Andrew Austin

Phylogenetic placement and description of Ngaliadessus humphreysi gen. et sp. nov., Watts & Villastrigo (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae), a subterranean diving beetle from the Ngalia Basin in centr

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 08-2023

DOI: 10.1111/AEN.12649

Abstract: The largest ersity in the world of subterranean ing beetles (Dytiscidae) has been discovered in underground waters of the Australian arid zone. The majority of species are from the Dytiscidae genera Limbodessus Guignot, 1939 (Bidessini) and Paroster Sharp, 1882 (Hydroporini) and are distributed within two major regions: calcrete islands of central Western Australia and the Ngalia Basin of the Northern Territory. Here, we use an integrative approach based on morphological and molecular analyses to describe Ngaliadessus humphreysi gen. et sp. nov. Watts & Villastrigo representing a new genus and species of stygobiotic Bidessini collected from a single well in the Ngalia Basin. Phylogenetic analyses using whole mitochondrial genome, Histone 3 and 18S rRNA data, representing a comprehensive coverage of Bidessini genera, support the distinction of the genus and species as a separate evolutionary lineage sister to the Australasian genus Limbodessus and the widely distributed genus Allodessus Guignot, 1953. Our study further confirms that the Ngalia Basin, containing 13 subterranean dytiscid species from four distinct genera, is one of the most speciose areas within the world's most erse hotspot of subterranean ing beetles.

Enigma moth parasitoid: a new Australian cyclostome genus and species, Ovaustra aurantia Tetley, Glatz & Fagan Jeffries, gen. et sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from Kangaroo Island

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 11-2022

DOI: 10.1111/AEN.12627

Abstract: Ovaustra aurantia Tetley, Glatz & Fagan‐Jeffries, gen. et sp. nov. (Mesostoinae) is described from Kangaroo Island. South Australia, Australia, and is a solitary, koinobiont, egg‐larval parasitoid of the enigma moth, Aenigmatinea glatzella Kristensen & Edwards, 2015, in the monotypic family Aenigmatineidae Kristensen & Edwards, 2015 (Lepidoptera). Female parasitoids oviposit into the eggs of A. glatzella soon after female moths place them beneath minute adpressed leaves at the growing foliar tips of the larval host plant Callitris gracilis R.T. Baker (Cupressaceae). Adult parasitoids emerge from A. glatzella larval chambers located directly beneath the bark of small branches, some way from the growing tip. Adults can be seen on or near foliage of C. gracillis primarily during October and coinciding with the presence of adult host moths. Morphological and preliminary molecular evidence place Ovaustra Glatz, Fagan‐Jeffries & Tetley, gen. nov. within Mesostoinae s.l . and indicate that its closest relatives are likely to reside within a group of genera from Australia and New Zealand whose hosts and biology are not well defined but are apparently quite broad, including lepidopteran, coleopteran and dipteran larvae, as well as primary plant gall induction.

Four new species of parasitoid wasp (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) described through a citizen science partnership with schools in regional South Australia

Publisher: Magnolia Press

Date: 24-03-2021

DOI: 10.11646/ZOOTAXA.4949.1.4

Abstract: Involving the community in taxonomic research has the potential to increase the awareness, appreciation and value of taxonomy in the public sphere. We report here on a trial citizen science project, Insect Investigators, which partners taxonomists with school students to monitor Malaise traps and prioritise the description of new species collected. In this initial trial, four schools in regional South Australia participated in the program and all collected new species of the braconid subfamily Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). These four species are here described as new, with the names being chosen in collaboration with the participating school students: Choeras ramcomarmorata Fagan-Jeffries & Austin sp. nov., Glyptapanteles drioplanetus Fagan-Jeffries & Austin sp. nov., Dolichogenidea franklinharbourensis Fagan-Jeffries & Austin sp. nov. and Miropotes waikerieyeties Fagan-Jeffries & Austin sp. nov. All four species are diagnosed against the known members of the genera from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa and Papua New Guinea, and images and COI DNA barcodes are provided of the holotypes. Students had positive feedback about their experiences of the program, and there is significant potential for it to be expanded and used as a means to connect communities with taxonomic science.

New species‐group of brachypterous Idris Förster, 1856 s.l. (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae s.l.) from the Oriental region

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 02-2021

DOI: 10.1111/AEN.12522

Differential transcriptomic responses to heat stress in surface and subterranean diving beetles

Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Date: 13-12-2021

DOI: 10.1101/2021.12.12.470823

Abstract: Subterranean habitats are generally very stable environments, and as such evolutionary transitions of organisms from surface to subterranean lifestyles may cause considerable shifts in physiology, particularly with respect to thermal tolerance. In this study we compared responses to heat shock at the molecular level in a geographically widespread, surface-dwelling water beetle to a congeneric subterranean species restricted to a single aquifer (Dytiscidae: Hydroporinae). The obligate subterranean beetle Paroster macrosturtensis is known to have a lower thermal tolerance compared to surface lineages (CT max 38°C cf . 42-46 °C), but the genetic basis of this physiological difference has not been characterized. We experimentally manipulated the thermal environment of 24 in iduals to demonstrate that both species can mount a heat shock response at high temperatures (35°C), as determined by comparative transcriptomics. However, genes involved in these responses differ between species and a far greater number were differentially expressed in the surface taxon, suggesting it can mount a more robust heat shock response these data may underpin its higher thermal tolerance compared to subterranean relatives. In contrast, the subterranean species examined not only differentially expressed fewer genes in response to increasing temperatures, but also in the presence of the experimental setup employed here alone. Our results suggest P. macrosturtensis may be comparatively poorly equipped to respond to both thermally induced stress and environmental disturbances more broadly. The molecular findings presented here have conservation implications for P. macrosturtensis and contribute to a growing narrative concerning weakened thermal tolerances in obligate subterranean organisms at the molecular level.

The genome of the egg parasitoid Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) (Hymenoptera, Scelionidae), a model organism and biocontrol agent of stink bugs

Publisher: Pensoft Publishers

Date: 17-02-2023

DOI: 10.3897/JHR.95.97654

Abstract: Trissolcus basalis (Wollaston) is a minute parasitic wasp that develops in the eggs of stink bugs. Over the past 30 years, Tr. basalis has become a model organism for studying host finding, patch defense behavior, and chemical ecology. As an entry point to better understand the molecular basis of these factors, in addition to filling a critical gap in the genomic resources available for parasitic Hymenoptera, we sequenced and assembled the genome of Tr. basalis using short (454, Illumina) and long read (Oxford Nanopore) sequencing technologies. The three sequencing methods produced 32 million reads (4.10 Gb 27.9×), which were assembled into 7,586 scaffolds. The 147 Mb (N50: 42.8 kb) assembly contains complete sequences for 93.1% of the insect BUSCO dataset, and an extensive annotation protocol resulted in 14,158 protein-coding gene models, 12,197 (86%) of which had a blast hit in GenBank. Repetitive elements comprised 13.8% of the genome, and a phylogenomic analysis recovered Tr. basalis as sister to Chalcidoidea, a result in line with other studies. We identified 174 rapidly evolving gene families in Tr. basalis , including olfactory receptors and pheromone/general odorant binding proteins. These genetic elements are an obligatory portion of the parasitoid-host relationship, and the draft genome of Tr. basalis has and will continue to be useful in elucidating these relationships at finer resolution.

Pilbarana, a new subterranean amphipod genus (Hadzioidea: Eriopisidae) of environmental assessment importance from the Pilbara, Western Australia

Publisher: Magnolia Press

Date: 22-09-2022

DOI: 10.11646/ZOOTAXA.5188.6.4

Abstract: The Pilbara and nearby regions in north-western Western Australia have an exceptionally high ersity of short-range endemic invertebrates inhabiting threatened groundwater-dependent habitats. Amphipod crustaceans, in particular, are dominant in these communities, but are poorly understood taxonomically, with many undescribed species. Recent molecular phylogenetic analyses of Pilbara eriopisid hipods have, nonetheless, uncovered a previously unknown bio ersity. In this study, we formally establish a new genus, Pilbarana Stringer & King gen. nov., and describe two new species, P. grandis Stringer & King sp. nov. from Cane River Conservation Park and P. lowryi Stringer & King sp. nov. from the Fortescue River Basin near the Hamersley Range, using a combination of molecular and morphological data. The new genus is similar morphologically to the two additional Western Australian eriopisid genera, Nedsia Barnard & Williams, 1995 and Norcapensis Bradbury & Williams, 1997, but represents a genetically ergent, reciprocally monophyletic lineage, which can be differentiated by its vermiform body shape, the presence of an antennal sinus, and by the length and form of the antennae and uropods. This research signifies an important contribution to knowledge of Pilbara subterranean communities and has critical implications for future environmental impact assessments and conservation management.

Arid zone island hopping: the impact of dispersal on endemism in hydraenid beetles (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae) found in isolated desert springs

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 11-2019

DOI: 10.1111/AEN.12426

A likely association of damselflies with the habitat heterogeneity provided by the freshwater swamp lily, Ottelia ovalifolia, in Eyre Peninsula granite rock-holes, with a review of potential threats to this ephemeral habitat

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 03-07-2021

DOI: 10.1080/03721426.2021.1996878

Taking eDNA underground: Factors affecting eDNA detection of subterranean fauna in groundwater

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 17-04-2023

DOI: 10.1111/1755-0998.13792

Abstract: Stygofauna are aquatic fauna that have evolved to live underground. The impacts of anthropogenic climate change, extraction and pollution on groundwater pose major threats to groundwater health, prompting the need for efficient and reliable means to detect and monitor stygofaunal communities. Conventional survey techniques for these species rely on morphological identification and can be biased, labour‐intensive and often indeterminate to lower taxonomic levels. By contrast, environmental DNA (eDNA)‐based methods have the potential to dramatically improve on existing stygofaunal survey methods in a large range of habitats and for all life stages, reducing the need for the destructive manual collection of often critically endangered species or for specialized taxonomic expertise. We compared eDNA and haul‐net s les collected in 2020 and 2021 from 19 groundwater bores and a cave on Barrow Island, northwest Western Australia, and assessed how s ling factors influenced the quality of eDNA detection of stygofauna. The two detection methods were complementary eDNA metabarcoding was able to detect soft‐bodied taxa and fish often missed by nets, but only detected seven of the nine stygofaunal crustacean orders identified from haul‐net specimens. Our results also indicated that eDNA metabarcoding could detect 54%–100% of stygofauna from shallow‐water s les and 82%–90% from sediment s les. However, there was significant variation in stygofaunal ersity between s le years and s ling types. The findings of this study demonstrate that haul‐net s ling has a tendency to underestimate stygofaunal ersity and that eDNA metabarcoding of groundwater can substantially improve the efficiency of stygofaunal surveys.

Molecular phylogeny places the enigmatic subfamily Masoninae within the Ichneumonidae, not the Braconidae

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 14-11-2019

DOI: 10.1111/ZSC.12390

Evolution of endoglucanase genes in subterranean and surface isopod crustaceans from Central Western Australia

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 29-09-2023

DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.10552

Integrative and accelerated taxonomy recognises a new species of Psyllaephagus (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), parasitic on Lasiopsylla striata (Hemiptera: Psyllidae) from Australia.

Publisher: Atlas of Living Australia

Date: 11-05-2023

DOI: 10.54102/AJT.SZJZ2

Abstract: The current taxonomic framework for describing new species of Psyllaephagus in Australia is largely intractable, mainly due to damaged or missing types and, as such, the genus has been neglected for almost 40 years. The repercussions of this include an absence of accurate host association records among Psyllaephagus and their hosts, several genera of which are lerp-forming psyllids that are ubiquitous on Eucalyptus spp. across Australia. In response, and to demonstrate the feasibility of robust and rapid species descriptions, here we describe a new species, Psyllaephagus iridis sp. nov. McClelland and the first record of a Eucalyptus host association for the psyllid Lasiopsylla striata Froggatt 1923, from a previously uns led location. It is the first instance where an Australian species of Psyllaephagus is described from accurately recorded reared material. Molecular data is associated with the species for future studies and this, combined with diagnostic morphology, and high-resolution images, provides a description of a new species which demonstrates a comprehensive yet robust method for an accelerated taxonomic treatment of the Australian Psyllaephagus fauna.

Synopsis of the parasitoid wasp genus Cotesia Cameron, 1891 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Microgastrinae) in Australia, with the description of seven new species

Publisher: Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle

Date: 16-06-2020

DOI: 10.5852/EJT.2020.667

Abstract: The genus Cotesia Cameron, 1891 is one of the most erse of the Microgastrinae, a subfamily of wasps that are exclusively endoparasitic on lepidopteran larvae. Species of Cotesia are widely utilised as biological control agents across the world. In Australia, there are currently 10 confirmed native species as well as four species introduced for the management of lepidopteran pests. The genus is morphologically conserved and has not been studied in the Australasian region for many decades. In this study, we use both comparative morphology and sequence data from the COI gene to delineate species, and in so doing describe seven new species from Australia: C. lasallei sp. nov., C. medusae sp. nov., C. ocellata sp. nov., C. reidarum sp. nov., C. scripta sp. nov., C. tjapekki sp. nov. and C. wonboynensis sp. nov., raising the number of species of Cotesia formally recorded in Australia to 21. We also provide updated descriptions of the previously described native species, diagnoses for the introduced species and a key to all currently described species found on the continent and from Papua New Guinea. This study treats only a fraction of the likely ersity of Cotesia, but provides a solid framework for future work.

A new species of the enigmatic Australian endemic family Trachypetidae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea): Cercobarcon lasallei sp.n.

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Date: 18-03-2020

DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2020.1747652

Systematics of Haloniscus Chilton, 1920 (Isopoda: Oniscidea: Philosciidae), with description of four new species from threatened Great Artesian Basin springs in South Australia

Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)

Date: 07-2019

DOI: 10.1093/JCBIOL/RUZ044

Abstract: Recent surveys of Australian arid-zone groundwater ecosystems have uncovered considerable species ersity and extreme endemism for the oniscidean isopod genus Haloniscus Chilton, 1920. Phylogenetic and species delimitation analyses have recognised several distinct species from the Great Artesian Basin springs in South Australia, inspiring a morphological reassessment of the genus and examination of specimens from the iconic Lake Eyre and Dalhousie Springs. We present a revised diagnosis of Haloniscus, transfer the genus from the family Scyphacidae to Philosciidae and describe four new species, H. fontanus Stringer, King & Taiti n. sp., H. microphthalmus Stringer, King & Taiti n. sp., H. rotundus Stringer, King & Taiti n. sp., and H. yardiyaensis Stringer, King & Taiti n. sp., based on combined morphological and molecular evidence. We compare the results of molecular-based species delimitation analyses with morphological data, provide distribution information, and present a key to the described species of Haloniscus. Two species presently included in Andricophiloscia Vandel, 1973, A. stepheni (Nicholls & Barnes, 1926) and A. pedisetosa Taiti & Humphreys, 2001, from Western Australia are also transferred to Haloniscus.

Systematic revision of the parasitoid wasp genus Glyptapanteles Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Microgastrinae) for Australia results in a ten-fold increase in species

Publisher: Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle

Date: 08-02-2022

DOI: 10.5852/EJT.2022.792.1647

Abstract: Despite several decades of active research, there are still substantial gaps in the knowledge of parasitoid wasps in Australia, with many families and genera yet to be revised using modern approaches and only a fraction of the estimated fauna currently described. The genus Glyptapanteles Ashmead, 1904 is a member of the subfamily Microgastrinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and all species in the subfamily are lepidopteran parasitoids. The genus previously contained only three species known from Australia: G. deliasa Austin & #38 Dangerfield, 1992, G. drioplanetus Fagan-Jeffries & #38 Austin, 2021 and G. mnes ela Austin, 2000. To undertake a revision of this morphologically-conserved group in Australia, we used a combination of molecular (cytochrome oxidase subunit one (COI) and wingless genes) and minimal morphological data to delimit and describe an additional 31 species: G. austini Fagan-Jeffries & #38 Bird sp. nov. and the following 30 species all authored by Fagan-Jeffries, Bird & #38 Austin: G. albigena sp. nov., G. andamookaensis sp. nov., G. arcanus sp. nov., G. aspersus sp. nov., G. austrinus sp. nov., G. baylessi sp. nov., G. bradfordae sp. nov., G. cooperi sp. nov., G. doreyi sp. nov., G. dowtoni sp. nov., G. eburneus sp. nov., G. erucadesolator sp. nov., G. ferrugineus sp. nov., G. foraminous sp. nov., G. goodwinnoakes sp. nov., G. guzikae sp. nov., G. harveyi sp. nov., G. kingae sp. nov., G. kittelae sp. nov., G. kurandaensis sp. nov., G. lambkinae sp. nov., G. lessardi sp. nov., G. mouldsi sp. nov., G. niveus sp. nov., G. rixi sp. nov., G. rodriguezae sp. nov., G. ruhri sp. nov., G. sanniopolus sp. nov., G. vergrandiacus sp. nov. and G. wrightae sp. nov. We provide a key to species groups and to the species able to be identified on morphological characters alone. Additionally, we provide a brief discussion of the difficulties in describing small, morphologically conserved wasps and the challenges associated with revising the taxonomy of hyper erse taxa in the context of the planned mission of Taxonomy Australia to accelerate the documentation of Australia’s bio ersity.

First record of miracine parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from Australia: molecular phylogenetics and morphology reveal multiple new species

Publisher: Wiley

Date: 02-2022

DOI: 10.1111/AEN.12582

Abstract: Miracinae are a small subfamily of parasitoid wasps that are under‐represented in collections and that have yet to be formally recorded from Australia. Bayesian and maximum likelihood phylogenetic analyses were performed using the barcoding region of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I ( COI ) from 11 miracine specimens collected throughout Australia, along with extralimital miracine COI sequences from the Barcode of Life Database (BOLD). Of 14 miracine sequences from Australia, 11 distinct species were identified at a 2% pairwise difference threshold. Four of these species, for which female specimens were available for morphological examination, are here described: Mirax arcisensis Slater‐Baker & Fagan‐Jeffries sp. nov. , Mirax caelicus Slater‐Baker & Fagan‐Jeffries sp. nov. , Mirax cowellensis Slater‐Baker & Fagan‐Jeffries sp. nov. and Mirax trianguliceps Slater‐Baker & Fagan‐Jeffries sp. nov. Although specimens are apparently rare in collections, these results suggest that the continent may have a much larger endemic miracine fauna and highlights the need for additional work on the subfamily in Australia. Further studies on the taxonomy and biology of Australian miracines could have important implications for conservation and may reveal opportunities for biological control strategies against leaf‐mining pests.

University Of Adelaide

Location: Australia

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