Far North Queensland and the Wet Far North Queensland and the Wet TropicsTropics

5 May – 4 June 20065 May – 4 June 2006

Introduction

Far North Queensland and the Wet Tropics contain unique and diverse ecosystems of interest for our PBI research because:

• Mirids have not been targeted in collecting here before

• The rainforest especially is of interest in southern hemisphere biogeography with links toNew Guinea and New Caledonia

Where we went

We covered approximately 1500km from Townsville to Cooktown along both the coast and inland ranges.

Fieldtrip Participants

Celia and Gerry labelling the catch of the day

Gerry Cassis

Lauren Barrow

Hannah Finlay

Celia Symonds

Hannah

Lauren

Former Australian Museum Research Scientist Greg Edgecombe accompanied the group for 1 week to collect centipedes with Lauren’s assistance.

We collected in both wet and dry habitats with very different results

Mosman Gorge, Wet Tropics World Heritage Area

Open grassy woodlands of the Chillagoe area, west of the Atherton Tablelands

Dry Country Host PlantsCommon dry country host plants included figs, wattles, grevilleas, Callitris, Allocasuarina and peas. Overall diversity and abundance of Mirids was greater in the dry country. Grevillea pteridifolia

Jacksonia scoparia

Erythroxylum australe

Allocasuarina torulosa

Callitris (Cupressaceae) in the Savannah Woodlands

Callitris intratropica is the dominant Callitris species across northern Australia but it is believed to be a complex of species. We wanted to collect more extensively on Callitris on this trip to see if there may also be a complex of related Orthotylines associated with different Callitris species. A very complex question, but we have found a number of different sister species which are almost indistinguishable externally but only found on different host Callitris species.

Hidden Valley, west of Paluma is one of the places in the far north where a new species of Callitris has been found and we found a new green Orthotyline Mirid species on this Callitris and only known from this site.

The rangelands west of Charters Towers

Acacia excelsa is one of many varied forms of Acacia found in these dry open woodlands. This species was found to host a number of Mirid species including 2 Orthotylines and 1 Phyline

Forty Mile Scrub National Park, west of Mt Garnet

40 Mile Scrub National Park is a dry rainforest remnant on volcanic soils surrounded by grassy woodlands on the McBride Plateau at 900m altitude. It is one of the few inland dry rainforest remnants in north Queensland and of national conservation significance.

Plataspids

ScuteleridLampromicra sp.

Berytids

This Ficus sp. in the 40 Mile Scrub was found to be host to a variety of Heteropteran (and other insect!) species including mirids such as Zanchius species.

Wet Tropics Rainforest Host PlantsWe found low to moderate diversity in the rainforest habitats most likely as we were unable to access the canopy which holds the majority of the diversity in such a habitat.

Mallotus surculosus

Clerodendrum inerme

Alstonia muellerina

Litsea leefeana

Archer Point nr Cooktown

This exposed coastal bay was a windswept and somewhat disturbed habitat, with mangroves around the shoreline. The grassland and herbs as well as Casuarina trees yielded some interesting Mirids including a new Pseudoloxops sp. and yellow Phyline sp.

Some other wildlife we spotted along the way…

In Summary

On this trip we sampled 65 localities and collected from 182 host plants.

We found a high diversity of Heteroptera and a moderate diversity of Mirids.

The Mirids we collected comprised of a large number of species in the Zanchius group and Orthotylini.

We found very few Austromirini and not too many Phylines.