Museum staff enjoyed meeting the new residents, such as the Palm Katydid.
Image: Nicole Alley
Source: Museum Victoria
Live Exhibits staff returned from a recent collecting trip to Far North Queensland accompanied by some magnificent tropical creatures. Melbourne Museum staff were introduced to the new acquisitions – including grasshoppers, spiders, beetles, snails and praying mantids – in a special meet-and-greet at the Discovery Centre on 15 December.
Alan Henderson, Jessie Sinclair and Natasha Shadie spent a week searching for new creatures for the museum's Bugs Alive exhibition. They collected every night in the areas around Cairns and Cape Tribulation. “Rainy nights bring the bugs out,” said Jessie. They caught some familiar friends and a few species that are new to the museum. As Alan put it, “something new presents itself on every trip.”
Among this year’s finds was a male huntsman spider, suspected to be a Tiger Huntsman. This species was first discovered by MV staff on a 2006 collecting trip. If it is a Tiger Huntsman, this new individual will help increase the genetic diversity of the museum’s colony. There is also the largest net-casting spider that Alan has seen and a jumping spider that that stalks other spiders in their webs.
One goal of the collection plan was to find a male Palm Katydid which are exceptionally rare. The females are parthenogenetic – or able to produce female offspring without mating – which may explain the scarcity of males. “There’s only one male known in Australian pinned collections,” said Alan, “and they look quite different to the females.” Unfortunately the search didn’t uncover a male, but the team did return with a splendid adult female.
The team also found some large carrion beetles, which perform the gruesome but important task of cleaning up dead animals. The carrion beetles have brilliant orange spots and have already reduced a whole mouse to mere bones in the week since their capture.
Many invertebrates have a short life cycle lasting a year or less, which prompts the annual collections. The new critters will replace the elderly display animals that have reached the end of their lives. The new species and fresh bloodlines will help keep the colonies maintained by Live Exhibits healthy and diverse, too.
But how are so many creatures transported back to the museum? “They travel Air Express in takeaway containers,” explained Manager of Live Exhibits, Luke Simpkin. “They’re carefully packaged up with something to keep them moist and a leaf to hold on to or eat. The main risk is if they don’t have enough space to moult.” Moulting is a critical time that requires the animal to hang perfectly still to allow their new skin to harden properly.
In Queensland it is legal to collect non-protected invertebrate species from public land, whereas collecting from Australian national parks state forests or reserves requires a Collecting Permit. Those interested in collecting should check the rules with their relevant local government authority first.