica wrens (“Common Nettle’’—very

abundant) and Anagallis arvensis. Cerastium glomeratum and

the two grasses Poa annua and Vulpia bromoides occur in a very

MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY 141

depauperate condition, while the rock-like guano itself is covered

by the crustaceous lichens Lecanora umbrina and Candelariella

vitellina.

4. Shallow Water.

In the lagoon and shallows, especially at the northern end of

the group, is an association of aquatic phanerogams consisting

for the most part of one species, Zostera muelleri (“Dwarf Grass-

wrack’’)—the food of water birds. Z. tasmanica also occurs at

the north and, apparently, Halophila ovalis in deeper water,

though I did not see it.

GENERAL NOTES

In addition to the four well-defined communities just mention-

ed, one can distinguish certain transitional elements along their

respective borders—e.g. Stipa teretifolia of the dunes occurs

sparingly on raised shell beds, while Atriplex cinerea of the latter

formation enters the dunes; Suaeda maritima and Salicorma

Blackiana migrate from their typical marsh habitat out on to the

shelly beds, the latter species appearing to favour drier ground

than its congener Salicornia australis: the three weeds Urtica,

Anagallis and Cucumis, while more abundant on guano, also extend

- out into the dunes. It would be interesting to tabulate the occur-

rences of all these species again after another period of, say, 40

years and note any changes in local distribution. Indeed, the Mud

Islands, so circumscribed and relatively free from interference,

would form an admirable subject for a detailed ecological survey.

. Chenopodiaceae is by far the largest natural assemblage, both

in species (8) and individuals; this family and the Gramineae (9

species) together account for 43 per cent of the islands’ original

flora (30 spp.). The number of indigenous species per genus 18

1-1, and of species per family 2:1. (N.B., Dr. R. T. Patton also

obtained the former figure in his studies on Salt Marsh flora—q.v.

Proc. Royal Soc. Vict. LVI, p. 134, 1942). Systematically, the

naturalized alien plants now constitute exactly a quarter of the

flora, but none of the ten species seems to be aggressive or likely

to threaten the existence of any plants native to the area.

Extensive sand banks with very shallow water are not con-

ducive to a rich algal flora and, indeed, the shores of Mud Islands

seem deficient in marine alge. The attractive calcareous Acetabul-

aria peniculus was noted (washed ashore on the backs of shells),

also several Caulerpa species; but no attempt was made to cata-

logue any marine algze for this small area.

142

MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY

SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT.

(Alien plants indicated by an asterisk*; species not noted in 1945, by smaller

type.)

FLOWERING PLANTS. SUAEDA

POTAMOGETONACEAE Maritima Dum.—Marsh, Shell.

Zostera SALICORNIA

Muelleri Irmisch australis Banks et Sol.—Marsh

Le - (abundant).

D a OUR US Blackiana Ulbrich—Marsh (to drier

(north). : ground).

; ARTHROCNEMUM

E RL LL arbusculum (R.Br.) Moq.—Marsh

ovalis (R.Br.) Hk.f.—Aquatic. (dominant).

AIZOACEAE.

EL Tetragonia expansa Murr.

distichophylla (Labill.) Fassett. (not

D. spicata (L) Greene)—S.W. area.

Poa

*annua L—Guano (depaup.).

poaeformis (Labill.)

P. Billardieri Hk.f.) —S.W. area.

*Vulpia

bromoides (L) 8. F. Gray— Dune,

Guano (depaup.).

Stipa

teretifolia Steud.—Dune Shell.

Danthonia

penicillata (Labill.) F. v. M.

(? in bud only)— Dune.

Pholiurus

incurvus (L) Sehlnx et Thell.—

Shell (S.E.).

CYPERACEAE

Scirpus

nodosus Rottb.—Dune (common

in S.W.)

URTICACEAE

Urtica

*Urens L.—Dune, Guano (abund-

ant).

CHENOPODIACEAE

Rhagodia

baccata (Labill.) Moq.—Dune,

Marsh (depaup.)

Atriplex

Cinerea Pair—Shell (abundant)

Dune, Marsh.

paludosa R.Br.— Marsh.

*patula L.—Shell (probably the

“Chenopodium” of Cam bell

Salsola Kali L. 3 I;

Druce (Syn.

Carpobrotus aequilaterus (Haw.)

N.E.Br.

(Syn. Mesembryanthemum aequilaterale

Haw.).

CARYOPHYLLACEAE

*Cerastium

glomeratum Thuill-—Guano (de-

paup).

Sagina

apetala L.—Dune (ephem.)

Polycarpon

tetraphyllum L.f.—Dune

(ephem.)

CRUCIFERAE

Cakile maritima Scop.

var. edentula (Hk.) Jord.

LEGUMINOSAE

Acacia `

Sophorae R.Br.—Dune (S.W., not

“N.W.” of Campbell).

* Melilotus

indica All.—Shell (S.E.).

FRANKENIACEAE

Frankenia

pauciflora DC.—Marsh (com-

mon).

EPACRIDACEAE

Leucopogon

parviflorus (Andr.) Lindl.—

Dune (dominant).

PRIMULACEAE

* Anagallis

arvensis L.—Dune, Guano (abun-

dant).

Samolus

repens Pers.—Marsh (abundant)

MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY

MYOPORACEAE

Myoporum

insulare R.Br.—Marsh (one

tree on sandy rise).

CUCURBITACEAE

*Cucumis

myriocarpus Naud.—Dune, Guano

(common).

COMPOSITAE

Olearia axillaris F. v. M.—(N.W.)

Helichrysum cinereum (Labill.)

F. v. M.—(N.W.)

Calocephalus Brownit (Cass.) Е. v.

M.—(N.W.)

*CARDUUS

pycnocephalus Jaeq.—Dune (Pro-

ably the “С. lanceolatus” of

Campbell).

*SONCHUS.

oleraceus L.—$Shell (S.E.)

CRYPTOGAMS

(excluding А16)

Musei

Ceratodon purpureus

bare sand.

Tortella

(L) Brid—

143

calycina (Schwer.) Dixon—bare

sand.

Tortula

papillosa Wils.—on Leucopogon

trunks, j

Zygodon

minutus C. Müll. et Hampe—on

Leucopogon trunks.

Bryum

truncorum Brid.—humus under

Leucopogon.

Lichenes

. On trunks and branches of Leu-

copogon.

Parmelia

caperata-Ach. ,

perforata Hook.

Physcia (

pulverulenta Nyf.

Ramalina

calicaris Fr.

Ecklonu Mont.

Teloschistes

chrysophthelmus Th.Fr.

parietinus (L.)—also on other

wood and rocks. |

On Guano rocks:

Lecanora

umbrina Massal.

Candelariella

vitellina Müll-Arg.

INSECTS COLLECTED AT MUD ISLANDS, PORT

PHILLIP BAY. November 30, 1945.

By A. N. Burns, B.Sc., F.R.E.S. Entomologist,

National Museum of Victoria.

Order

DERMAPTERA

Family LABIDURIDAE

Labidura truncata Kirby .

Common under shore debris, especially driftwood. Not found

amongst vegetation above shore level.

Order

HEMIPTERA

Family CYDNIDAE

Acatolectus sp. near piceus.

A single specimen found just above the shoreline, among debris.

144 MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY

Order COLEOPTERA

Family CURCULIONIDAE

Leptops Duponti Boisd.

One specimen found on the ground among small bushes. This

species is very plentiful along the coast of the Bay, where it is

found in association with Acacia longifolia.

Order HYMENOPTERA

Family BEMBECIDAE

Bembex furcata Sm.

A small number of specimens captured flying about sandy

patches a few feet above high water mark. These wasps capture

flies which they carry to their burrows and store to provide food

for their larve.

Order DIPTERA

Family TABANIDAE

Tabanus bassi Ferg.

Several specimens captured, but not plentiful enough to consti-

tute a nuisance. This species occurs freely in Tasmania, the

islands of Bass Strait, and the southern portion of the mainland.

Family THEREVIDAE

Anabarrhynchus maritima Hardy.

Several specimens seen, one taken on the wing. A fairly abun-

dant species on the mainland.

Family MUSCIDAE

Musca domestica L.

ч Very common everywhere, no doubt breeding in the exereta of

irds.

Anastellorhina stygia Fab.

Plentiful, no doubt breeding in excreta, dead young birds, ete.

Order LEPIDOPTERA

Family LYMANTRIIDAE

Acyphas chionitis Turn.

This species is also common on the mainland.

MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY 145

Family NYMPHALIDAE

Pyrameis itea Fab.

This species is also abundant in Tasmania and on the mainland.

Insect life was not plentiful on the Islands, and all species met

with occur on the mainland. This is only to be expected on

account of their proximity to the latter. Winged insects would

have little difficulty in reaching the islands, and a number of

apterous ones could be carried there on driftwood and in debris.

That many could establish themselves is doubtful, because of the

small variety of trees and plants present. |

Мем. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE BIOLOGY AND

ECOLOGY OF THE SNOWY RIVER AREA IN NORTH-

EASTERN VICTORIA.

(Plates 11-13).

This report deals with a primary visit to the area, provides a

generalized description of the country, and lists the plants and

animals collected.

The Snowy River and its tributaries between Buchan and the

Victoria-New South Wales border traverse much country which

is unpopulated and remains in its virgin state. It is steeply

mountainous, consisting of an unbroken series of ranges and

valleys which support a varied flora, and which extend north-

wards towards Mt. Kosciusko in New South Wales. With the

exception of the Snowy River itself, no ground survey of the

country has ever been made, and it is almost unknown biologically.

These conditions alone make the area a desirable one for an

ecological study, but there is also another consideration. There

is a proposal by Governmental bodies to divert the water of the

Snowy River for use in the generation of hydro-electric power

and for irrigation. This may have some repercussion on the bio-

logical balance of the area below the diversion, and could, in the

future, form the subject for an interesting comparison.

The above facts outline the reasons for the investigation by the

National Museum of Victoria.

Museum personnel on the primary. visit consisted of C. W.

Brazenor (Mammalogist), J. H. Macpherson (Conchologist), S.

G. Whincup (Mineralogist), and R. Boswell (Preparator).

A camp on the Snowy River, planned from the very meagre

maps and information available before the trip, proved to be

impractical when the area was reached. Headquarters was there-

fore established near Gelantipy, and two- or three-day excursions

were made from there. In this manner the party visited the

Snowy River, at Campbell’s Nob and at its junction with the

Deddick River, the Suggan Buggan River, the Little River and

Wombargo Creek, the Murrindal River gorge, and high country

between the source of the Buchan River and Wombargo Creek.

From observations made during these excursions, the following

sketch of the area may be made.

The country rock of the area is mainly Snowy River porphyry.

Under this heading is included varied rock types, a number of

146

Mem. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15.

м \ 2 ES

9 N Ге)

mA \ 3 V

e = 2

9 З А €

| : : = A

g 4 e 723 X SELECTED FOR PROPOSED

x ( J~ BIOLOGICAL SURVEY.

> o COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS.

— MAIN ROADS, — TRACKS AND SIDE ROADS,

DIVIDE BETWEEN SNOWY AND BUCHAN RIVER SYSTEMS APPROX SCALE in MILES Id —

Nw.

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA 147

which can be described as volcanic agglomerates whilst others

are true quartz porphyries; in places they are many hundreds of

feet thick. Underlying this is granite, which outcrops in some

areas. There are also exposures of Ordivician, isolated small

outcrops of basalt, and, to the south, some limestone. The steep

mountainsides hold practically no soil and there is little alluvial

deposition in river valleys.

The bare country absorbs little of the rainfall, which averages

30 inches per year, and the run-off causes a very rapid change

of river rise and fall which is accentuated at the time of melting

snow.

The northern slopes of the mountains are dry and open; the

southern slopes are less dry and carry more scrub. In the high

country (4,000 to 5,000 feet) there are large areas of Snow Grass

(Poa caespitosa) and stands of Snow Gum (Hucalyptus pauci-

flora). The northern lower slopes carry White Gums (Buca-

lyptus viminalis and E. rubida) and Box (probably Eucalyptus

albeus), and have little or no ground cover though some areas

have a sparse growth of the low-growing Tea Tree (Leptosper-

mum attenuatum). The principal tree on the southern slopes

15 the Woollybutt (Hucalyptus gigantea). Still lower in the gullies

15 a varying amount of scrub including Blanket-leaf (Bedfordia

salicina), Musk (Olearia argophylla), and several species of Tea

Tree (Leptospermum lanigerum, Beckea Gunniana, and Kunzia

peduncularis). In the deeper gully-heads, the serub thickens to

Jungle proportions, and besides Blanket-leaf and Musk contains

Lilly-pilly (Eugenia Smithit), Wire Grass (Tetrarrhena juncea)

and Lianes including Clematis (Clematis aristata) and Supple-

jack (Lyonsia straminea).

Such a short, generalized outline of the country must neces-

sarily leave many gaps, but is intended to present only an overall

view which, as specific localities are more intensively worked,

may be filled in.

PLANTS COLLECTED

We are indebted to Dr. R. T. Patton, Melbourne University,

for the identification of botanical specimens.

Family GRAMINEAE

Genus POA

Poa caespitosa G. Forst.

Wombargo Tableland, 5,000 feet.

148 BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

Family LILIACEAE

Genus DIANELLA

Dianella revoluta R.Br.

Wombargo Creek above 3,000 feet.

Family PROTEACEAE

Genus LOMATIA

Lomatia longifolia R.Br.

Wombargo Creek above 3,000 feet.

Genus HAKEA

Hakea macrocarpa R.Br.

Junction of Little River and Wombargo Creek.

Genus GREVILLEA

Grevillea langera A. Cunn.

Junction of Little River and Wombargo Creek.

Family RANUNCULACEAE

Genus CLEMATIS

Clematis aristata R.Br.

Wombargo Creek above 3,000 feet.

Family LEGUMINOSAE

Genus ACACIA

Acacia diffusa Edwards.

Junction of Little River and Wombargo Creek.

Acacia longifolia Willd.

Snowy River at Campbell’s Nob.

Acacia dealbata Link.

Snowy River at Campbell’s Nob; Wombargo Creek above

3,000 feet.

Genus PULTENAEA

Pultenaea largiflorens F. v. М.

Junction of Little River and Wombargo Creek.

Family RUTACEAE

Genus CORREA

Correa rubra Sm.

Murrindal Gorge, W. Tree. ;

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA 149

Family EUPHORBIACEAE

Genus EUPHORBIA

Euphorbia Lathyris L.

Snowy River at Campbell’s Nob. (Introduced weed). `

Genus PHYLLANTHUS.

. Phyllanthus Gunni НК.

Murrindal Gorge, W. Tree.

Family MYRTACEAE

Genus LEPTOSPERMUM

Leptospermum attenuatum Smith.

Junetion of Little River and Wombargo Creek; Wombar go

Creek above 3,000 feet.

Leptospermum lanigerum Smith

Junction of Little River and Wombargo Creek.

| Genus KUNZEA

Kunzea peduncularis Е. v. М.

Snowy River at Campbell’s Nob.

Genus BAECKEA

Baeckea Gwnniana Schauer.

Junetion of Little River and Wombargo Creek; Wombargo

Creek above 3,000 feet.

Family ARALIACEAE

Genus TIEGHEMOPANAX

Tieghemopanaa sambucifolius Viguer.

Wombargo Creek above 3,000 feet.

Family EPACRIDACEAE

Genus LEUCOPOGON

Leucopogon Hookeri Sond.

Junction of Little River and Wombargo Creek; Wombargo

Creek above 3,000 feet.

Family LABIATAE

Genus PRUNELLA

Prunella vulgaris L.

Wombargo Creek above 3,000 feet.

150 BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

Family SCROPHULARIACEAE

Genus VERONICA

Veronica perfoliata R.Br.

Junction of Little River and Wombargo Creek.

Veronica Derwentiana Andr.

Wombargo Creek above 3,000 feet.

Family RUBIACEAE

Genus COPROSMA

Coprosma hirtella Labill.

Wombargo Creek above 3,000 feet.

Family COMPOSITAE

Genus OLEARIA.

Olearia alpicola F. v. M.

Wombargo Creek above 3,000 feet.

GEOLOGY

By Sylvia G. Whincup, M.Sc., Mineralogist.

The area covered by this preliminary survey is a strip of

country on the western side of the Snowy River, between Suggan

Buggan in the north and W Tree in the south. A description of

the geology of this area is included in the excellent reports by

Howitt (2) and (4), who spent many months in northern Gipps-

land, and also by Ferguson (1). It is not felt that very much

detailed geology can at present be added to these reports, as it

was not possible to make more than a hurried visit to most of the

localities mentioned. However some interesting, if somewhat

disconnected, observations are recorded.

DESCRIPTION OF AREA.

Most of the rocks exposed in this area belong to the series

known as the Snowy River Porphyries—these consist mainly of

voleanie rocks of Lower Devonian age having a total thickness

of some 2,000 feet. On the relatively flat-topped plateau between

W Tree and Wulgulmerang, the porphyries are covered in places

by remnants of Tertiary basalt flows. To the west, the land rises

gradually to a ridge running north and south between Mt. Wom-

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA 151

bargo and Mt. Statham, and extending south towards Buchan

wu to the east it drops very steeply to the valley of the Snowy

iver. i

The porphyries are very hard, and their resistance to erosion

has resulted in the development of steep rocky gorges along many

of the swiftly flowing rivers in the area.

At Suggan Buggan, and along the Snowy River at the junction

of the Deddick River and at Campbell’s Nob, older granitic rocks

are exposed. In these areas, the river valleys open out, becoming

relatively broad and flat, and the topography is much less rugged.

The older sedimentary rocks (Ordivician) which underlie the

Snowy River Porphyries were not examined during this prelimi-

nary survey.

Nores on Rocks COLLECTED

Granitic Rocks.

The rocks exposed at Suggan Buggan, at the junction of the

Deddick River and at Campbell’s Nob are grey, even-textured,

plutonic rocks containing quartz, white felspar, and abundant

biotite, with a little hornblende in places. Sections have not yet

been cut, but in hand specimens, the rock resembles granodiorite.

Microscopic examination of a crushed specimen revealed abun-

dant plagioclase felspar, but the ratio of plagioclase to orthoclase

cannot be determined without sectioning. Xenoliths of sedimen-

tary rocks in all stages of assimilation are common at Suggan

Buggan and at the Snowy River Bridge.

These grey granitic rocks are older than the overlying Snowy

River Porphyries. Evidence for this can be seen in road cut-

tings above the Suggan Buggan River, where sections have

exposed at least one large mass and a few small rounded boulders

of the granitie rock embedded in the porphyries. On the western

bank of the Snowy River, just north of Campbell's Nob, similar

boulders can be seen embedded in fine-grained porphyry— (Plate

13, lower.

Snowy River PORPHYRIES

- This series includes many types of rock, most of which appear

to be of voleanie origin. They have been described in detail by

Howitt (2), and only specimens collected on this survey are

described here. і

- (a) Quartz Porphyry.—Massive quartz porphyry occurs

south of Currie Creek, approximately two miles west of the Gelan-

tipy-Wulgulmerang Road. This rock is very uniform, and con-

152 BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

tains phenocrysts of quartz and felspar, up to 4 inch long, set in a

salmon-pink ground mass. Xenoliths, if present, are very rare.

Many large boulders show evidence of spheroidal weathering,

similar to granite. The rock decomposes to a poor gritty soil,

which does not support a dense vegetation on the hillsides. The

western limits of this quartz porphyry are not known; a track

south of Currie Creek was followed westwards for at least one

mile without any apparent change in the nature of the rock.

This outerop is probably similar to quartz porphyry deseribed

by Howitt from the Cobboras, Mt. Wombargo and Mt. Statham;

and, as he suggests, these masses are probably “the denuded

stumps of voleanoes’’ which lie on an old meridional fissure ex-

tending from the Cobboras to Buchan. LA

(b) Volcanic Rocks.—South of Currie Creek, approximately

14 miles west of the road, the quartz porphyry. described above is

in contact with a fine-grained voleanic rock, containing phenocrysts

of quartz in a fine-grained ground mass which, although altered,

shows a well defined flow structure (Plate 12, upper). Angular

xenoliths are common, and in places the rock shows evidence of

secondary silicification.

To the east of this locality, all the Snowy River porphyries so

far examined consist of volcanic rocks, and include tuff beds and

great masses of agglomerate. The eruptions producing this great

thickness of material appear to have been of the explosive type,

rather than quiet eruptions producing vast flows of lava.

Huge masses of agglomerate stand out above the surrounding

vegetation at a locality known as Bare Rock, situated south of

Boundary Creek in the parish of Wulgulmerang East. These

masses are composed mainly of boulders of quartz porphyry

which stand out in relief on the weathered surface of the rocks.

Many of the boulders appear to have been rounded before being

incorporated in the agglomerate. Masses of similar agglomerate

are exposed on the high rugged cliffs, where the colony of rock

wallabies was located above the Suggan Buggan River.

In all cuttings on the road down to the Suggan Buggan River,

the rock appears to be very uniform, and contains phenocrysts

of quartz and pink felspar with abundant fragments of sedi-

mentary rock set in a grey or pinkish ground mass. This rock

is very hard and massive, and was responsible for considerable

trouble during road building operations. The same type of rock

occurs north of Little River, near its junction with Wombargo

Creek, and also along the Forest Commission Road which is being

cut from the main road just north of Boundary Creek westwards

to a peak known as Seldom Seen.

PLATE XI

| роге ° Currie Creek.

ing flow structure south of

“Porphyry? show

V. - > DS An

[ ar dar Cr eek.

i i і —G le ti зу- VV ulgulmerang Road near 201 У a

oleanie Pisolites Ge an I N e | ın 7:

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA 153

Turr BEDS—VOLCANIC PISOLITES

Voleanie tuff is exposed in cuttings along the Gelantipy-Wul-

gulmerang Road near Boundary Creek, where it forms compact

fine-grained rocks of pink or yellowish colour. One bed of reddish

coloured tuff exposed south of Boundary Creek contains small

spherical pellets of hardened ash set in a cement of the same

material. (Plate 12, lower). These pisolites vary in size from

one-sixth inch to one-half inch in diameter, and appear to

have been slightly flattened by the weight of the overlying strata.

Joints in the tuff bed pass through some of the pellets. In section,

these pellets have a concentric structure, and it is suggested that

they have been formed by trickles of water, or by wind rolling

some nucleus over a surface of soft voleanic mud. ‘Their appear-

ance does not suggest that they were formed in the atmosphere

and fell as mud balls as was recorded at Vesuvius by Perret (5). |

The name Accretionary Lapilli in preference to Voleanie Pisolites

has been suggested by Wentworth and Williams (6).

MIDDLE DEVONIAN LIMESTONES

The Buchan limestones which overlie the porphyries further

south were not examined during this survey.

SUB-BASALTIC DEPOSITS

(a) Carbonaceous Mudstone.—Boulders of black carbonaceous

mudstone containing fragmentary plant remains were found

in Butcher’s Creek, about one mile above its junction with Back

Creek. Time did not permit a search for the outcrop from which

the boulders were derived, but in view of the soft crumbly nature

of the mudstone, it cannot be more than a few chains distant.

Quartz grains from 1-2mm. are common in the mudstone, and two

almost perfect bi-pyramidal crystals were found in one small

specimen. The plant remains, mainly stems and woody tissue,

have not yet been determined.

This bed is probably of small local extent, and may be of the

same age as a sub-basaltie plant bed described by Howitt (3)

from a deep lead at Mayford on the Upper Dargo River, and

identified by McCoy as Miocene. |

(b) Quartzite and Opal—Quartzite occurs directly beneath

the basalt a quarter of à mile north of Currie Creek, and also

further south between Gelantipy and W Tree. Small patches of

common opal and wood opal occur at W Tree also beneath the

basalt. Silieifieation of sediments forming the quartzite and opal

was probably caused by solutions derived from the basalt at the

time of its eruption. .

154 BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

The foregoing is a very incomplete record of the rocks occurring

in the area, but it may serve a useful purpose in giving some

indication of the great amount of work yet to be done there.

I am indebted to Messrs. G. Baker and A. Gaskin of the

Geology School, Melbourne University, for helpful discussion, and

to Messrs. A. Hodge and C. Sykes, of Gelantipy, for assistance

in the field.

REFERENCES

1. Ferguson, W. H. Report on Geological Survey of Snowy River Valley.

Geol. Survey Vic. Prog. Rep. No. 11, pp. 20-22, 1899.

Howitt, A. W. Notes on the Devonian Rocks of North Gippsland. Geol.

Survey Vic. Prog. Rep. No. 3, pp. 181-249, 1876.

Notes on the Geological Structure of North Gippsland. Geol. Survey

Vie. Prog. Rep. No. 4, p. 112, 1877.

—— Notes on the Devonian Rocks of North Gippsland. Geol. Survey

Vie. Prog. Rep. No. 5, pp. 117-147, 1878.

5. Perret, F. A. The Vesuvius Eruption. Published by the Carnagie Insti-

tution of Washington, July, 1924, p. 48, 1924.

6. Wentworth, С. K. and Williams, H. Bulletin of the National Research

Council No. 89, Pub. by the National Academy of Science, Washington

D.C., p. 37, 1932.

MAMMALS

By C. W. Brazenor, Mammalogist.

Order MARSUPIALIA

Sub-order Diprotodontia

Family MACROPODIDAE

Genus PETROGALE Gray, 1837

Petrogale penicillata Griffith, Smith and Pidgeon, 1827.

Petrogale penicillata Griffith, Smith and Pidgeon, Anim, King,

(Cuvier), Mamm., V, p. 204, 1827.

Rock Wallabies were at one time very numerous throughout the

Snowy River area, but unrestricted hunting, a disease epidemic,

or possibly a combination of the two, drastically reduced their

numbers in the early part of the present century. For more

than 30 years, no Victorian specimen has been recorded at the

National Museum, and the species has been considered extinct in

that State. E аи

A small colony was found on:a mountainside at Suggan Bug-

gan. It was estimated that it consisted of 10 to 12 individuals

whieh, from observation, appeared to lead a nomadie existence

over a little more than a mile of rocky outerop. The site is un-

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA 155

disturbed, and the animal’s only natural enemy is the di

z " . . ` 1 °

(log) which is numerous in the district. One of the ne

was collected for examination, and proved to be a female with a

pouch embryo. Its coloration is typical in all details.

1 °, Locality—Suggan Buggan, H. and B. 521mm., T. 533mm.,

H.F. 162mm, E. 43-5mm.; Mus. No. C 958.

Family PHALANGERIDAE

Genus TRICHOSURUS Less., 1828

Trichosurus caninus (Ogilby), 1835

Phalangista caninus Ogilby, Pro. Zoo. Soe. Lond., p. 191, 1835.

The species is still common at high elevations in Woollybut

(Eucalyptus gigantea) country.

1 3, Locality—The Cobras. Mus. No. C 978.

Trichosurus vulpecula (Kerr), 1792

Didelphis vulpecula Kerr, Linn. Anim. King., p. 198, 1792.

Common at lower elevations in White and Blue Gums.

1 4, Locality—Nr. Gelantipy. Mus. No. C. 965.

Genus PSEUDOCHIRUS Ogilby, 1836

Pseudochirus laniginosa (Gould), 1858

Phalangista laniginosa Gould, Mamm. Aust., I, pl. XX, 1858.

‘The specimens collected are a clear grey on the dorsal surface,

with but a faint suffusion of ochraceous—tawny on the limbs. Ven-

tral surface pure white. They are prominent when placed among

a series of typically warm-coloured Victorian ringtails. The

future acquisition of a larger series will prove whether the cool

grey colour is a racial character in this high altitude.

1 2,1 9. Locality—Wombargo Creek at 3,000 feet. Mus. No.

C 963 and C 964.

Genus SCHOINOBATES Lesson, 1842

Schoinobates volans (Kerr), 1792.

Didelphis volans Kerr, Anim. King. (Linne), p. 199, 1792.

1 2. Locality—W Tree. Mus. No. C 980.

Genus PETAURUS Shaw and N odder, 1791

Petaurus australis Shaw and Nodder, 1791

тааш australis Shaw and Nodder, Nat. Misc. II, pl. LX,

2 22. Locality—Honeysuckle Track, Nr. Gelantipy. Mus. No.

C961 and C 962. | 3

156 BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

Petaurus breviceps Waterhouse, 1839

Petaurus breviceps Waterhouse, Pro. Zoo. Soe. Lond., p. 152,

1839.

1. Locality—Nr. Gelantipy. Mus. No. С 959.

1. Loeality—Suggan Buggan River. Mus. No. C 960.

Sub-order Polyprotodontia

Family DASYURIDAE

Genus ANTECHINUS Macleay, 1841

Antechinus flavipes (Waterhouse), 1838.

Phascogale flavipes Waterhouse, Pro. Zoo. Soc. Lond., p. 75,

1838.

1 3, Locality—Honeysuckle Track, Nr. Gelantipy. Mus. No.

C 968.

1 ¿. Locality—W Tree, Mus. No. C 969.

Order PLACENTALIA

Sub-order Rodentia

Family MURIDAE

Genus RATTUS Fischer, 1803.

Rattus assimilis (Gould), 1858

Mus assimilis Gould, Pro. Zoo. Soc. Lond., p. 241, 1858.

9 9,2 в. Locality—Junction Little River and Wombargo

Creek. Mus. Nos. C 967 and C 970-5.

1 °. Locality—Snowy River at Campbell’s Nob. Mus. No.

C 976.

Rattus rattus Linn.

This introduced species was taken with assimilis at Snowy

River. t

12. Mus. No. C 977.

AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES

By C. W. Brazenor, Mammalogist.

Order AMPHIBIA

Sub-order Salientia

Family BUFONIDAE

Genus PSEUDOPHRYNE Fitzing., 1843.

Pseudophryne bibronii Gunth., 1858

Pseudophryne bibronii Gunth., Brit. Mus. Cat. Bat. Salien., p..

46, 1858. 2 spec. Locality—Honeysuckle Track nr. Gelantipy.

Mus. Nos. D 7703-4.

. BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA `

Family HYLIDAE

Genus HYLA Laurenti, 1768.

Hyla lesueurii D. and B., 1868

Hyla lesueurii Dum. and Bibr., Keferst. Arch. f. Naturg., p.

278, 1868. 1 spec. Locality—Honeysuckle Track nr. Gelantipy,

Mus. No. D 7705.

Hyla ewingi D. and B., 1841

Hyla ewingi Dum. and Bibr., Erpt. Gen., VIII, p. 597, 1841.

5 spec. Locality—Little River. Mus. Nos. D 7708-12.

Family CERATOPHRIIDAE

Genus ORINIA Tschudi, 1838

Crinia signifera Girard, 1853

Crinia signifera Girard, Pro. Acad. Philad., p. 442, 1853. 1

spec. Locality—Little River. Mus. No. D 7707.

Genus LIMNODYNASTES Fitzing., 1943.

Limnodynastes dorsalis (Gray), 1841.

Cystignathus dorsalis Gray, Gray’s Trav. N.W. and W. Aust.

IL, p. 446, 1841. 1 spec. Locality—Little River. Mus. No. D 7706.

Order REPTILIA

Sub-order Squamata

Family SCINCIDAE

Genus SPHENOMORPHUS Fitzing., 1843

Sphenomorphus quoyii (D. and B.), 1839

Lygosoma quoyii Dum. and Bibr., Erpt. Gen., V, p. 728, 1839.

10 young specimens found together under a log. Locality—W om-

bargo Creek (3,000 feet). Mus. Nos. D 7713-22. 5 spec. Locality

—Honeysuckle Track, nr. Gelantipy. Mus. Nos. D 7723-27.

Genus LEIOLOPISMA Dum. and Bibr., 1837

Leiolopisma metallica, (O’Shaugn.), 1874

Mocoa metallica O'Shaugn., Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (4), XIII,

р. 299, 1874. 1 spec. Locality—Honeysuckle Track, nr. Gelan-

tipy, Mus. No. D 7728. |

Leiolopisma entrecasteauaii (D. and B.), 1839

Lygosoma entrecasteausii Dum. and Bibr., Erpt. Gen., V, p.

717, 1839. 2 spec. Locality—Honeysuckle Track, nr. Gelantipy.

Mus. Nos. D 7786-7.

158 BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

Genus HEMIERGIS Wagl., 1830

Hemiergis decresiense (Fitzing.), 1826

Zygnis decresiensis Fitzing., Neue Classif. Rept., p. 53, 1826.

1 spec. Locality—Honeysuckle Track, nr. Gelantipy. Mus. No.

D 7733.

Genus SIAPHOS Gray, 1845.

Siaphos maccoyi L. and F., 1894 |

Siaphos maccoyi Lucas and Frost, Pro. Roy. Soc. Vict., (N.S.)

VI, p. 85, 1894. 6 spec. Locality—Honeysuckle Track, nr. Gel-

antipy. Mus. Nos. D 7729-32 and D 7734-5.

MOLLUSCA

By C. J. Gabriel, Honorary Conchologist, National Museum of

Victoria, and J. Hope Macpherson, B.Sc., Conchologist, National

Museum of Victoria.

LAND MOLLUSCA

Gastropoda

1. Family ACAVIDAE

Genus HEDLEYELLA

2. Family HELICIDAE

Genus CHLORITIS

3. Family RHYTIDIDAE

Genus RHYTIDA

Family ENDODONTIDAE

(a) Genus CHAROPA

(b) Genus EGILODONTA

(d) Genus ALLODISCUS

9. Family LAOMIDAE

Genus PARALAOMA

6. Family ZONITIDAE

(a) Genus HELICARION

(b) Genus CYSTOPELTA

INTRODUCED LAND MOLLUSCA

7. Family LIMACIDAE

Genus MILAX

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA 159

Family ACAVIDAE |

Genus HEDLEYELLA Iredale, 1914.

Hedleyella atomata (Gray), var. kershawi (Brazier).

1871. Bulimus (Liparus) kershawi Brazier, P.Z.S. Lond., p. 641

1930. Hedleyella atomata (Gray), var. kershawi Brazier. Gabriel PARIS

Vic., XLIII, Pt. 1, (N.S.), p. 66, pl. 3, figs. 1-8.

Size of Type—Length, 50-79; breadth, 28-56; alt. 25-39mm.

Aperture—Length 31-73; breadth, 15-8mm.

Type Locality—Snowy River, Gippsland, Victoria.

Observations —This is a beautiful shell, easily the largest of

our Vietorian terrestrial forms, and apparently confined to the

eastern portion. Consistency in shape is not apparent, as will be

seen in the figures above quoted, and further examination of num-

erous specimens convinces us that this Victorian form should be

regarded as of varietal value only. Specimens from the Snowy

River area, as defined in this report, are on the whole smaller

than the type. і

Localities —4 specimens (F 1671) Wombargo Creek (above

3,000 ft.) ; 4 specimens (F 1910) Suggan Buggan River; 8 speci-

mens (Е 1909) Honeysuckle Track, Gelantipy; 3 specimens

(F 1911) Snowy River (Moon’s Crossing). , ;

Family HELICIDAE

Genus CHLORITIS Beck, 1837.

Chloritis victoriae (Cox).

1868. Helix victoriae Cox, Mon. Aust. Land Shells, p. 37, pl. 12, fig. 5.

1930. Chloritis victoriae (Cox). Gabriel, P.R.S. Vic., XLIII, Pt. 1, (N.S.),

p. 67.

Size of Type—Maj. diam;, 15:99; min., 12:69; alt., 11:42mm.

Type Locality—Westerport, Victoria. |

Observations.—This is a very frequent and widely distributed

Species throughout the State, with an extension of range to King

Island and Mt. Kosciusko. It is normally of a uniform brown

colour and when deprived of its characteristie bristly epidermis,

it altersin general appearance, and is suggestive of another species.

Localities —17 specimens (Е 1899); Honeysuckle Track,

Gelantipy; 14 specimens (F 1670) Wombargo Creek.

Family RHYTIDIDAE ак

Genus RHYTIDA Albers, 1860.

Rhytida ruga (Cox).

1871. Helix ruga Cox, in Legrand, Coll. Mon. Tas. Land Shells, sp. 24, pl. 1,

fig. 5.

1930. Rhytida ruga (Cox). Gabriel, P.R.S. Vic., XLIII, Pt. 1, (N.S.), p. 69.

160 BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

Size of Type —Maj. diam., 9; min., 8; alt., 3mm.

Type Locality.—Mount Wellington, Tasmania.

Observations.—One of our commoner forms enjoying a wide

distribution throughout Victoria. It somewhat approaches R.

lampra Reeve but is immediately distinguished by its finer sculp-

ture.

Localities.—1 specimen (Е 1688) Honeysuckle Track, Gelan-

tipy; 1 specimen (F 1689) Rockbank, Wulgulmerang; 1 speci-

. men (F 1690) Wombargo Creek (above 3,000 ft.).

Family ENDODONTIDAE

Genus CHAROPA Albers, 1860. -

Charopa funerea (Cox).

1868. Helix funerea Cox, Mon. Aust. Land Shells, p. 16, pl. 3, fig. 1.

1930. Charge funerea (Cox). Gabriel, P.R.S. Vic., XLIII, Pt. 1, (N.S.),

p. 73.

Size of Type—Maj. diam., 6-34; min., 5:38; alt., 2-53mm.

Type Locality.—Mudgee, New South Wales.

Observations.—A brown, closely-ribbed species, widely dis-

tributed throughout the State. It is also recorded from New

South Wales and southern Queensland.

Localities —i specimens (F 1672) Snowy River (Moon's Cross-

ing); 4 specimens (F 1674) Murrindal Valley, W Tree.

Charopa tamarensis (Petterd).

1879. Helix tamarensis Petterd, Mon. Tas. Land Shells (April), p. 30.

1930. Charopa tamarensis Petterd. Gabriel, P.R.S. Vie, XLII, Pt. 1,

(N.S.), p. 72.

Size of Type. —Maj. diam., 6; min., 5; alt., 2mm.

Type Locality.—Rifle butts, near Launceston, Tasmania.

Observations.—A characteristic little species, possessing a wide

umbilicus and rays of rusty-brown colour. Two specimens from

the same locality vary a little in that they show radials much

wider apart, but as they are alike in every other respect we regard

them as variants. It has a wide distribution in Victoria and at Mt.

Kosciusko Hedley records it from Wilson’s Valley.

Locality —4 specimens (F 1859) Tableland, West of Wombargo

(4,500 ft.) (K. C. Rogers).

Charopa brazenori sp. nov. (Pl. 13, upper; Fig. 1.)

Shell small, discoid, whitish, translucent, thin, fragile, um-

bilicated. Whorls including protoconch about 44, sculptured

with numerous, equidistant, radial riblets to the number of about

PLATE XII

Мем. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15.

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Mem. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15. PLATE XIII

1 ; aN а AAA A Їйї: Track

1. Charopa brazenori n. sp. Type Reg. No. F 17682. A Honeysuckle Track,

Gelantipy. £

Yharopa snowyensis n. sp. Type

Y ` TE P

Crossing).

a— Upper surface; b--S

Reg. No. F1673. A Snowy River (Moon ’s

de view; e—Lower surface.

d in ‘‘Porphyry’’—Campbell’s Nob.

Rounded boulders of granite embed

BIOLOGY.OF SNOWY RIVER.AREA: 161

130 on the last whorl. Interstices possessing fine growth-lines,

reticulated by microscopic close spiral striz. _Sutures well. im-

pressed. Aperture slightly oblique, rotundly lunar. Peristome

thin, sharp. Umbilicus open, about one fourth of shell’s greatest

diameter, exposing all the whorls, and on which may be clearly

seen the radial and microscopic spiral sculpture. Inner lip with

a white callus, concealing many riblets. Animal white with a

dark line running from the tentacles to the mantle edge.

Size of Type—Maj. diam., 3-3; min., 2:8; alt, 1-8mm.

Type Locality—Honeysuckle Track, Gelantipy.

Observations —A small shell, with a near ally in C. ricer

Brazier. The flatness and coarser sculpture of the novelty immedi-

ately separates the two forms. ;

This species is dedicated to Mr. C. W. Brazenor to whom we

are indebted for help in field collecting and photographs.

Type Reg. No. F 1682 A and 5 Paratypes (F 1682) in collection

of National Museum of Victoria; 1 Paratype in collection of C.

J. Gabriel.

Charopa snowyensis sp. nov. (Pl. 13, upper; Fig. 2).

Shell small, white, covered with light brown epidermis, sub-

discoidal, umbilicated; spire nearly flat, slightly raised above the

last whorl. Whorls 44 sculptured with fine radial ribs, number-

ing about 50 on the ultimate whorl which is slightly descending.

Interstices striated with minute growth-lines, averaging about

fifteen and crossed by spiral striz, the latter distinctly visible

above and below. Sutures inpressed. Aperture a little oblique,

roundly lunate. Peristome simple, thin. Several ribs in front

of aperture covered by a white callus glaze. Umbilieus wide,

about one fourth of shell’s greatest diameter and showing all the

volutions. |

Size of Type—Maj. diam., 3:2; min., 2:8; alt., 16mm. ||

Type Locality—Snowy River (Moon’s Crossing) Victoria.

Observations. —An interesting shell which may be compared

with the new species C. jemmysensis (these Memoirs ante p. da

However, the consistently higher spire and narrower umbilicus

together with the distinct epidermis of the species are more than

sufficient grounds for separation. NN ; |

Type Reg. No. F 1673 A and 5 Paratypes F 1673 B and Cin eol-

leetion of National Museum of Victoria; 2 Paratypes in collec-

tions of C. J. Gabriel.

Localities.—22 specimens (F 1673). Snowy River (Moon’s

Crossing) ; 2 specimens (F 1687) Suggan Buggan River.

162 | BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

Charopa sp. ?

Size of T4pe.—Maj. diam. 1-3; min., 1-1; alt. 0-6mm.

Locality.—1 specimen (Е 1680) Wombargo Creek (4,000 ft.)

Observations.—One, minute, imperfect specimen.

Charopa sp. ?

Size of Type.—Maj. diam. 3-1; min. 2-7; alt., 1-5.

Locality.—1 specimen (Е 1677) Snowy River (Moon’s Cross-

ing) in moss.

Observations.—One, small, brown imperfect example.

Charopa sp. ?

Size of Type—Maj. diam., 2-3; min., 2:3; alt., 1-3.

Locality.—2 specimens (F 1675) Snowy River (Moon's Cross-

ing)

Observations.—Two examples, dark brown (juvenile).

Genus EGILODONTA Iredale, 1937.

Egilodonta barrnsdalensis (Gabriel).

1930, Charcpa bairnsdalensis Gabriel, P.R.S. Vic., XLIII, (N.S.), pt. 1, p.

78, pl. 2, figs. 11, 12,

1937. Egilodonta bairnsdalensis (Gabriel), Iredale, Aust. Zool., IIT, p. 328.

Size of Type—Maj. diam., 2-0; min., 1:8; alt., 0-9mm.

Type Locality.—Bairnsdale, Victoria.

Observations.—A. small, beautifully sculptured species, light

horn colour, and possessing an umbilicus almost half the shell’s

diameter. Type in the National Museum, Victoria.

Locality.—1 specimen (Y 1678) Wombargo Creek (4,000 ft.).

Genus OREOMAVA Iredale, 1933.

Oreomava cannfluviatilus (Gabriel).

1929, Allodiscus cannfluriatilus Gabriel, Vie. Nat., XLVI, (6) p. 133, figs

1, 2, and text fig.

1930. Id., P.R.S., Vie, XLIII, Pt. 1, (N.S.), p. 83,

1937. Oreomava cannfluviatilus (Gabriel). Iredale, Aust. Zool., VIII, p. 330.

Size of Type —Maj. diam., 2.8; min., 2:4; alt., 1-7mm.

Type Locality.—Cann River, Victoria.

Observations.—A small shell, readily identified, the spiral lire

bordering the umbilicus providing a useful recognition mark. Type

(Nat. Mus. Vie.), collected by J. Clark.

Localities.—3 specimens (F 1681) Wombargo Creek (4,000 ft.).

2 specimens (F 1905) Tableland West of Wombargo (4,500 ft.)

(K. C. Rogers).

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA 163

Genus ALLODISCUS Pilsbry, 1892.

Allodiscus miveus (Hedley).

1896. Endodonta nivea Hedley, Rec. Aust. Mus., П, p. 102, pl. 23, figs. 5-7.

Size of T4pe.—Maj. diam., 3:25; min., 2-75; alt., 1-5mm.

Type Locality —Wilson’s Valley, at an altitude of 4,500 ft.; Mt.

Kosciusko, New South Wales.

Observations.—A. small, white, thin, shining shell possessing a

narrow perforation and sunken spire or as the author deseribes

it a shallow crater, one third of the shell's major diameter. It is

a distinctive form and with the excellent figures provided no dif-

ficulty should be experienced in its identification. The author

remarks “This species nearly approaches Е. antialba Beddome

from Tasmania, from which its narrow umbilicus and shallow

Spire readily distinguishes it." Under decaying timber splendid

examples were obtained, one of which exceeds the dimensions of

type measuring 4:3mm. This is an interesting addition to the

Victorian land shell fauna.

Locality —8 specimens (F 1679) Wombargo Creek (4,000 ft.).

Allodiscus meracus (Cox and Hedley).

1912. Flammulina meraca Cox and Hedley, Mem. Nat. Mus. Melb., No. 4,

p. 18, pl. 3, figs. 19-21. ; ;

1930. Allodiscus meracus (Cox and Hedley). Gabriel, P.R.S. Vic., XLIII,

Pt. 1, (N.S.), p. 83

Size of Type.—Maj. diam., 4; min., 3; alt., 2mm.

Type Locality—Dandenong Ranges, Victoria.

Observations —A small, pure white species frequently located

in association with H. subdepressa Brazier, on many of our

mountainous districts under charred and decaying timber. The

animal is of a very dark colour rendering it more difficult to

detect than its associate. In 1930, one of us (C.J.G.) referred to

two specimens collected at Paradise Falls, near Whitfield showing

a slight increase in size of the umbilicus. These are similar to

the Wombargo shells and we regard them as variants of Cox and

Hedley’s meracus.

Locality.—8 specimens (F 1679) Tableland West of Wombargo

Genus PARALAOMA Iredale, 1913.

Paralaoma morti (Cox)

1864, Helix morti Cox, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (3), XIV, p. 182.

1930. Гаота morti (Cox). Gabriel, P.R.S. Vic., XLIII, Pt. 1, (N.S.), p. 78.

1937. Paralaoma morti (Cox). Iredale, Aust. Zool., VIII, Pt. 4, p. 313.

164 BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

Size of Type —Maj. diam., 2:03; min., 1-77; alt., 1-01mm.

Type Locality —Green-oakes, Darling Point, Sydney, N.S.W.

- Observations.—A small, brown species, exceedingly common

throughout Victoria.

Locality.—4 specimens (F 1676) Snowy River (Moon’s Cross-

ing) in moss.

Family ZONITIDAE

Genus HELICARION Ferussac, 1821.

Helicarion cuvieri Ferussac.

_ 1821. Helicarion cuvieri Ferussac, Tabl. Syst., p. 20.

. 1849. Vitrina verreauzi, Pfieffer P.Z.S., 1849, р. 132.

- 1862. Vitrina verreauxi Pfeiffer. Reeve, Conch. Icon., XIII, pl. 4, fig. 21.

1930. Helicarion cuvieri Ferussac. Gabriel, P.R.S. Vic., XLIII, Pt. 1, (N.S.),

: . 85.

. 1937. 14, Iredale, Aust. Zool., ix, Pt. 1, p. 7.

Size of average specimen.—Diam., 11; alt., 65mm.

Type Locality.—Terres Australes.

Observations.—A. smooth, shining species of common oceur-

rence throughout Victoria, and appears to prefer damp conditions

under decayed timber. Reeve (loc. cit.) remarks " Distinguished

chiefly by its narrowly produced transverse form." Its golden-

yellow colour is fairly constant but specimens from Lilly Pilly

Gully, Wilson's Promontory are much darker—approaching

chocolate-brown.

Locality.—1 specimen (F 1893) Wombargo Creek (4,000ft.)

collected on damp Southern Wollybutt hillside.

Helicarion sp. 9 (aff. H. cuvieri Ferussac).

Size of Type—-Maj. diam., 14-0; Min., 11:0; alt., 6-Omm.

Locality.—1 specimen (F 1897) Honeysuckle Track, Gelantipy.

Observations.—One specimen taken alive showing points of dif-

ference with H. cuviert, particularly as regards the animal. We

are awaiting further examples to assist in our diagnosis.

Genus CYSTOPELTA Tate, 1881.

Cystopelta petterdi Tate, var. purpurea Davies.

1912. Cystopelta petterdi Tate, var. purpurea Davies. P.R.S. Vie. (N.S.),

XXIV (2) p. 331.

1930. Cystopelta petterdi Tate, var. purpurea Davies, Gabriel, P.R.S. Vie.

XLIII Pt. 1 (N.S.), p. 86.

Size of Type—Length of foot 195mm ; length of shield 16-7mm. ;

depth of shield 3-75mm.

Type Locality—Narbethong, Victoria.

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA 165

. Observations.—A small slug-like animal with its or `

into a dorsal hump as in the snails but without E EM QE

e u Brey, N 0 short darker lines on either Sa

‚the posterior end of the foot, and on the dor

shield a few bright violet spots. NE CUT

Locality.—3 specimens (Y 1891) Wombargo Creek (4,000 ft.)

These slugs were collected on the wet southern slopes of the

hillside to the North of Wombargo Creek. It carries open Wolly-

butt jungle.

INTRODUCED LAND MOLLUSCA

Family LIMACIDAE

Genus MILAX Gray, 1855.

Milax gagates (Draparnaud).

1801. Limax gagates Draparnaud, Tabl. Moll. France, p. 100.

1930. REN (Draparnaud) Gabriel P.R.S. Vie. XLIII, Pt. 1 (N.S.)

A very variable slug; black, slate grey, dark red, brown or yel-

lowish, with dusky markings, pale underneath, acutely keeled

from mantle to tail. Shell internal, a small calcareous plate.

" aan specimens (F 1895) Snowy River (Deddick Oross-

g).

Milax sowerbu Ferussac.

1774. Limax marginatus Mueller, Verm Hist. 11 p. 10.

1823. Limaz sowerbü nobis Ferrusac, Hist. Nat. Moll., 11 p. 955, pl. VIII, f.

5 and 6.

Type Locality—London, England.

slim creamy yellow slug; white beneath; the mantle with a

deep brown horse-shoe shaped line; also a pair of dark lines run-

ning from the mantle to tail. Shell a small calcareous plate.

Locality —20 specimens (F 1896) Snowy River (Campbell’s

Nob). These slugs are very common in the whole of the Gelantipy

area,

Fresu WATER MOLLUSCA

Gastropoda.

Family 1 LIMNAEIDAE

(a) Genus LIMNZBA.

(b) Genus ISIDORELLA.

Lamellibranchiata

Family 1 CYCLADIDAE

Genus PISIDIUM

166 .. BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

Gastropoda

Family LIMNZEIDAE

Genus LIMN ALA Lamarck, 1799.

Limnaea braziert Smith.

1882. Limmaea brazieri Smith, Journ. Linn. Soc. Lond., Zool., XVI, p. 274,

pl. 5, fig. 15

Size of Type—Length 9; diam., 55; Aperture long 6; breadth

44mm,

Type Locality.—Glebe Point, Sydney, New South Wales.

Observations.—This shell, which is an interesting addition to

the Victorian fluviatile molluscs, the author describes as ovate

glossy, brownish horn-colour, somewhat strongly striated longi-

tudinally by the lines of increment, without spiral or transverse

sculpture. Our identification has been fasciliated by specimens

from the type locality sent to the National Museum from the

Australian Museum, Sydney.

Locality—50 specimens (F 1903) dam, Banool, Gelantipy,

Victoria (A. Hodge).

Limnaea gunm Petterd.

1889. Limnaea gunni Petterd, P.R.S. Tas., p. 66, pl. 2, fig. 10; pl. 3, figs. 9.

and 12 (animal).

1939. Tia ИН Petterd. Gabriel. Mem. Nat. Mus. Vict., XI, р. 108,

pl. 1, fie. 8.

Size of Type.—Length, 7; breadth, 5-5mm.

Type Locality —South Esk River, near Launceston, Tasmania.

Observations —A very thin, fragile, yellowish horn-coloured

shell, previously located at Tarraville.

Locality —22 specimens (Е 1904) swamp, Rockbank. These

specimens were found in a natural soak on top of the soft mud

between grass tussocks. 1 specimen (F 1940) Sandy Swamp,

Rockbank.

Limnea sp.

The specimens, apparently distinet from any known Victorian

form, are either too immature or too fragmentary for certain

diagnosis. |

Locality.—13 specimens (F 1894) Little River, Rockbank.

The Little River is a clear stream with a loose boulder bot-

tom on which the snails were crawling in about a foot to eighteen

inches of water.

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA 167

Genus ISIDORELLA Tate, 1896.

Isidorella newcombi (Adams and Angas).

1864. Phusa newcombi, A. Adams and Angas, P.Z.S. Lond., 1863, p. 416.

1939. Isidorella newcombi Adams and Angas. Gebriel, Mem. Nat. Mus.

Vie., XL, p. 117, pl. 2, fig. 22,

Size of Type.—Length, 21; breadth, 14-6mm.

Type Locality.—Ponds of Mt. Margaret, Central Australia.

Observations.—A thin, ovate-globose brownish shell with finely

spirally-striated, whorls.

Locality.—6 specimens (F 1900) Banool, Gelantipy. (A. Hodge).

Isidorellanewcombi Adams and Angas var. crebreciliata (Tenison

Woods). L

1878. Physa erebreciliata, Tenison Woods, Trans. Roy, Soc. Vie., XIV, р. 63.

1939. Isidorella newcombi (Ad. and Ang.) var. crebreciliata (Tenison

Woods), Gabriel, Mem. Nat. Mus. Vie., XI, p. 119, pl. 2, fig. 25.

Size of Type—tLength, 15; breadth, 7mm.

Type Locality —Caulfield, Victoria.

Observations —On this form Hedley remarks, “There are on

the body-whorl about thirty-two spirals of fine cilise decussated by

fine, close longitudinal lamelle. The latter as in the case of I. new-

combi, rise round the suture into a sort of ruff, or collar.”

Locality.—40 specimens (Е 1901) dam Rockbank; 18 speci-

mens (F 1902) Little River; 1 specimen (F 1942) Banool, Gelan-

tipy.

Lamellibranchiata

Family CYCLADIDAE

Genus PISIDIUM Pfeiffer, 1875.

Pisidium etheridgü E. A. Smith.

1882. Pisidium etheridgii Smith, Journ. Linn. Soc. Conch., Zool., XVI, p.

306, pl. 7, fig. 35. М

1939. Pisidium etheridgii Smith. Gabriel, Mem. Nat. Mus. Viet, XL, p.

129, pl. 4, fig. 37. | |

Size of Type —Length, 5-5; breadth, 6:5; diam., 35mm, — —

Type Locality—Yan Yean Reservoir, Plenty District, Victoria.

Observations —The smallest Victorian freshwater bivalve.

Smith (loc. cit.) remarks: ‘“‘Umbones rather prominent, with the

young shell forming a more or less distinct apical cap. Concen-

tric strim very fine. Not unlike the European P. casertanum, but

rather less inequilateral.” |

Locality.—d КБСЫ (Е 1892) dam Rockbank (2,800 ft.);

17 specimens (F 1898) Sandy Swamp (4,500 ft.) Rockbank.

168 BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA.

INSECTS AND ARACHNIDS.

By A. N. Burns, B.Sc., Entomologist, and C. Oke, Assistant

Entomologist, National Museum, Melbourne.

Most of the insects collected were taken under logs and in simi-

lar situations; little winged material could be expected on account

of the lateness of the season.

Order ORTHOPTERA

Family BLATTIDAE

Genus PLATYZOSTERIA

(1) Platyzosteria analis Sauss.

(2) P. brigite Shaw.

(8) P. sp.

(4) P. scabrella Tepper.

Genus ONICOSOMA.

(1) Onicosoma granicollis Sauss.

Genus PANESTHIA.

(1) Panesthia australis Brunn.

Family ACRIDIIDAE

Genus GONIZEA.

(1) Goniaea obscura Sj.

Genus SCHIZOBOTHRUS.

(1) Schizobothrus flavovittatus Sj.

Order HEMIPTERA

Family REDUVIIDAE

(1) Reduviid sp.

Family NAUCORIDAE

(1) Naucorid sp.

Order COLEOPTERA

Family CARABIDAE

Genus EURYLYNCHUS.

(1) Eurylynchus blagravei Cast.

Genus PROMECODERUS.

(1) Promecoderus inornatus Macl.

Genus NOTONOMUS.

(1) Notonomus Muelleri Sl.

(2) N. Rainbowi SI.

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

Genus NOTOPHILUS.

(1) Notophilus laetus Bl.

Family DYTISCIDAE

Genus LANCESTES.

(1) Lancestes lanceolatus Cl.

Genus RHANTUS.

(1) Rhantus pulverosus Steph.

Genus PLATYNECTES.

(1) Platynectes decempunctatus Fab.

Sub-order Polyphaga

Family HYDROPHILIDAE

Genus HYDROBATICUS.

(1) Hydrobaticus tristris Mael.

(2) H. australis Blkb.

Family PAUSSIDAE

Genus ARTHOPTERUS.

(1) Arthopterus westwoodi Macl.

Family TENEBRIONIDAE

Genus 'TEREMEN ES.

(1) Teremenes longipennis Hope.

Genus CARDIOTHORAX.

(1) Cardiothorax australis Cart.

Genus LICINOMA.

(1) Licinoma nitida Pase.

Genus ADELIUM.

(1) Adelium porcatwm Hab.

(2) A. licinoides Kirby. ,

(3) A. pustulosum var. victoriae Blk.

(4) A. subdepressum Cart.

(5) A. helmsii Cart.

Genus BRYCOPIA.

(1) Brycopia pilosella Pase.

Family STAPHYLINIDAE

Genus LEPTACINUS.

‚ (1) Leptacinus socius E'vl.

Genus METAPONCUS. _

(1) Metaponcus luridipennis Macl.

169

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA

Genus MEDON.

(1) Medon varicornis Blkb.

Genus CALODERA.

(1) Calodera abdominalis Еу].

Family PSELAPHIDAE

Genus RYBAXIS.

(1) Rybaxis strigicollis West.

Genus EUPINES.

(1) Eupines globulifer Schauf.

Genus PSELAPHUS.

(1) Pselaphus villosus Lea.

Genus TYRAPHUS.

(1) Tyraphus howittà King.

Family SCARABZEIDAE

Subfamily Coprinz

Genus ONTHOPHAGUS.

(1) Onthophagus pexatus Har.

Subfamily Melolonthinae

Genus AUTOMALUS.

(1) Automalus bicolor Blkb.

Family CERAMBYCIDAE

Subfamily Cerambycinae

GENUS CERZEGIDION.

(1) Ceraegidion horrens Bsdv.

Family CHRYSOMELIDAE

Genus PAROPSIS.

(1) Paropsis atomaria Marsh.

Family CURCULIONIDAE

Subfamily Eremninae

Genus MANDALOTUS.

(1) Mandalotus latebricola Lea.

(2) M. cordipennis Lea.

(3) Mandalotus sp.

Subfamily Cryptocorrhynchinae

Genus DECILAUS.

(1) Decilaus perdirus Pase.

BIOLOGY OF SNOWY RIVER AREA 171

Subfamily Phalidurinae

Genus PHALIDURA.

(1) Phalidura elongata Macl.

Subfamily Tychinae

Genus ELLESCHODES.

(1) Elleschodes pictus Lea.

Order DIPTERA

Family STRATIOMYIDAE

Genus BOREOIDES.

(1) Boreoides subulatus Hardy.

Order LEPIDOPTERA.

Family HEPIALIDAE

Genus OXYCANUS.

(1) Oxycanus sp. near sirpus; may be new.

Family NOTODONTIDAE

Genus TRICHETRA.

(1) Trichetra sparshalli Curt.

Family BOARMIIDAE

Genus STRATHMORRHOPA.

(1) Strathmorrhopa porphyrinaria Gn. `

Order ARACHNIDA

Genus ATRAX.

Family AVARICULARIDAE

(1) Atrax sp. nov.

. Amongst the Coleoptera one small species of weevil taken from

Sifted moss probably belongs to a new genus. In the Lepidoptera,

two specimens of a Hepialid moth also appear to be new; they

closely resemble a well known Victoria species, Oxycanus Sirpus

Tind., but examination of the genitalia shows them to be quite

distinct. |

A fine large Trapdoor Spider with about 50 young ones is new,

and belongs to the typical genus Айгаш. |

Mem. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

RECORDS OF ONCHIDIIDAE (MOLLUSCA,

GASTROPODA) FROM VICTORIA.

By J. Hope Macpherson B.Sc., Conchologist, National Museum

of Victoria.

(Received for publieation July 7, 1947).

Plate 14.

These notes record two species of Onchidiide from the Vie-

torian coast, and give some observations regarding their habitat

and habits.

The family Onchidiide is chiefly a tropical and sub-tropical

one (Pacific and Indian Oceans), though a few species straggle

into the temperate zones of both the Northern and Southern

Hemispheres. From the latter, six species have been recorded

from New Zealand by Powell (3), one of which, Onchidella patel-

loides (Q. and G.) has also been taken in Tasmania by Bretnall

(1). Until recently (2), no records of Victorian Onchidiid: had

been published, but within the last two years, the National

Museum has collected examples of two species within the State.

Onchidina australis Semper, 1882.

Onchidina australis Semper. Reis. im Arch. Phil. III. Land-

moll., VI., 1882, p. 287.

In February 1946, specimens of this species were collected by

the author at Wingan Inlet, Hast Gippsland. The upper shores

of the Inlet are estuarine mud flats with typical flora. The

Onchidina were found about thirty feet above high tide mark

feeding on Tetragonia expansa Murr.; the colony consisted of some

hundreds of individuals. They were strictly nocturnal, feeding

only at night, retiring during the day under bark, driftwood, or

other. debris.

On a second visit made to the Inlet in June 1946 it was found

that the Tetragonia had died down, and that no Onchidina were

in its immediate vicinity. However, on turning over partly

submerged logs on adjacent open mud flats, the animals were

seen to be hibernating on the damp undersides of the logs or bur-

rowing into the mud beneath.

Specimens kept in a vivarium at the National Museum are

strictly nocturnal, retiring to their burrows or under debris

during the day. This confirms the field observations noted above.

172

Мем. Nat. Mus Vicr., 15. PLATE XIV

Onchidina australis Semper. Wingan Inlet, Victoria.

Dorsal view x 14. .

Onchidina australis Semper. Wingan Inlet, Victoria.

Ventral view x 13.

e :

(Q. and G.). San. Remo, Westernport, Victoria.

Dorsal view x 13. (Left.)

Ventral view x 1}. (Right.)

Onchidella patelloides

ONCHIDIIDAE FROM VICTORIA 173

Onchidella patelloides (Q. and G., 1832).

Onchidium patelloides Quoy and Gaimard, Voy. de l’Astrolabe.

Zool. LI, p. 212, 1832.

This species has recently been recorded from Lorne, Vietoria,

by Dakin (2). The Museum has specimens collected by the author

from Point Addis and San Remo, and from Mrs. G. Van Rompaey,

who collected them at Wye River (also on the Otway Coast), and

at San Remo, in 1941.

Onchidella patelloides is marine and differs from Onchidina in

respect to its habitat. It is a rock dweller, found attached to the

underside of loose rock, and in crevices of rocky shore platforms.

In April, the Point Addis specimens were found at low tide mark,

which suggests that they are submerged always at that time of

the year. |

Some observations on the anatomy of these two species will be

described in a later paper.

REFERENCES.

1. Bretnall, R. W. Onchidiide from Australia and the South-Western

Pacifie Islands. Rec. Aust. Mus. XII, pp. 303-328, 1919.

2. Dakin, W. J. The True Sea-slug—Onchidium. Aust. Mus. Mag. IV,

No. 4, pp. 141-144, 1947. š

3. Powell, A. W. B. The Shellfish of New Zealand, p. 97, 1946.

Mem. Nat. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

A NEW HARVESTMAN OF THE SUBFAMILY

LIOBUNINAE FROM AUSTRALIA

By R. R. Forster, Dominion Museum, Wellington, N.Z.

(Received for publication August 15, 1947.)

Figs. 1-9

The species described below is the first record of the sub-

family Liobunine from Australia, the distribution of this sub-

family having previously been limited to the northern areas of

the world. It seems probable however, that when the Opilionid

fauna is more completely known, it will prove to be well repre-

sented in Australia. The species described is placed in the genus

Nelima Roewer. ‘This genus has a wide distribution, including

Europe, Asia. and North Africa. The fusion of a number of

tergites in the male, as is seen in N. dunmi n.sp., is of common

occurrence throughout the Liobunine.

Order OPILIONES

Sub-order Palpatores Thorell

Family PHALANGIIDZE Simon

Subfamily Liobunine Banks.

Genus NELIMA Roewer.

Nelima dunni n. sp.

Female.

Colour. General colour of dorsal surface of body light choco-

late-brown, but broken up by numerous small, closely spaced

silvery-white splotches. Tergite 5 silvery white, without brown

pigment. On the anterior portion along the middle line of each

tergite is a reddish brown area, behind each such area the brown

pigment is not as dense as in remainder of tergite, giving the

appearance of a median longitudinal pale band broken by the

reddish brown areas. Cephalothorax with a dark brown area at

both the anterior and posterior corner. Hye-mound white along

median line, dark brown laterally, eyes black. Entire ventral

surface including coxe opaque silvery-white. Legs and pedipalps

light-brown.

Body. Entire dorsal surface very finely granulated. Hye

mound not as high as wide, sub-spherical, set its own diameter

from the anterior margin of the cephalothorax, with a deep

median longitudinal groove, armed with a longitudinal row of

small spines above each eye.

174

A NEW AUSTRALIAN HARVESTMAN 175

Cephalothorax divided behind eye mound by two transverse

grooves which do not reach the lateral margin. Stink gland

openings clearly visible on lateral margin of cephalothorax above

coxa I. Anterior margin with a median indentation and lateral

margin with three further indentations enclosing coxe I, II and

ITI, respectively.

Tergites not fused into a scute but clearly separated by trans-

verse grooves which do not reach the sides. Sternites fused, seg-

mentation only faintly visible; smooth, except for a scattered

number of small black sete. Genital operculum uniform, extend-

ing to posterior margin of coxa II.

Maxillary lobes of coxa TI directed across the body anterior

to the genital operculum, forming with each other a nearly straight

ine.

Legs. Coxe smooth, except for scattered small black sete;

without anterior or posterior rows of granules. Trochantera

smooth except for few small black sete. Femora without nodules,

closely covered with longitudinal rows of small black spines.

Femur II relatively long and slender. Tibiz, metatarsi and tarsi

without spines. Metatarsi I-IV respectively with 2.5.1.4

false articulations.

Tarsal segments 45 . 71 . 35 . 39.

Chelicere. Short, basal segment below with strong forwardly-

directed spine at one-third. Both segments sparsely clothed with

a number of short sete. Fixed finger longer than movable finger;

cutting edges toothed as in Fig. 3. :

- Pedipalpi. All segments clothed with short sete. Tarsus

with a number of long apically situated sete. Tarsal claw strong,

armed below with a single line of five strong teeth. (Fig. 7).

Measurements in mms. Body: Length 5-9; Width, 3-3.

Cox. Troch. Fem. Pat. Tib. Met. Tars. Total

Be En ttt 95 2:9 :85 2:65 2:5 5:75 16:50

Leg ID .. .. .. 1:25 225 5:0 :85 55 2:7 14:5 80-025

LegIV ...... 11 :25 43 10 36 30 90 22:30

Pedipalp .. 1. 373 395. 385 .:35 5 > 11 305

Chelicerae—-Basal 1:0, Second 2:3. Total .. .. .. .. 3:3

Male. |

Colour. Uniform yellowish-brown. Anterior corners of cep-

halothorax dark-brown. In some specimens the lateral dorsal

margin of the abdomen is darker brown. Ventral surface yellow-

ish-white with a few silverish blotches on the sternites. Pedipalp

white,- Chelicera uniformly brown. Legs light-brown proximally

but darkening distally. Eye mound white along the median line,

dark brown laterally—eyes black.

A NEW AUSTRALIAN HARVESTMAN

176

FIGS, 1-9

A NEW AUSTRALIAN HARVESTMAN 177

Body. Eye mound shape and disposition as in female i

dorsal surface finely granulated. Cephalothorax divided ae

the eye mound by two deep transverse grooves which nearly ex-

end to the sides. Anterior median indentation encloses chelicerz

three lateral indentations enclose respectively coxe I, II and III.

Tergites I-V fused into a hard scute, segmentation not visible.

Tergites VI-VIII free. Sternites smooth, not granulated, clearly

divided by transverse grooves.

Genital operculum widening distally and extending to the pos-

terior margin of coxa I. Maxillary lobes as in female.

Legs. Asin female but metatarsi I-IV respectively with 3.4.1

and 3 false articulations.

Chelicerew. As in female but second segment more slender.

Pedipalpi. Femur, patella, tibia and proximal half of tarsus

armed below with strong teeth (Fig. 8). Otherwise as in female.

Tarsal claw strong, armed below with single row of six small

teeth (Fig. 9).

Measurements in mms. Body: Length, 3-25; Width, 2-1.

Cox. Troch. Fem. Pat. Tib. Met. Tars. Total

Leg, Te war ЯН) :2 9:55:62 2:65 FFE Бб) 150

Leg II .. A I, :85 4:75 3:0 8:75 22-95

Hg Oy d .95 9:85 :65 2:15 21 5:0. 14-1

Tjep LV RE MID 2 415 75 28 35 6:75 19:35

Pedipalp: <. .. +25 75 3:85 5 1:0 2:85

Chelicerae—Basal :75, Second 1:5. Total .. .. .. .. 2:25

Type. Male and Female type specimens deposited in collection

of Australian Museum, Sydney. ER

Paratypes. Collection National Museum of Victoria, and Tube

2/62 Dominion Museum Ooll., Wellington, N.Z.

Locality. The above species is apparently very common in and

around Melbourne. The first specimens were received from Car-

negie (collected by Mr. R. A. Dunn, after whom I have the pleasure

of naming this species), where they were found in large numbers

in a garden. Further records are Hampton (A. J: Swaby), and

West Brunswiek (J. Ros Garnet).

F igs. 1-9. Nelima dunni n. sp. 1

. Dorsal view of body of Male. Appendages omitted.

Dorsal view of body of Female. Appendages omitted.

Chelicera of Female.

` Chelieera of Male. :

Ventral aspeet of the anterior portion of the body of Female.

Pedipalp of Female. . ^ ES

Enlargement of the distal portion of the tarsus in Fig, 6.

Pedipalp of the Male. . кер d ee

Enlargement of the distal portion of the tarsus in Fig. 8.

Еј

R 02 R 03 0% da d

S 0 = Oti coro =

Мем, Nat. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF CASEMOTH

(LEPIDOPTERA, PSYCHIDAE)

By Charles G. Oke

National Museum of Victoria

Plate XV, Figs. 1-8

The family Psychidae is fairly well represented in Australia,

some of the species being very common and widely spread, but

fourteen of the species are, according to Turner’s list’, only known

from single specimens. Very little is known about the biology

of Australian species, but even so, there can be no excuse for

Meyrick and Lower in 1907’, or Turner in 1945", stating that the

females are legless: Westwood in 1845? figures several females

showing their legs.

Plutorectis caespitosae sp. nov.

$ 22-24 mm. across wings. Derm of body black, nitid, normally

concealed by long dense clothing which is mostly fuscous brown,

but on head and prothorax becoming a pale ochreous and very

sericeus; anterior margin of wings blackish, elsewhere the scales

on wings cinereus; cilia cinereus, with a golden tint.

Eyes small. Antennal pectinations 7; stem dingy ochreous,

pectinations fuscous. Forewings with costa straight almost te

apex, apex rounded; termen rounded. Hind wings with apex

lightly rounded; termen rather strongly rounded.

? 14mm. long. Much degraded. Legs appearing much like those

of a larva. Head apparently without appendages. $

Habitat—Victoria: Bogong High Plains in January (Miss L.

White). Type Locality: Mt. Hotham (C. Oke); New South

Wales, Mt. Kosciusko (Amos Williams in Dec., C. E. Chadwick

313-48). Feeding on Poa caespitosa G. Forst.

Type ¿ and Allotype 9 in collections of National Museum of

Victoria.

Fairly close to P. capnaea Turn. but differs in being more

robust, with the wings narrower and, especially the hind wings,

not so strongly bowed on the termen. The colour is paler, and the

cilia is not dark fuscous. The antennal pectinations. are about

14 wider. Also the scales are different: most of the scales on the

178

Мем. Nar. Mus. Міст., 15. PLATE XV

Plutorectis caespitosa, sp. NOV.

Antennal segment—through antenna.

> "n — from above.

Portion of front leg, to show tarsus.

. Seale from fore wing, near costa.

6 and 7. Main types of scales on wings.

8. Scale from P. capnaea Turn.

A NEW SPECIES OF CASEMOTH 179

wings have an acute V-shaped notch, as against those of capnaea

which are distinetly U-shaped.

REFERENCES

Turner, A. Jefferis, Proc. Roy. Soc. Queens, LVII (1945), p. 57, 1947.

Meyrick, E., and Lower, O., Trans. Roy. Soc. S.A., XXXI, p. 192, 1907.

Westwood, J. O., Proc. Zoo. Soc. London, XXII, p. 219, pl. XXXIV-VII,

1854.

S EN

Мем. Nar. Mus. Vicr., 15, 1947

OBITUARY.

James Andrew Kershaw, Director, National Museum of Victoria,

1929-1931.

The passing of James Andrew Kershaw, Director of the Nat-

ional Museum of Victoria from 1929 to 1931, not only terminates

the long association of the Kershaw family with science in Vic-

toria, but breaks a link with such pioneers as Sir Frederick

McCoy, Baron von Mueller, Dr. Alfred Howitt, and others who

laid the foundations for modern scientific research in Australia.

James Kershaw was born on April 13, 1866, at Fitzroy, Vic-

toria, educated at the Alma Road State School and the Grammar

School, East Street, St. Kilda, and appointed to the staff of the

National Museum by Sir Frederick MeCoy on October 1, 1883.

His father, William Kershaw, had been a member of the staff

since 1856, when he and Henry Edwards, the well-known actor,

were appointed as Lepidopterists. The period of young Ker-

shaw’s training coincided with the scientific revival of the

closing decades of last century—a revival brought about by the

publicaion by McCoy of his Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria.

That period might well be called the Taxonomic Period, for, during

it, scientific work consisted chiefly of the description of genera

and species.

After the death of McCoy in May 1899, the Museum was moved

from the University grounds to its present site, and Sir W.

Baldwin Spencer became its Honorary Director. He resigned in

1929, and James Kershaw then became Director. On his retirement

in 1931, Kershaw was appointed Honorary Curator in Zoology,

interesting himself in all matters connected with Zoology, and par-

ticularly in the groups of which he was a specialist. He retained

this interest to the end—only a few minutes before he died on Feb-

ruary 16, 1946, he had been discussing with one of the younger

school a matter of common scientific interest.

He was keenly interested in the Field Naturalists’ Club of Vic-

toria, and his papers in its journal cover a wide range of subjects.

He took a prominent part in securing the permanent reservation

of Wilson’s Promontory as a National Park and a sanctuary for

the preservation of the native fauna and flora. He was Honorary

Secretary to the Committee of Management continuously from

its inception in 1908 to 1946. He became a member of the Royal

Society of Victoria in 1900, a member of its Council in 1902, and

180

Mem. NAT. Mus. Vicr., 15. PLATE XVI

The late James Andrew Kershaw

Director, 1929-1931

OBITUARY 181

its President in 1918. He was Honorary Secretary of that Society

{rom 1920 to 1923, appointed a Trustee in 1922, and was Honorary

Librarian from 1924 to 1925. In 1934, he was elected Vice-Presi-

dent of the Zoological Section of the Australian and New Zealand

Association for the Advancement of Science. From an early date,

he had been a Fellow of the Entomological Society of London. In

1927, he was elected a Corresponding Member of the Zoological

Society of London. l

It is to be expected that one who had led such an active life

would have travelled far. In 1908, he accompanied the Royal

Australian Ornithological Union’s expedition to Bass Strait—in

1909, he again visited the Bass Strait Islands; in 1913, he journey-

ed with Dr. MacGillivray and his son to Lloyd Bay, Queensland,

to examine the Barrier Reef; in 1911, he investigated the life

habits of the Platypus in the Hopkins River, Victoria; and, in .

1921, visited, with J. G. Davidson, Ooldea in Western Australia,

where his interests were ethnology and general zoology.

Although James Kershaw was habitually kind and urbane, he

could be, when occasion demanded, strong and forceful. Those

who worked with him esteemed him for his sincerity and single-

ness of purpose; the advancement of Science was always his aim,

and he subserved personal ambition to achieve it. Truth was the

watehword throughout his simple life—he stood and fought for

his convictions.

—R. A. K.