The Western Australian Museum is a statutory authority within the Culture and the Arts Portfolio, established under the Museum Act 1969.The museum has six main sites. The state museum, now known as WA Museum Boola Bardip, officially re-opened on 21 November 2020 in the Perth Cultural Centre. The other sites are: the WA Maritime Museum and WA Shipwrecks Museum in Fremantle, the Museum of the Great Southern in Albany, the Museum of Geraldton in Geraldton, and the Museum of the Goldfields in Kalgoorlie-Boulder...
Groundwater ecosystems play a key role in maintaining the ecological integrity of the global water cycle, yet they seldom take centre stage in biodiversity conservation agendas. Within such cryptic environments, this bottleneck is partly triggered by their inaccessibility but also the lack of combination between-often time-consuming and expensive-conventional hydro-ecological surveys and novel biomonitoring tools. Acoustic approaches, widely implemented in other aquatic environments such as oceans and inland waters, have the potential to ease current roadblocks and hit the right note in terms of increased groundwater protection. Here, we briefly review current use (and derived insights) of acoustic tools in groundwaters and also leverage current technical and analytical developments from other disciplines to advance groundwater monitoring. By targeting the three major branches of acoustic research, we discuss the potential of using sounds to decipher the environmental conditions in groundwaters (hydroacoustics), to unravel the biotic trends across subterranean animals (bioacoustics), and to investigate the dynamic at community level (ecoacoustics). With the goal of banging the drum for increased acoustic research in groundwaters, we conclude by reflecting on four acoustic applications that could significantly refine our understanding of natural and anthropogenically derived conditions underground. When integrated within groundwater routine surveys, acoustics not only will consistently improve the way we assess the groundwater ecosystem but will also allow to turn up the volume on one of the most fundamental but threatened ecosystems on the planet.
The tribe Aradellini Wygodzinsky & Usinger, 1963 (Hemiptera: Reduviidae: Holoptilinae) has been traditionally considered as the earliest diverging tribe of the feather-legged assassin bugs, lacking many of the diagnostic characters of the rest of the subfamily. These include the lack of the long antennal and hind-tibial setae, as well as the absence of the abdominal trichome - a glandular structure fundamental to prey interactions in the more derived Holoptilini Lepeletier & Serville, 1825. Here, we describe a new monotypic genus, Aratrichous anacomosus gen. et sp. nov., which shares synapomorphies with members of Aradellini, yet starkly contrasts the tribe's diagnosis by having a distinct abdominal trichome. This trichome occurs in all instars and in both sexes; although incomplete in the first instar, it is fully developed in later stages. Phylogenomic analysis confirms this new species as sister taxon to the remaining Aradellini and places the tribe as a derived lineage within Holoptilini and as sister group to other endemic Australian genera, thereby refuting the long-held assumption that Aradellini represent the earliest diverging lineage of the entire subfamily. Consequently, we here synonymize Aradellini with Holoptilini sensu nov. and present a revised diagnosis for the tribe that includes characters pertaining to forewing venation, vestiture and trichome presence. Furthermore, within the Australian Holoptilinae, our findings suggest: a secondary loss of the trichome; a replacement of elongate setae with short teardrop-shaped setae; and a pronounced broadening of the antennae. We hypothesize that these morphological shifts reflect an adaptive transition toward a more myrmecophilous lifestyle, in contrast to the interceptive predatory strategies typical of other Holoptilinae. https://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0FFCE963-EEA5-48A9-BFAE-1E86189FC4CC
The majority of species in Australia's most diverse vertebrate genus Ctenotus Storr were diagnosed and described based on morphological data prior to the wide availability of molecular phylogenetic data to interpret taxonomic relationships and boundaries. The C. labillardieri (Duméril & Bibron) species group comprises seven taxa endemic to the biodiversity hotspot of southwestern Western Australia. A recent analysis provided a phylogeny for most species in this group and described a range-restricted species of immediate conservation concern. However, that study was unable to examine the molecular divergence of the species C. delli Storr due to a lack of tissue samples. Newly available samples allowed us to examine the taxonomic distinctiveness of this species and C. catenifer Storr which is very similar in morphology. Our combined molecular and morphological analyses show these two species to be conspecific. Therefore, we designate the name C. catenifer a junior synonym of C. delli and provide a redescription and revised diagnosis of a single morphologically variable species.
Long-distance transport of construction materials was central to the expansion of the Dutch East India Company, Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC). Yet, historical documentation of these supply chains is fragmentary. The VOC vessel Batavia, wrecked in 1629 off the coast of Western Australia, carried a diverse cargo including prefabricated sandstone blocks, bricks, and ballast stones. Determining the provenance of these materials provides insight into VOC logistics. Petrographic observation alone, however, might be insufficient to distinguish compositionally mature sandstones due to mineralogical alteration after prolonged submersion. Here, we use detrital zircon U–Pb fingerprinting to determine the provenance of Batavia’s cargo to test whether the stone cargo originated from a single or multiple quarries. Detrital zircons are chemically and physically resistant to weathering, and their age spectra convey provenance information. Zircon analysis reveals two statistically distinct sandstone populations within the masonry cargo, corresponding to Bentheim and Obernkirchen quarry sources from the Lower Saxony Basin, Germany. Bentheim-sourced blocks are distinguished by abundant 2.5–1.0 Ga zircon grains with minor Archean detritus, whereas Obernkirchen-type blocks show stronger 350–300 Ma and 650–550 Ma zircon age components. These results show that visually similar portico stone was assembled from distinct quarry districts rather than from a single homogeneous supply, implying centralised VOC procurement and consolidation of sandstone from multiple quarries prior to export. These findings demonstrate that detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology can resolve otherwise hidden organisational complexity in archaeological building stone, allowing reconstruction of the logistical architecture that underpinned early modern global trade.
The Labroides phthirophagus Randall, 1958 and Labroides bicolor Fowler & Bean, 1928 species complexes of cleaner wrasses are reviewed. The former comprises three colourful, phylogenetically intractable species confined to tropical coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific, viz., Labroides phthirophagus from the Hawaiian Islands, Labroides rubrolabiatus Randall, 1958 from the central and southeastern Pacific, and Labroides pectoralis Randall & Springer, 1975 from the western Pacific. Our phylogenomic analysis of genome-wide ultraconserved elements and mitochondrial DNA resolves four taxa within this complex, with one taxon, Labroides flammulatus, new species, described as a new, cryptic species from the eastern Indian Ocean. Labroides flammulatus, new species, is described on the basis of eight specimens, the holotype and four paratypes from Christmas Island, and three paratypes from the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. A second species, Labroides inopinatus, new species, is described on the basis of six specimens, the holotype and two paratypes from Flora Reef, Coral Sea, and one paratype each from the Izu Oceanic Park in Japan, Holmes Reef in the Coral Sea, and Boulari Pass in New Caledonia. Labroides inopinatus, new species, appears to be widespread across the western Pacific but is restricted to deep mesophotic coral reefs below 40 m. The new species is highly distinctive and appears to be only distantly related to Labroides bicolor. The recent synonymy of Larabicus quadrilineatus within Labroides is corroborated by morphological and phylogenomic evidence, and the species is reinstated as Labroides quadrilineatus (R & uuml;ppell, 1835), following the historical combination first established by G & uuml;nther in the nineteenth century. New ecological and field observations are provided for Labroides, and phylogenetic relationships for the new species, congeneric species of Labroides, and related genera of labrichthyine wrasses are explored. Labroides is rediagnosed and a key to species is provided.
