Search

Pollination is the crucial stage for reproduction and survival of plants, therefore knowledge about the bionomics of pollinators is often critical for plant conservation. Bowenia spectabilis (Cycadales: Stangeriaceae) is a CITES-protected cycad species endemic to the Wet Tropics Bioregion of Queensland, Australia. It is pollinated by a host-specific weevil species, Miltotranes prosternalis (Lea, 1929) (Curculionidae: Molytinae), which breeds in its male cones but also visits its female cones and pollinates them. The association between the cycad and the weevil is an obligate brood-site reward pollination system, in which the weevil is provided with food and a brood site by the plant in "return" for the service of pollinating it. To facilitate the knowledge of the natural history of this unique Bowenia pollinator, we developed a method for rearing mature larvae of M. prosternalis collected from the field in the laboratory. Furthermore, we summarize biological information of M. prosternalis gathered from previous studies and by firsthand observations in the wild and during rearing in captivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detailed information on life history and ecology is essential for successful conservation and management. However, we have relatively little detailed data on the life history and ecology of most small lizard species, relative to other vertebrates, especially those that have undergone recent taxonomic changes. We studied the ecology of the elegant snake-eyed skink (Cryptoblepharus pulcher), a lizard that occurs on trees, fences, walls, and rock outcroppings in eastern Australia that spans temperate to tropical environments. In our temperate-zone study population living in natural habitat, individuals are active year-round, and gravid females were found during the months of September through December. Sexual maturity is reached in 12 months, lifespan is at least three years, and clutch size is typically two eggs. In laboratory incubation experiments, larger eggs were more likely to hatch. Low incubation temperatures (averaging 23 ± 7.5°C versus high temperatures averaging 26 ± 7.5°C) increased incubation duration significantly (range 56–72 days versus 40–51 days) and reduced the body size of hatchlings significantly (17.8 mm versus 18.7 mm snout–vent length). Skinks sheltered beneath small rocks that were not shared simultaneously with predatory snakes, and that reached average temperatures that were up to 3°C warmer during the day than unused rocks. Preferred microhabitats include substrates of rock or soil, and the largest rocks were occasionally shared by up to four individuals of all body size/sex combinations (5.8% of observations were shared, 30.2% of individual rocks were shared). Our study expands upon knowledge of the widespread genus Cryptoblepharus by providing detailed life history and ecological information on C. pulcher that can serve as a baseline for future studies. Understanding the natural history of species is essential for successful conservation and management. Our study investigates the life history and ecology of elegant snake-eyed skinks (Cryptoblepharus pulcher) in south-eastern Australia. This species reaches maturity within one year, has a lifespan of at least three years, has an average clutch size of two eggs, and shelters under rocks that are warmer than unused rocks, and occasionally shared with conspecifics, but not predatory snakes. Photo by David A. Pike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The usefulness of the concept of biotic nativeness has been challenged in both the social and natural sciences, for different reasons. This paper explores the particular construction of nativeness in Australia in relation to plants, showing that the definition builds on and inscribes more deeply the boundary between humans and the rest of nature seen in the wider literature. In this context two further boundaries are etched: between some humans and others, and before and after European colonisation. Such a use of nativeness as an axiom of environmental management is argued to be problematic, foreclosing a number of future options just when we need to increase our capacity to deal with contingency and unpredictability. But if Australia has experienced distinctive historical processes of entrenching these boundaries, it also has a distinctive heritage of destabilisation in a range of geographic work. The paper discusses how we might build on this heritage to imagine more open futures in which the problematic boundaries were removed. Some of these futures resonate with vernacular recombinations of plants from diverse origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]