Australasian Collections Research Articles

IN MEMORY OF A GREAT SINOLOGIST: NOEL BARNARD (FEBRUARY 23, 1922–FEBRUARY 14, 2016)

AbstractThe primary expertise of Noel Barnard, who died on February 14, 2016, was in bronze casting, Chu silk manuscripts, and their associated research, and he was internationally renowned for his knowledge of Chinese history and archaeology. Barnard's most important academic works included his ground-breaking Metallurgical Remains of Ancient China, with Satō Tamotsu, published in 1975, and Rubbings and Hand Copies of Bronze Inscriptions in Chinese, Japanese, European, American, and Australasian Collections 中日歐美澳紐所見所拓所摹金文彙編, with Cheong Kwong-yue. His three-volume book manuscript, Inscriptions of Chin and the San-Chin, on which he had spent almost twenty years before its completion, will be published soon. In this obituary, the author recalls his experiences, friendship, and collaboration with him.

Birds in Australian and New Zealand museums—a major resource for ornithology

The 14 major bird collections in Australia (10) and New Zealand (4) together hold half a million specimens, including 275 000 from Australia and 115 000 from New Zealand. Six large collections in Australia, and two in New Zealand, each hold at least 30 000 birds. The largest single collection (Australian Museum, Sydney) has 78 000 birds. Overall, study‐skins are the most common form of preparation (47%), followed by eggs (20%). However, for New Zealand collections alone, fossil bones are the biggest single category (56%) reflecting that country's remarkable Holocene fossil record of birds. Taxonomically, the best‐represented group in the Australasian collections is the order Passeriformes, followed by Anseriformes, Procellariiformes, Psittaciformes, Charadriiformes, Columbiformes, Falconiformes, and ratites (Rati‐tae). Most birds in Australasian collections (81%) are from Australia or New Zealand, followed by 27 000 specimens (6%) from the south‐west Pacific (islands of Polynesia and Melanesia, including New Guinea). The Australasian collections are managed by a total staffing complement of about 25 FTE (full‐time equivalents), most of whom care for other taxonomic groups besides birds. Nearly all specimen records are now captured electronically, but seven different software systems are used (KE “EMu” and Vernon Systems “Collection” most commonly). The 14 Australasian bird collections together form a nationally and internationally important resource. These collections document the biodiversity of the birds of the Australasian biogeographic region, and allow researchers to study many aspects of avian biology, including speciation, biogeography, moult and plumages, systematics and conservation.

Differentiation of Australasian potato cyst nematode (PCN) populations using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

Molecular examination of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region in potato cyst nematodes (PCN) is described. The ITS was amplified and sequenced from a number of PCN collections. A low level of sequence variation was found between Globodera rostochiensis, G. pallida, and a Peruvian PCN collection, but no variation within Australasian collections of species was noted. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primers based upon the G. rostochiensis–G. pallida sequence differences were designed and successfully used to identify mixed PCN species in a single PCR reaction.

Chromosome inversion polymorphisms in Drosophila melanogaster III. Gametic disequilibria and the contributions of inversion clines to the Adh and Gpdh clines in Australasia

Gametes from each of 19 Australasian collections of Drosophila melanogaster were characterised for polymorphic Adh and Gpdh allozyme loci and the two chromosome-2 common cosmopolitan inversions In(2L)t and In(2R)NS.-No consistent gametic disequilibria for the loosely linked combinations of Adh-Gpdh and Adh-In(2R)NS were found over the 19 collections. However, strong and consistent gametic disequilibria were found for the tightly linked combinations of Adh-In(2L)t and Gpdh-In(2L)t. The results for each of these four combinations agree with those previously reported for Northern-Hemisphere collections. -Notwithstanding its parallel latitudinal cline and consistent gametic disequilibrium with Adh, In(2L)t was found to account for only a small fraction of the Adh latitudinal cline in Australasia. This is consistent with the previous finding that the North American Adh latitudinal cline also exists largely independently of In(2L)t. However, In(2L)t accounts for all of the Australasian Gpdh latitudinal cline and so contrasts the finding from North American collections where the corresponding Gpdh cline exists largely independently of In(2L)t.

Subantarctic Geoglossaceae: I

This paper is not intended to be a comprehensive study of the Geoglossaceae from subantarctic regions but rather a notice of some interesting and new species found in the Nothofagus forests of South America. It began when I tried to determine collections made by Dr. Singer, Dr. Horak and myself in the above mentioned area, and found it necessary to compare them with Australasian collections. From this study, the presence of common species became obvious, corroborating the closeness of the relationship between the fungal floras of Austral South America, S. Australia and New Zealand. Most of the Geoglossaceae treated here belong to the tribe Geoglosseae (Durand, i9o8), some of which are known, up to the present, only from their type material. Additional collections have contributed to a better understanding of the species, and, consequently to their placement in better defined or newly recognized genera. Amongst modern authors, Dr. R. W. G. Dennis (1958 & 1961) is a pioneer in the study of the inoperculate discomycetes of the subantarctic regions. With his help I have had access to valuable collections deposited in the Kew Herbarium, which made possible this contribution. For this, and for his authoritative suggestions and criticism throughout many years of uninterrupted correspondence, I am deeply indebted.