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Kevin is our Senior Curator of Mammals. He investigates the systematics, evolution and conservation biology of mammals with a particular interest in rodents.

Greetings from the province of Sulawesi Tengah (Central Sulawesi). Last Friday (22 Feb), my colleague, Anang S. Achmadi, and I returned to the city of Palu. Over the past week we hiked into forests around Mount Sojol and Mount Dako along the western coast of the northern peninsula of Sulawesi.

Kuala Besar river east of Malannga Selatan in the foothills of Mount Dako. Our low camp is set along this river.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

Our hike into Mount Sojol led us to exceptional lowland rainforest in the river valley, but we were uncertain about where we would set a high camp along the steep slopes of the mountain. After three days of hiking into the forests around Mount Dako, near the city of Toli Toli, we found a low camp in lowland rainforest along the river, Kuala Besar, at 300 metres elevation. We also found a high camp on the Mount Dako plateau at 1600 metres. The vast plateau stretching for several kilometers north and east of Mount Dako is covered in old growth rainforest.

Lowland rainforest near 1000 metres on the trail up to our high elevation camp Mount Dako plateau.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

The view west towards Toli Toli Bay from the trail up Mount Dako at near 700 metres elevation.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

We returned to Toli Toli on Sunday after collecting supplies and the rest of our field team. We are now a party of ten, including scientists and students from Museum Victoria, Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Padang University in Sumatra, the University of California, Berkeley, and McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. On Monday, we reported to the local police and purchased food and supplies from the Pasar (market).

Our guides on our third day of hiking around Mount Dako. Left to right: Heri, Jamudin and Madi.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

Part of our assembled team in Palu, Sulawesi Tengah, before heading to Toli Toli and our hike into camp. Left to right: Jake Esselstyn (McMaster University), Karen Rowe (Museum Victoria), Jim Patton (UC Berkeley), Carol Patton (UC Berkeley), and Wayne Longmore (Museum Victoria).
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

On Tuesday, we met in the village of Malangga Selatan that is the last village before the western foothills of Mount Dako. Assisted by the strength of 60 local men we began the hike from the village at 200 metres into our camps. The team at low elevation reached their camp at 400 metres by Tuesday evening. To reach the high camp, we climbed all day to reach 1200 metres elevation and stopped for the night on the only patch of flat ground before the plateau. On Wednesday, we continued climbing for several more hours to reach our camp on the plateau at 1600 metres elevation. We will remain in camp until 16 March when we will hike back down to the village. Over the next 18 days we will document all the birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians we encounter.

View Sulawesi Field Team in a larger map

Kevin is our Senior Curator of Mammals. He investigates the systematics, evolution and conservation biology of mammals with a particular interest in rodents.

Greetings from Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (the national zoological museum of Indonesia) in the Indonesian province of Jawa Barat (West Java). This week my colleagues and I are preparing for our expedition to the island of Sulawesi. As always, I am hosted by my friend and collaborator, Anang S. Achmadi, curator of mammals at MZB.

In addition to packing gear, I need to visit several government offices this week to obtain travelling permits. On Monday, I reported to the Indonesian office of research permits, RISTEK, in Jakarta.

Kevin C. Rowe (fifth from left) and Anang S. Achmadi (third from left) with the RISTEK team in their Jakarta office on Monday, 11 February.
Image: Jacob Esselstyn
Source: Museum Victoria  

RISTEK is my official sponsor while I am in Indonesia and they approved my proposed research prior to my departure from Melbourne. On Monday RISTEK provided letters of support to take to Imigrasi (Immigration), Polri (National Police), and Dalam Negeri (Ministry of Home Affairs). Each of these offices will provide documents to allow our travel in Indonesia on research activities.

Anang S. Achmadi reviews the permit procedures at the Polri office in Jakarta.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

On Monday, we successfully submitted our paperwork at both Imigrasi and Polri (Polri PICS). This is my fourth trip to Indonesia for research and the improvement in efficiency over this time has been dramatic. Imigrasi and Polri have seen major renovations and the experience this year is remarkably stress free.

On Tuesday, I moved to Bogor (about an hour south of Java) to work at the museum with Anang while Imigrasi and Polri process my paperwork. Here Anang and I inventoried our gear and reviewed specimens to help us with identifications in the field.

Kevin in front of Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria

Kevin examines a specimen of the spiny, lowland Sulawesi shrew-rat, Echiothrix centrosa, collected in 1975 and held in the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense collection. The species has hardly been seen since, and is a primary target for the expedition.
Image: Anang Achmadi
Source: Museum Victoria  

Wednesday I returned to Jakarta and collected my travelling documents from Imigrasi and Polri. I also visited Dalam Negeri to apply for my travelling permits from their office. By Friday, my paperwork should be complete and Anang and I will fly to the city of Palu in Sulawesi Tengah (central Sulawesi) where the next stage of our expedition begins.

The team are sending us daily GPS coordinates to let us track their progress on a Google map of the expedition.

View Sulawesi Field Team in a larger map 

Mosquitoes are midge-like flies comprising the family Cucilidae. There are over 3,500 species of mosquito described worldwide and most of these require vertebrate blood as the principal portion of the female diet. The blood provides protein for egg development and maturation, and the lipids it contains are an energy source. Females possess elongated piercing and sucking mouthparts for obtaining their blood meals. Males obtain all their energy from sweet fluids such as nectar and honeydew. Since they don't lay eggs, male mosquitoes do not require a protein source and do not bite.

The elongated proboscis of this female mosquito enables it to obtain the protein it requires for egg development and maturation.
Image: sondebueu
Source: sondebueu via cc  

Adult females lay eggs in or near water, commonly on vegetation, a few days after a blood meal. The life cycle includes four larval stages, or instars. Between each instar the larva moults in order to grow. The larvae, or 'wrigglers' (so-called due to their characteristic movement), typically inhabit stagnant water bodies, and must come to the surface periodically to breathe through spiracles or a siphon. The larvae of some species use their mouth bristles to filter water for microorganisms, while others scrape food particles off the surfaces of submerged objects. The pupa does not feed but must come to the surface to breathe through respiratory trumpets.

The mouth bristles, used in filter feeding, are clearly visible on this wriggler. Note also the three body segments and the segmented abdomen.
Image: Tim Blackburn
Source: Museum Victoria  

Female mosquitoes inject saliva that contains an anticoagulant into their host to prevent blood-clotting. The saliva also contains components that cause vasodilation (to increase blood blow) and suppress the immune response of the host (to protect the mosquito). Once the feeding episode ends, the host produces antibodies which trigger a release of histamine. This in turn increases the permeability of adjacent blood vessels, thereby enabling a stronger immune response. The blood vessels swell and this causes the familiar, itchy lump—the 'mozzie bite'.

A female mosquito just after landing on my toe as it commences a blood meal. Note the thin abdomen at the start of the meal.
Image: Tim Blackburn
Source: Museum Victoria  

The same mosquito one minute later. Note the swollen abdomen which is red because it is full of my blood.
Image: Tim Blackburn
Source: Museum Victoria  

Viruses and pathogens are easily transferred between mosquito and host via the saliva. Mosquitoes are serious agents in the transmission of diseases such as dengue and yellow fever, malaria and lymphatic filariasis. In 1996, the World Health Organisation estimated that several million people die each year from mosquito-borne diseases around the world. Each disease is spread by a specific type of mosquito; malaria is spread by Anopheles spp. and dengue fever is primarily spread by Aedes aegypti.

However, mosquito-borne diseases are rare in Victoria, and mosquitoes here are more likely to annoy rather than cause disease. You can prevent bites by wearing insect repellent and protective clothing, and removing breeding sites. Window mesh and mosquito nets also help exclude potentially harmful species, particularly in tropical and subtropical areas. Various plant species such as Citronella Grass, Rosemary, Catnip and Marigolds repel mosquitoes and may be especially useful if planted near doorways and windows. 

Links:

CDC: Mosquito-borne diseases

Vector-borne diseases in Victoria

Like other Australian astronomers last night, I was glued to the computer watching as a fire raged across the Warrumbungle National Park in NSW, home to Australia's world-class optical and infrared telescopes at Sliding Spring Observatory. I think the hardest thing was knowing that it's almost 10 years ago to the day, that fires destroyed the Mt Stromlo Observatory in Canberra. Could this really be happening again?

A truly frightening image, as Australia's largest optical telescope, the Australian Astronomical Telescope (AAT), is engulfed in smoke.
Source: Rural Fire Services  

Fires blaze around cottages in front of the AAT. To the top right of the image are the flames that engulfed the lodge.
Source: FTS webcam  

The glow as the astronomer's lodge is destroyed. Temperatures at the AAT were measured to be over 100 degrees.
Source: FTS webcam  

Thankfully, lessons were learnt from that event and there is much hope that measures put into place may have saved the dozen or so telescopes on the mountain. We'll have to wait and see as the damage is assessed over the next few days.

The good news is that all 18 staff were evacuated safely. Many telescope domes are still standing, as new images come through this morning. The building which has been destroyed was the lodge which provided accommodation for astronomers during their observing runs. 

Electronics were not meant to survive such temperatures.
Source: HATSouth webcam  

The picture I wanted to see today. The AAT dome still stands, but there will be a wait to access how the telescope fared inside.
Source: LCOGT webcam  

Our thoughts are with the community of Coonabarabran and those who have been affected by the fires, and our thanks go out to fire services for their great efforts. 

If the telescopes had been destroyed it would have been devastating for Australian astronomical research, all but ending our ability to do continue doing optical astronomy here. Hundreds of researchers and students rely on those telescopes. And it would also have affected the Coonabarabran community, many of whom rely on the telescopes for their livelihoods too.

Images of the event, many taken from the webcams that are normally used by astronomers to check sky conditions during their nightly observations, tell the story.

The burnt out remains of the astronomers lodge. I have fond memories of Margaret's delicious chocolate pudding, which I would devour there, before heading up to the telescope for the night's observing run!
Source: Rural Fire Services

The square "dome" on the left houses the ANU's 2.3 metre telescope which stayed a comfortable 20 degrees throughout the fire. The dome to the top right is the new SkyMapper telescope, led by Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt and built to continue the work of the Great Melbourne Telescope after it was destroyed in the Mt Stromlo fires. Temperatures there peaked at 65 °C.
Source: Rural Fire Services  

UPDATE: 

The Warrumbungle Shire Council has set up a Warrumbungle Shire Mayor’s Bushfire Appeal with donations being used solely to assist residents affected by the fire. The NSW Rural Fire Service are reporting that some 40 properties and over 110 out-buildings have been confirmed lost as well as a large number of livestock and farm machinery.

Links:

Siding Spring after the fires of January 2013 via Observations Blog, Sydney Observatory

Report from The Australian

Astropixie liveblogging the fire: Sunday night and Monday morning

The apparent decline of the Emperor Gum Moth (EGM), Opodiphthera eucalypti, around Victoria has been a hot topic of debate amongst entomologists and other EGM fans in the last few years.

A newly-emerged male Emperor Gum Moth.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Patrick Honan  

The decline is anecdotal and as yet there is no hard evidence, but theories abound. Many people contact us noting that they don’t see EGM caterpillars anymore, as they did when climbing trees as a kid. Which prompts a question in return: "When did you last climb a tree?"

Male Emperor Gum Moths have enormous feathery antennae used to detect the presence of females.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Museum Victoria  

Another possibility is the demise of the introduced Peppercorn Tree (Schinus molle) in Victoria. Originally from the Peruvian Andes, Peppercorns were planted in every Victorian primary school and many parks from the 1880s to the early 1900s. EGM caterpillars, although feeding naturally on eucalypts, will also consume Silver Birch (Betula pendula) and Liquidambar (Liquidambar styraciflua), as well as Peppercorns. Victorians who went to primary school up until the 1970s would be very familiar with EGM caterpillars feeding on Peppercorns, but the trees have gradually died out or been removed until now there are very few left. Peppercorns are now considered an environmental weed.

State school children planting peppercorn trees in Carlton Gardens, just outside the now Melbourne Museum, on Arbor day, 1905.
Source: Reproduced from Carlton in DPCD report by Lovell Chen  

The colour of adult Emperor Gum Moths varies considerably throughout their range.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Patrick Honan  

Another strong possibility is the intrinsic variation in insect populations. Many species undergo booms and busts, appearing in vast numbers one year then apparently disappearing for several years afterwards, sometimes for a decade or more. These fluctuations are usually climate related, with each species requiring an exact combination of factors (such as a mild winter and a wet summer) in a particular order to afford them a boom year. Perhaps the last couple of decades have not produced the right combination for EGMs, and they’re just waiting for their number to come up.

The dreaded European Wasp. Workers tear EGM caterpillars off trees and cut them into small pieces before transporting them back to the nest.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Patrick Honan  

One of the most popular theories is attack by European Wasps (Vespula germanica) on EGM caterpillars. Caterpillars are a favoured prey of European Wasps, and they can do enormous damage when present in large numbers. However, somewhat ironically, after reaching plague proportions in the 1980s and 90s, wasp populations have dropped dramatically in the last 15 years or so, again for no discernible reason other than a possible combination of environmental factors.

An Emperor Gum Moth caterpillar feeding on Eucalyptus species.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Patrick Honan  

In the end, any decline of EGMs probably comes down to habitat loss. The number of host gum trees has steadily reduced in urban areas in particular, but also in suburban areas and even rural towns. If fewer trees are available, there will naturally be fewer caterpillars. So if you’re missing these iconic caterpillars, the best strategy is to plant a gum tree.

Young EGM caterpillars look very different to older caterpillars, but their presence is a possible sign of a healthy local environment.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Patrick Honan  

But these theories are, at this stage, pure speculation. EGMs are still around, if you know where to look. A Museum Victoria Bioscan at Wilson’s Promontory in 2011 attracted hundreds of EGM adults (as well as the closely related Helena Gum Moth, Opodiphthera helena) to light traps at night. And just last month, a dozen EGM caterpillars were on display in the Forest Gallery at Melbourne Museum. Plans are underway to assess the extent of the EGM decline in Victoria, so stay tuned for further developments.

Further reading:

Coupar, P. & Coupar, M., 1992, Flying Colours – Common Caterpillars, Butterflies and Moths of South-Eastern Australia, NSW University Press, 119pp.

Common, I.F.B., 1990, Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 535pp.

Zborowski, P. & Edwards, T., 2007, A Guide to Australian Moths, CSIRO Publishing, 214pp.

The Giant Grasshopper is so named for being the largest grasshopper in Australia. The adult's body length, however, varies from an enormous 90mm to less than half that size. This gives it the scientific name Valanga irregularis, referring not only to the irregular colouration but also the irregular length. People who know the species well simply call it Valanga.

The mottled grey form of the Giant Grasshopper, common around Townsville, North Queensland.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Museum Victoria  

Unlike many of the better-known grasshoppers, this species feeds not on grass but on the leaves of shrubs and trees. They have a very variable diet, ranging from native plants to citrus, cotton, coconut and even coffee plants. This makes them a minor pest in some areas, due to their occasional habit of consuming every leaf on a food plant when present in large numbers.

The spectacular brown version of the Giant Grasshopper common around Iron Range, North Queensland.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Museum Victoria  

Giant Grasshopper nymphs change colour with each moult, varying from light green to a spectacular red with blue stripes. The eggs are laid in batches of up to 150 within 'pods', made of a frothy substance that hardens upon drying. The eggs are sometimes attacked by a tiny parasitic wasp (Scelio flavicornis), which lays its own eggs inside the grasshopper's eggs, the wasp grubs feeding on the embryo within.

Left: A young nymph. Right: An older bright green nymph.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Museum Victoria  

Adult grasshoppers are very sensitive to movement and will leap away at the slightest disturbance. They can fly upwards as high as two metres, then horizontally in a straight line until they hit the ground. However, Giant Grasshoppers tire easily and the length decreases rapidly with each consecutive leap.

A close encounter with a Giant Grasshopper from the Northern Territory.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Museum Victoria  

Giant Grasshoppers occur across the top of Australia and there are a number of closely related species, at least four of which are undescribed. They are all very difficult to distinguish from each other, due to variations in most of the important characteristics, including size.

A captive adult Giant Grasshopper satisfies its ravenous appetite with Orthopteran mix.
Image: Patrick Honan
Source: Museum Victoria  

This species survives very well in captivity, feeding on a combination of fish flakes, grass seed, muesli, and pollen (known as Orthopteran mix). Unlike other insect species, they show no signs of inbreeding – a single mated female may be sole progenitor to tens of thousands of descendants over many generations without a single sign of genetic deformities.

The Habitats exhibit, home of the Giant Grasshopper and many other spectacular creatures in Bugs Alive!
Source: Museum Victoria  

Giant Grasshoppers can be seen in the Habitats exhibit in Bugs Alive! at Melbourne Museum.