Australian Museum Research Articles

Hidden in plain sight: Tripneustes kermadecensis (Echinodermata: Echinoidea) is a junior synonym of the eastern Australian sea urchin Evechinus australiae described in 1878

Accurate taxonomy and descriptions of species are key to understanding biodiversity. The echinoid genus Tripneustes is an ecologically and commercially important taxon that includes the tropical Tripneustes gratilla gratilla and the recently described T. kermadecensis from Australia and New Zealand. While examining the Australian Museum collections to clarify the distributions of these two species in eastern Australia we found potential senior type material for T. kermadecensis. These specimens from Sydney Harbour were originally described in 1878 as Evechinus australiae by Tenison-Woods but neither illustrated nor redescribed in any subsequent report. We undertook molecular and morphological analysis of these specimens to determine whether T. kermadecensis and E. australiae represent two distinct taxa or not. This included micro-computed tomography, quantification of test traits and molecular genetic analysis. The COI sequence and morphology of Evechinus australiae matched that of Tripneustes kermadecensis. As such, T. kermadecensis is a junior synonym of Evechinus australiae. The correct designation of this taxon is therefore Tripneustes australiae (Tenison-Woods, 1878). ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9B9E685C‐9C1C‐4645‐A799‐D97969BAA033

A review of the nematode assemblage of the Australian bandicoot, Isoodon macrourus (Peramelidae), from material held in the South Australian Museum with the description of Sprattellus cassonei n. sp. (Mackerrastrongylidae).

A total of 235 vials of nematodes held in the Australian Helminthological Collection of the South Australian Museum from 125 individuals of Isoodon macrourus were examined. The nematode assemblage of I. macrourus, comprising 12 families, including 16 genera and 23 identified species, was compared with the sympatric bandicoot species Perameles nasuta, 20 identified species (Sorensen's index of similarity 0.56) and P. pallescens, 12 identified species (Sorensen's index 0.51). Sprattellus cassonei n. sp. is distinguished from its congeners by having a synlophe with 7-8 ridges with the anterior ventral ridges interrupted, the morphology of the dorsal ray and the branching of the spicule tips. A single male specimen identified as Linstowinema sp. 1. is characterised by seven circles of body hooks, the oesophagus terminating at the level of the seventh circle and robust scale-like spines on the posterior ventral body. A complete description of the species will require additional material, including females. Difficulties in identifying individuals of the genus Mackerrastrongylus to species level are discussed. Overall similarities in the nematode assemblages of the three bandicoot hosts are likely due to shared relationships and similar behaviours.

Disrupting Museum Authority: Art, Voice and the Museum

AbstractMuseums are wrestling with their past and exhibitions provide important spaces to create new dialogues and include previously excluded voices. This review examines two exhibitions from 2021 at museums in Sydney, Australia – Unsettled at the Australian Museum and Eucalyptusdom at the nearby Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences – as these exhibits are significant markers of fundamental changes in Australian museum practice. It examines how these museums sought to disrupt the colonial bias in their historical collections and tell new stories of settlement and place. It considers the way that voice, particularly the voice of Indigenous communities and creative practitioners helped to challenge how history could be told and the authority of the museums.

Dining on Geologic Fish

The Australian lungfish was discovered for science by Australian Museum curator Gerard Krefft in 1870. He immediately recognized that it was a “living fossil” linking fish and amphibians. He quickly named the fish and sent specimens around the world. The bodies of the transformed, travelling fish became a personal and material connector as they entered the unstable, relational exchange economies and value scales of international science. Still, there were gaps in relations and processes: in incomplete specimens, in long supply chains and delayed communications, in translating and translocating field knowledge of the living fish, and in the credibility and authority of the colonial scientists who were vying for imperial attention. In these gaps we can see the local practice of settler scientists, colonists and the local Gubbi Gubbi people, along with other possible ontologies of nature and culture. From that gap, and the acute anxiety of description and classification on the colonial edge, we can also see the creation of the very odd fantasy-fish, the Ompax. The scientific history of the Australian lungfish, Ceratodus forsteri, and its strange cousin the Ompax, demonstrate what happened when affect, ambition and stubbornness, local materiality, story, and practice met the geographical and material constraints and odd, instrumental logic of imperial natural history. It is an object lesson in the crucial importance and the limits of go-betweens in field knowledgemaking and the persistence of other lineages and ways of knowing within museum specimen collections and the archives of colonial science.

Stomatopod Crustacea of Lord Howe Island

Prior to the present study, five species in four genera of the mantis shrimp superfamily Gonodactyloidea were known from Lord Howe Island, Australia. The 2017 Australian Museum expedition to Lord Howe Island made a small but significant collection of stomatopods, comprising four species: Chorisquilla tweediei (Serène, 1950), Gonodactylaceus falcatus (Forskål, 1775), Pseudosquilla ciliata (Fabricius, 1787) and a new species of Acaenosquilla, representing the first record of the superfamily Lysiosquilloidea from Lord Howe Island. The new species of Acaenosquilla is formally described and a key to the stomatopods of Lord Howe Island is provided.

The Gondwanan Origin of Tribosphenida (Mammalia)

A review of the Southern Hemisphere Mesozoic tribosphenic mammal fossil record supports the hypothesis that Tribosphenida arose in the Southern Hemisphere during the Early Jurassic, around 50 million years prior to the clade’s reliably dated first appearance in the Northern Hemisphere. Mesozoic Southern Hemisphere tribosphenic mammals are known from Australia, Madagascar, South America and the Indian subcontinent, and are classified into three families: Bishopidae (fam. nov.), Ausktribosphenidae and Henosferidae. These are stem therians, and considerable morphological evolution occurred within the lineage between the Jurassic and late Early Cretaceous. Important dental modifications include a graduated transition between premolars and molars, development of molar wear facets V and VI, loss of facets for postdentary bones, reduction in the Meckelian groove and development of a true dentary angle. Previous classifications of Southern Hemisphere tribosphenic mammals are ambiguous because information from the upper dentition has been lacking. Upper molars attributed to the late Early Cretaceous (Albian) Southern Hemisphere group Bishopidae fam. nov. are now known to possess a prominent protocone and stylar cusp C. We thus consider bishopids to be the sister group to Theria. Timothy F. Flannery [tim.flannery@textpublishing.com.au], Kristofer M. Helgen [Kris.Helgen@Australian.Museum], Australian Museum, 1 William St Sydney 2000, Australia; Thomas H. Rich [trich@museum.vic.gov.au], Museums Victoria, PO Box 666, Q28 Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia; Patricia Vickers-Rich [pat.rich@monash.edu; prich@swin.edu.au], School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia; Swinburne University of Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia; Elizabeth Grace Veatch [elizabeth.veatch@gmail.com], National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.

Morton’s memento? Reading Indigenous counter-networks in the ‘post’-colonial museum

This article considers the use of Indigenous counter-networks as a methodology for the research and interpretation of Pacific objects and images in Australian museum collections. A photographic album from the collections of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is used as a case study to demonstrate how historical visual materials may be comparatively analysed alongside written archives to excavate Indigenous networks. The article considers the migration of eleven Queensland South Sea Islander (SSI) men to the Australian Territory of Papua (Papua New Guinea) in 1907. It seeks to reinscribe the album with Indigenous presence and perspective, uncovering traces of SSI movement, resistance, and acculturation to colonial society in response to the White Australia policy in Queensland and Papua in the early twentieth-century.

New cicada fossils from Australia (Hemiptera: Cicadoidea: Cicadidae) with remarkably detailed wing surface nanostructure

Australia hosts the richest diversity of extant cicadas in the world, but a scarcity of fossils means that little is known about their evolutionary history on the continent. Here we describe the first fossilized Cicadidae from Australia. Laopsaltria ferruginosa gen. et sp. nov., Burbungoides gulgongensis gen. et sp. nov. and Tithopsaltria titan gen. et sp. nov. were all found at McGraths Flat near Gulgong, New South Wales, a recently discovered Miocene Lagerstätte. These cicada fossils preserve remarkable detail, including setae and wing membrane surface structures. Wing size varies considerably between the three newly described species and, in T. titan sp. nov., reaches a maximum size beyond what is known from extant Australian cicadas (or any other known cicada fossil), indicating a disparate cicada fauna in Australia’s Miocene rainforests. Max Moulds [ msmoulds@gmail.com ], Australian Museum Research Institute, 1 William Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2010, Australia. Michael Frese [ michael.frese@canberra.edu.au ], Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Canberra, Bruce, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia; Australian Museum Research Institute, 1 William Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2010, Australia; Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Health and Biosecurity, Black Mountain, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia. M. R. McCurry [ matthew.mccurry@australian.museum ], Australian Museum Research Institute, 1 William Street, Sydney, New South Wales 2010, Australia; Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre, School of BEES, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia; Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, District of Columbia 20560, USA.

Strandings in St Vincent Gulf Bioregion, South Australia: 12-Year Study Monitors Biology and Pathology of Cetaceans

The semi-enclosed environment of the St Vincent Gulf Bioregion and its fauna are impacted by many human activities. Long-term monitoring of cetaceans is vital. Records of collected specimens (173) and those not examined by the South Australian Museum (98 non-specimens) from 2009–2020 were analyzed. Necropsies were carried out on most carcasses using gross, histopathological, and diagnostic assessment of pathogens, organs, and skin lesions. The relative age and circumstance of death were assigned. Baleen whales (five species) and odontocetes (eight species) were studied. Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) and common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) were frequently recorded and analyzed in detail. Anthropogenic cases were prevalent (21%). Many dolphins (62%) were immature males. Disease (73%) was the most frequently recorded circumstance of death. The most common pathological change was inflammatory disease, including infectious pneumonia. In Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, infectious disease was more prevalent in the greater St Vincent Gulf Bioregion than in the Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary. Microbe testing confirmed 32 species of bacteria, 2 fungi, and 1 virus. Nematodes and trematodes were recorded throughout the study, sometimes in association with microbes. Toxoplasma gondii was observed in an Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin. Severe traumatic injury was recorded in many dolphins, including anthropogenic cases. A tumor (leiomyoma) was described from a single common dolphin. This study provides an important baseline for the future monitoring of emerging infectious and chronic diseases, and anthropogenic threats in the region.

Laudatio for Dr. Winston F. Ponder – a life of malacology

ABSTRACT For over 50 years Winston Ponder has been at the forefront of molluscan research. Young Winston collected land snails in the environs of Lower Hutt, New Zealand and marine species at Waikanae Beach northwest of Wellington. He attended Victoria University in Wellington in 1959 but moved to Auckland University in 1960 to study under Professor John E. Morton, with whom he completed his B.Sc. in 1963 (Galeommatoidea), his M.Sc. with 1st Class Honours in 1965 (Rissoidae), and his Ph.D. in 1968 (Neogastropoda). Winston was appointed Curator of Marine Invertebrates at the Dominion Museum in 1967. However, he soon moved to Australia after accepting the position of Curator of Molluscs at the Australian Museum in 1968. He would spend the next 37 years there. Winston has published in almost 50 different scientific journals and numerous edited books and volumes. He has collaborated with almost 100 different co-authors from around the world and has addressed multiple taxa and questions across the phylum. He has been a strong advocate for Australasian malacology. His advocacy has also included a robust outreach to students. However, his advancement of Australasian malacology was not done to the exclusion of the global role and needs of the discipline.

An Evaluation of the Genera Longicollum and Paralongicollum (Pomphorhynchidae: Acanthocephala) in Australia.

To confirm the identity of Longicollum edmondsi Golvan, 1969, Pomphorhynchidae Yamaguti, 1939, from Australia. All the relevant specimens registered in Australian museums were examined. Those held as permanent slide preparations were examined directly and those stored in 70% ethanol were examined as temporary wet mounts, after clearing in lactophenol, using an Olympus BH-2 microscope with differential interference optics. Measurements were made with an eyepiece micrometer and figures drawn using a drawing tube. All the material registered as either Longicollum edmondsi or Paralongicollum sp. was determined to be Paralongicollum edmondsi (Golvan, 1969) comb. nov. based, amongst other characters, on the morphology of the neck. The significance of known host species of P. edmondsi and their geographical distribution around the Australian coast was analysed. The geographical distribution of the genus Paralongicollum, Amin, Bauer & Siderov, 1991, across the Indo Pacific was compared to that of the acanthocephalan genus Sclerocollum Schmidt & Paperna, 1978.

Seeking a Lost Collection at Museums Victoria: George Thomas Rice’s ‘Museum of Island Curios’

ABSTRACT In 1880, the Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria purchased a collection of Pacific artefacts from the estate of George Thomas Rice, a curiosity dealer in Sydney. The collection eventually entered Melbourne Museum where, despite the previous existence of detailed catalogues and correspondence, it remains unprovenanced and largely undocumented. This article investigates the history of the Rice collection and attempts to relocate it at Museums Victoria today. Although the collection remains untraceable, its history offers valuable insights into the scientific and ideological factors behind the early collecting of Pacific material by Australian museums and the active networks that existed between public museums, commercial curiosity shops and international exhibitions in 19th-century Australia. Finally, the article argues that Rice’s collection is emblematic of the broader problem of absence faced by museums, with the poor documentation proving an impediment to the Museum’s current attempts to engage in community-centred and decolonial practice.

The sponge crabs of Western Australia and the Northwest Shelf with descriptions of new genera and species (Crustacea: Brachyura: Dromiidae).

The Dromiidae of Western Australia are summarized primarily based on specimens from the collection of the Western Australian Museum and some additional material from the Australian Museum, Sydney. The genus Alainodromia McLay 1998, is recorded from Camden Sound, Australia, as a new species Alainodromia dambimangari sp. nov. New evidence suggests that the species of Alainodromia are very likely shell carriers that also have direct development. Five species of Cryptodromia are reported from Western Australia and a new genus, Baccadromia gen. nov., is erected for Dromia (Cryptodromia) bullifera Alcock, 1900. The genus Lamarckdromia Guinot Tavares, 2003 is revised and now includes three species: L. beagle sp. nov., L. excavata (Stimpson, 1858) and L. globosa (Lamarck, 1818). Six species of Dromiidae are new to Australia: Baccadromia bullifera (Alcock, 1900), Cryptodromia amboinensis (De Man, 1888), C. pileifera Alcock, 1901, Epigodromia rotunda McLay, 1993, and Foredromia rostrata McLay, 2002. New records for Western Australia include: Cryptodromia hilgendorfi De Man, 1888, Epigodromia areolata (Ihle, 1913) and Lewindromia unidentata (Rppell, 1830). A total of 31 species of dromiid crabs are now known from Western Australian coast with five species endemic to the state. There are more than 40 species of Dromiidae known from Australia of which about 40% are endemic.

Fibre technologies in Indigenous Australia: Evidence from archaeological excavations in the Kimberley region

The extent to which fibre technology was used in the past is difficult to assess because soft organic remains rarely preserve well. The oldest direct evidence for twisted fibre cordage is dated to between 41 and 52 ka in western Eurasia but indirect evidence suggests that it may have a much greater antiquity. The diverse use of string made from fibres of plants, animal and human hair by Indigenous Australians is well documented but poorly represented in archaeological sites. No fibre remains have been recovered from Pleistocene contexts and they are only rarely recorded in later deposits, usually as isolated fragments. Nineteen pieces of twisted fibre recovered from deposits in two limestone caves, Carpenter’s Gap 1 and Riwi in the southern Kimberley, are made from a variety of raw materials and manufacturing techniques. These same techniques and raw materials are documented in anthropological and historical records and in museum collections, demonstrating a continuity of spun fibre practice from the Mid-to-Late Holocene to the present. A comparison of the archaeological twisted fibres with Kimberley objects incorporating string held in the Western Australian Museum, provides further insight into the technology used by Indigenous Australians before the arrival of Europeans.

The nomenclature and type status of Telicota paceka mesoptis Lower, 1911 (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae)

O. B. Lower described, in 1911, the hesperiine skipper Telicota augias mesoptis Lower, 1911, but he neither stated the number of specimens before him nor designated a holotype. Our investigations indicate that Lower had at least 11 syntypes (7 males, 4 females), which are now registered in the Australian Museum, Sydney and South Australian Museum, Adelaide (SAMA). At least two authors (G. A. Waterhouse in 1933, and M. J. Parsons in 1998) attempted to resolve the taxonomy of mesoptis but neither of them made a valid lectotype designation in that the syntype they specified cannot be located and unambiguously identified to act as the unique type of the taxon. Thus, we designate a male specimen in SAMA (registration number: SAMA Database No. 31-001600) as the lectotype to become the unique bearer of the name mesoptis. This action does not affect the name or rank of the taxon, rather it constitutes a formal subsequent fixation since Lower’s name was introduced 110 years ago. With regard to nomenclature, the taxonomic status of mesoptis has changed several times, both in terms of rank and with the species or genus in which it has been combined. Currently, the correct nomenclature is Telicota paceka mesoptis Lower, 1911 and we recommend that this name be used to designate the Australian population rather than Telicota mesoptis mesoptis Lower, 1911 in which it has been known for the past 87 years (since 1934).

Looking Back to Move Forward: Continuing Community-centric Practices for Conservation and Collection Care of Pacific Collections in an Australian Museum

ABSTRACT The changing role of conservation necessitates the facilitation of space through which spiritual and physical interactions occur. Enabling balance between collections and communities past and present, establishes respect and acknowledgement for diverse cultural knowledge. To formalise this, a Methodology for Cultural Safety and Care was co-developed during the redevelopment of Te Pasifika exhibition at Museums Victoria (2018–2020). The framework looks to the past, to address the inequities in Pasifika representation and voice in cultural collections, then to the present, to create a robust platform for community-centric storytelling in Victoria, Australia, with respect to wider Moana (ocean) values. This centres orality, collaboration and community, drawing from cultural practice, ‘new’ guidelines for collection management, conservation and collections care, while providing a platform for collective Pasifika voices in an Australian context. Access to museum collections by members of a culturally diverse Pasifika diasporic community in Victoria, Australia, is integral to cultural maintenance and community wellbeing. Cultural knowledge continually transcends generations, moulding identities in new contexts, fluidly evolving, while adapting, changing and responding to community needs. The methodology challenges the rigidity of traditional museum ideology. Normalising Indigenous practices and values in a museum context removes distance between all involved and humanises museum practice, benefiting both those who interact with taonga (cultural treasures) and the taonga themselves. Reflecting on the implementation of this methodology, we emphasise the need to elevate cultural values as museum practice, affirming the viability of creating ongoing opportunities for community input.

From Field to Museum – Studies from Melanesia in Honour of Robin Torrence By JimSpecht, ValAttenbrow, and JimAllen. Technical Report of the Australian Museum Online No. 34, 2021. ISSN: 1835‐4211. Pp. 258. Open Source Online.

From Field to Museum – Studies from Melanesia in Honour of Robin Torrence By JimSpecht, ValAttenbrow, and JimAllen. Technical Report of the Australian Museum Online No. 34, 2021. ISSN: 1835‐4211. Pp. 258. Open Source Online.

A review of monotreme (Monotremata) evolution

Advances in dating and systematics have prompted a revision of monotreme evolution to refine the timing of adaptative trends affecting body size and craniodental morphology. The oldest known monotreme, Teinolophos trusleri, is restricted to uppermost Barremian deposits of the Strzelecki Group in Victoria, Australia. Its body mass is estimated at ∼40 g, making it the smallest known monotreme. Teinolophos trusleri likely possessed an electro-sensitive and/or mechano-sensitive ‘bill’ or ‘beak’, which we suggest evolved for insectivory in seasonally dark Early Cretaceous polar forests. During the early Albian–mid-Cenomanian, monotremes diversified in Australia and evolved body masses greater than 4 kg, becoming amongst the largest Mesozoic mammals. A gap of 35 million years subsequently separates the youngest Mesozoic monotremes from the oldest Cenozoic monotreme, Monotrematum sudamericanum, which is a Paleocene stem ornithorhynchid from southern South America. We also hypothesize that tachyglossids originated in Melanesia, perhaps on the emergent Vogelkop landmass, and then dispersed to Australia during the Pliocene-Pleistocene. Finally, we present a classification of Monotremata to include five families—Teinolophidae fam. nov., Kollikodontidae, Steropodontidae, Ornithorhynchidae, and Tachyglossidae. We also propose a new genus, Murrayglossus gen. nov. for a gigantic Pleistocene echidna from southwestern Western Australia. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E39E2644-DADD-49F4-B2B7-47A25C072B07 Timothy F. Flannery [tim.flannery@textpublishing.com.au], Kristofer M. Helgen [Kris.Helgen@Australian.Museum], Australian Museum, 1 William St Sydney 2000, Australia; Thomas H. Rich [trich@museum.vic.gov.au], Tim Ziegler [tziegler@museum.vic.gov.au], Museums Victoria, PO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia; Patricia Vickers-Rich [pat.rich@monash.edu; prich@swin.edu.au], School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia; Swinburne University of Science and Technology, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia; Elizabeth Grace Veatch [elizabeth.veatch@gmail.com], National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013, USA.

Two new species of the genus Gumardee (Marsupialia, Macropodiformes) reveal the repeated evolution of bilophodonty in kangaroos

Two new species of the fossil macropodiform genus Gumardee are described that provide insights into the evolution of early kangaroos. Gumardee has a continuous record from the late Oligocene to the early Miocene and is likely to have become extinct before the middle Miocene. The two new species are the most derived members of the genus. They exhibit some dental size variation, especially in P3/p3, which we interpret as evidence for sexual dimorphism. From the stratigraphically oldest species of Gumardee to the youngest, the dental morphology also shows a progression from bunolophodont to increasingly bilophodont. This trend appears to have occurred in at least four different lineages of macropodoids; however, a fully bilophodont condition was achieved only twice, once in the ancestral lineage of balbarids, and again in ancestral radiation of modern macropodids as implied by the species of Gumardee. Kenny. J. Travouillon [Kenny.Travouillon@museum.wa.gov.au], Western Australian Museum, Locked Bag 49, Welshpool DC, WA, 6986 Australia; Kaylene Butler [kaylene.butler@uqconnect.edu.au ], School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia; Michael Archer [m.archer@unsw.edu.au ], Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, New South Wales 2052, Australia; Suzanne J. Hand [s.hand@unsw.edu.au ], Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, New South Wales 2052, Australia.

A recent specimen of a Tasmanian Boobook Ninox leucopsis recovered on Lord Howe Island

On 11 July 2019, during the Rodent Eradication Program on Lord Howe Island using aerial and ground rodentbaiting, the recovery of dead non-target birds included a recently dead boobook Ninox sp. found on a resident’s property. Two Tyto species were also recovered. Despite automated sound-recording equipment stationed within the forests of the Island, no records of Ninox vocalisations were made before discovery of the boobook specimen; however, two instances of Ninox owl calls were reported anecdotally within The Settlement. There was speculation from some Island residents that the recovered boobook could have been an individual of the extinct endemic subspecies, the Lord Howe Boobook N. novaeseelandiae albaria. The boobook was forwarded to the Australian Museum for further visual scrutiny, collection of morphometric data, DNA analysis, and preparation for the Australian Museum collection. There was overlap in plumage and morphological measurements between both the Tasmanian Boobook (N. leucopsis) and the nominate Tasman Morepork from New Zealand (N. n. novaeseelandiae), but the specimen was distinct from the larger Australian mainland N. boobook. DNA analysis provided conclusive evidence that the bird was a male N. leucopsis, exhibiting an overall clean-white spotted pattern and darker brown coloration. The occurrence of a Ninox species on Lord Howe Island is the first record in more than 50 years and should prompt further exploration of the dispersal and possible migration of boobooks from Tasmania.