Mark Stevens

South Australian Museum · Terrestrial Invertebrates

Coadaptation of mitochondrial and nuclear genes is essential for proper cellular function. When populations become isolated, theory predicts that they should maintain mito‐nuclear coadaptation in each population, even as they diverge in genotype. Mito‐nuclear incompatibilities may therefore arise when individuals from populations with divergent co‐...

Despite only 0.3% of Antarctica being ice-free, those areas harbor diverse small organisms such as tardigrades, nematodes, and rotifers. The habitats of these cryptic organisms face threats from human activity, climate change, and pollution. Biodiversity surveys are essential for managing their protection and such surveys have been proven well poss...

Insects have a complex coevolutionary history with bacterial symbionts, among which Wolbachia pipientis stands out for its prevalence and role in reproductive manipulation. Wolbachia can induce cytoplasmic incompatibility, feminisation, male killing, and parthenogenesis, greatly influence the population genetics of their hosts and are potential dri...

Determining the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that underpin patterns of species richness across elevational gradients is a key question in evolutionary ecology, and can help to understand species extinction risk under changing climates. In the tropical montane islands of Fiji, there are 28 species of endemic bee in the subgenus Lasioglossu...

Large parts of the Pacific were thought to host low bee diversity. In Fiji alone, our recent estimates of native bee diversity have rapidly increased by a factor of five (from 4 to >22). Here, we show how including sampling of the forest canopy has quickly uncovered a new radiation of Hylaeus (Hymenoptera: Colletidae) bees in Fiji. We also show tha...

Background Antarctica and its unique biodiversity are increasingly at risk from the effects of global climate change and other human influences. A significant recent element underpinning strategies for Antarctic conservation has been the development of a system of Antarctic Conservation Biogeographic Regions (ACBRs). The datasets supporting this cl...

The majority of islands surrounding the Antarctic continent are poorly characterized in terms of microbial macroecology due to their remote locations, geographical isolation and access difficulties. The 2016/2017 Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) provided unprecedented access to a number of these islands. In the present study we use metag...

The terrestrial amphipod Puhuruhuru patersoni (Amphipoda: Talitridae) was discovered on sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island in 1992. The species is only known to naturally occur on New Zealand’s South Island and some associated offshore islands. The possible routes by which the species was introduced to Macquarie Island have previously been considered b...

The origin of terrestrial biota in Antarctica has been debated since the discovery of springtails on the first historic voyages to the southern continent more than 120 years ago. A plausible explanation for the long-term persistence of life requiring ice-free land on continental Antarctica has, however, remained elusive. The default glacial eradica...

Split sex ratios provide broad insights into how reproductive strategies evolve, and historically have special relevance to the evolution of eusociality. Yet almost no attention has been directed to situations where split sex ratios may potentially decrease the payoffs for worker-like behaviour, increasing selective thresholds for eusociality. We e...

16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing is routinely used in environmental surveys to identify microbial diversity and composition of the samples of interest. The dominant sequencing technology of the past decade (Illumina) is based on the sequencing of 16S rRNA hypervariable regions. Online sequence data repositories, which represent an invaluable resou...

Signatories to the Antarctic Treaty System’s Environmental Protocol are committed to preventing incursions of non-native species into Antarctica, but systematic surveillance is rare.Environmental DNA (eDNA) methods provide new opportunities for enhancing detection of non-native species and biosecurity monitoring. To be effective for Antarctic biose...

The tube-web spider genus Ariadna Audouin, 1826 has been revised for South Australia and Victoria, revealing a remarkable diversity, particularly centred in the arid north of South Australia. We describe 23 species as new, ten of which are supported by molecular data, where these were available. We recognise two species groups for some of the speci...

Antarctic conservation science is crucial for enhancing Antarctic policy and understanding alterations to terrestrial Antarctic biodiversity. Antarctic conservation will have limited long‐term impacts in the absence of large‐scale biodiversity data, but if such data were available, it is likely to improve environmental protection regimes. To enable...

Temperature and water availability are hypothesised to be important abiotic drivers of the evolution of metabolic rates and gas exchange patterns, respectively. Specifically, the metabolic cold adaptation hypothesis (MCA) predicts that cold environments select for faster metabolic rates to counter the thermodynamics of biochemical reactions while t...

Two new species, Abantiades concordia sp. nov. and Abantiades malleus sp. nov., are described from Australia. Both species were collected in the Eastern Goldfields subregion of the Coolgardie bioregion in Western Australia. Abantiades concordia sp. nov. is shown to be closely related to A. paradoxa (Tindale, 1932) by sequence similarity of the mtDN...

The benefits of living in groups drive the evolution of sociality, and these benefits could vary across a life-cycle. However, there may be experimental problems in linking group size at one time in a life-cycle to benefits that only become apparent later on when group size has changed, leading to what we call "temporal dissonance". In the only kno...

Mitochondrial heteroplasmy is the occurrence of more than one type of mitochondrial DNA within a single individual. Although generally reported to occur in a small subset of individuals within a species, there are some instances of widespread heteroplasmy across entire populations. Amphylaeus morosus is an Australian native bee species in the diver...

The genus Ariadna Audouin, 1826 is revised for Tasmania to include 13 species, ten of which are described as new: Ariadna abbreviata sp. nov., A. alta sp. nov., A. amabilia sp. nov., A. crypticola sp. nov., A. ferrogrisea sp. nov., A. fragilis sp. nov., A. gonzo sp. nov., A. muscosa Hickman, 1929, A. segmentata Simon, 1893, A. subnubilum sp. nov.,...

Antarctica has been isolated and progressively glaciated for over 30 million years, with only approximately 0.3 % of its area currently ice-free and capable of supporting terrestrial ecosystems. As a result, invertebrate populations have become isolated and fragmented, in some cases leading to speciation. Terrestrial invertebrate species currently...

Understanding how nest parasites contribute to brood mortality rates in host species is an important step towards uncovering the potential implications for host behaviour. This can be especially important for understanding the evolution of social living, where defence against parasites is often posited as a major benefit of cooperative nesting. Onl...

Antarctic conservation science is important to enhance Antarctic policy and to understand alterations of terrestrial Antarctic biodiversity. Antarctic conservation will have limited long-term effect in the absence of large-scale biodiversity data, but if such data were available, it is likely to improve environmental protection regimes. To enable A...

There is substantial debate about the relative roles of climate change and human activities on biodiversity and species demographies over the Holocene. In some cases, these two factors can be resolved using fossil data, but for many taxa such data are not available. Inferring historical demographies of taxa has become common, but the methodologies...

Abantiades penneshawensis Moore & Beaver sp. nov. and Abantiades rubrus Moore & Beaver sp. nov. are described as new. Both species are endemic to Kangaroo Island, and although both are related to species that occur on the Australian mainland and other islands, they are distinguished from those sister and phenotypically similar species by morphology...

The pan‐Antarctic distributions of several collembolan species have been supported by morphology for over 120 years. However, for most species where molecular data are available, these are now known to belong instead to several species, and most classified as short‐range endemics. One such species, Friesea grisea, had a pan‐Antarctic distribution t...

Super-generalism is a pollinator trait where species obtain floral resources from a very wide range of plant species. Theoretical and empirical studies suggest that on islands with low pollinator diversity, such pollinators should evolve to exploit a very wide range of floral morphologies. Super-generalism has implications not only for securing pol...

Anthropogenic climate change and invasive species are two of the greatest threats to biodiversity, affecting the survival, fitness and distribution of many species around the globe. Invasive species are often expected to have broad thermal tolerances, be highly plastic, or have high adaptive potential when faced with novel environments. Tropical is...

Low-light adapted bees are substantially understudied components of the bee fauna, particularly in Aus-tralia. Whilst several species in Australia are thought to be adapted to low-light conditions, explicit records of these taxa actually foraging at twilight or night are absent from the scientific literature. We present the first observations of Au...

As global biodiversity declines, there is an increasing need to create an educated and engaged society. Having people of all ages participate in measuring biodiversity where they live helps to create awareness. Recently, the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) for biodiversity surveys has gained momentum. Here, we explore whether sampling eDNA and sequ...

Abantiades cephalocorvus sp. nov. and Abantiades tembyi sp. nov. are described, along with the previously undescribed females of A. macropusinsulariae Simonsen, 2018 and A. pallida Simonsen, 2018. All of these species belong to a triforked Abantiades Herrich-Schäffer clade that is loosely centred around the Nullarbor and other arid regions of Austr...

Gasteruption is an easily recognized genus of wasps whose larvae are predator-inquilines in the nests of cavity-nesting solitary bees (Apidae, Colletidae, Halictidae and Megachilidae), with some records for solitary wasps as hosts (Crabronidae, Vespidae and Sphecidae). There is conflicting information about the biology and host associations for the...

Four new Aenetus Herrich-Schäffer species are described from northern Australasia; Aenetus simonseni sp. nov. from the top-end of the Northern Territory, Australia, A. maiasinus sp. nov. from the Kimberley region of Western Australia, A. trigonogrammus sp. nov. from south-eastern Queensland, Australia, and A. albadamanteum sp. nov. from eastern Pap...

The subterranean islands hypothesis for calcretes of the Yilgarn region in Western Australia applies to many stygobitic (subterranean–aquatic) species that are “trapped” evolutionarily within isolated aquifers due to their aquatic lifestyles. In contrast, little is known about the distribution of terrestrial–subterranean invertebrates associated wi...

A distinct group of Abantiades Herrich-Schäffer species is here confirmed as a valid clade that we refer to as the “dark obscura clade” supported by morphological and mtDNA evidence. The clade is the sister group of A. obscura Simonsen of north-western Australia and comprises four new species: Abantiades centralia sp. nov., A. kayi sp. nov., A. zon...

Background: As global biodiversity declines, there is an increasing need to create an educated and engaged society. Having people from all ages participate in measuring biodiversity where they live helps to create awareness. Recently, the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) for biodiversity surveys has gained momentum. Here, we test whether sampling eD...

Gasteruptiidae Ashmead is an easily recognised family of wasps with circa 589 described species worldwide. Although well characterised by traditional taxonomy, multiple authors have commented on the extreme morphological uniformity of the group, making species-level identification difficult. This problem is enhanced by the lack of molecular data an...

Island biogeography explores how biodiversity in island ecosystems arises and is maintained. The topographical complexity of islands can drive speciation by providing a diversity of niches that promote adaptive radiation and speciation. However, recent studies have argued that phylogenetic niche conservatism, combined with topographical complexity...

The halictine bee genus Homalictus (Apoidea: Halictidae) is distrib- uted broadly across south east Asia, Indonesia, Australia and the archipelagos of the Pacific. The group is well represented in the bee faunas of Australia and Papua New Guinea, but Homalictus is parti- cularly important in the Pacific where it plays a keystone pollination role as...

Chironomids are a formidable indicator taxon, as they are globally ubiquitous, can tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions, and can occur in high numbers in anthropogenically impaired environments where other indicator taxa are not encountered. Biomonitoring is frequently performed through analyzing species composition, abundance and morp...

Three new species of ghost moth, Oxycanus ephemerous sp. nov., O. flavoplumosus sp. nov., and O. petalous sp. nov. are described from South Australia, New South Wales, and southwest Western Australia, respectively. We illustrate these species and compare morphological and molecular (mtDNA COI gene) characters with similar Oxycanus Walker, 1856 spec...

The Gasteruptiidae are an easily recognised family of wasps whose larvae are considered predator-inquilines in the nests of solitary bees and wasps. There has been minimal molecular research on the family and as a result little understanding of the evolutionary relationships within the group. We present the first molecular phylogeny focused on Gast...

The genus Homalictus Cockerell has not been taxonomically reviewed in the Fijian archipelago for 40 years. Here we redescribe the four known species and describe nine new ones, bringing the number of endemic Homalictus in Fiji to 13 species. We provide identifications keys to all species. Most of the species diversity (11 species) have their distri...

A new mutillid wasp, Ephutomorpha tyla Hearn, Williams & Parslow sp. nov., is described from adult female and male specimens from the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria, Australia. Adult mutillids were repeatedly found in nests of the hylaeine bee Amphylaeus morosus (Smith, 1879) (Hylaeinae) and reared from host nest cells. This represents the first reco...

A new species of Cerdistus was collected from Minnawarra in South Australia. Herein we describe Cerdistus londti sp. nov., with the addition of SEM images. Specimens of this species from two localities in South Australia were keyed out and we also include DNA (COI) barcodes for comparison to other species belonging to the Cerdistus/Neoitamus comple...

Aim We investigated turnover and richness in Antarctic springtails to understand large‐scale patterns in soil faunal diversity and how these are altered by biological invasions. Location Antarctica and the Southern Ocean Islands. Taxon Collembola (springtails). Methods We developed a database of all springtail species recorded from the Antarctic...

In isolated islands with low pollinator diversity, it has been suggested that native pollinators should evolve into super-generalists that could facilitate the spread of exotic plant species that might otherwise rely on specialist pollinators. Consequently, in the absence of exotic pollinators isolated islands may still be particularly vulnerable t...

Invertebrates are a major component of terrestrial ecosystems, however, estimating their biodiversity is challenging. We compiled an inventory of invertebrate biodiversity along an elevation gradient on the temperate forested island of Hauturu, New Zealand, by DNA barcoding of specimens obtained from leaf litter samples and pitfall traps. We compar...

We analyse COI sequence data from 140 specimens of the Australian ‘tripectinate‐Abantiades’ to explore the group's molecular diversity and identify potential taxonomic challenges for future studies. A recent taxonomic revision raised the number of species in the group from three to 10. Our results generally agree with that study, but we identify fu...

In isolated islands with low pollinator diversity, it has been suggested that native pollinators should evolve into super-generalists that could facilitate the spread of exotic plant species that might otherwise rely on specialist pollinators. Consequently, in the absence of exotic pollinators isolated islands may still be particularly vulnerable t...

Integrative taxonomic approaches are increasingly providing species-level resolution to 'cryptic' diversity. In the absence of an integrative taxonomic approach, formal species validation is often lacking because of inadequate morphological diagnoses. Colouration and chaetotaxy are the most commonly used characters in collembolan taxonomy but can c...

Klug [J.C.F.] has been rediscovered in the mid-north of South Australia. The species was thought to be locally extinct from South Australia since 1948 when it was last seen flying by F.M. Angel and N.B. Tindale near Two Wells, 20 km north of Adelaide. We compared adult males and females from the mid-north population with S. selene from the type loc...

• Species distribution modelling (SDM) has been applied to multiple bee species to examine how they may respond to future climate change. Those studies indicate a variety of likely responses to a warming climate. No SDM approaches, however, have been undertaken for arid‐adapted bees, despite their enormous diversity in xeric habitats. • We applied...

Parasitoid wasps of the subfamily Hyptiogastrinae (Gasteruptiidae) are known to lay eggs in the nests of solitary bees and wasps. Their larvae are considered predator-inquilines, consuming the host’s eggs and larvae and then the nest provisions. Pseudofoenus extraneus is endemic to Fiji, and the only member of the subfamily Hyptiogastrinae known to...

The Australian buzz pollinating bee Amegilla pulchra (Anthophorini) is now widespread in Fiji and represents a potentially major change to plant‐pollinator networks. The introduction of a buzz pollinator into the Fijian ecosystem, which has no native buzz pollinators, may have especially important consequences because many pan‐tropical weed species...

A new Gasteruption Latreille species, G. tomanivi, is described from Viti Levu, Fiji. The new species is the first record of the genus for Fiji and can be distinguished from other Oceanian Gasteruption species by the length of the mesosoma and the large malar space compared with the length of the pedicel. DNA Barcode (mtDNA—COI) sequence is provide...

Over a century ago microfaunal diversity was first recorded by James Murray in lakes at Cape Royds, Ross Island, Antarctica. The report stands as the seminal study for today’s biodiversity investigations, and as a baseline to evaluate changes in faunal communities and introductions. In the present study, Cape Royds lakes were revisited and the mito...

The taxonomic status of lineages within the Australian allodapine bees has been unstable over the last six decades, with multiple changes in generic and subgeneric assignments. This is unhelpful given the continuing attention to these bees for understanding social evolution and biogeography. The Australian genus Exoneurella (Michener, 1963 Hymenopt...

Traditional species delimitation only based on morphological diagnostics does not fully meet the needs of modern taxonomy. Cryptic diversity revealed by molecular evidence has been increasingly discovered in many groups; however, subsequent species description is often lacking because of inadequate taxonomy and being devoid of operational criteria....

The success of invading plants in island ecosystems has often been inferred to result from 'invader complexes', where cointroduced plants and their specialist pollinators can reciprocally enhance each other's spread. However, it has also been suggested that in islands with low pollinator diversity, those pollinators should evolve into super-general...

Australia was once thought to be a biodiversity desert when considering the subterranean world however, recent work has revealed a fascinating collection of cave creatures, many with surprising biogeographic histories. This has especially been so in the karstic regions of north-western Australia (Cape Range peninsula, Barrow Island, Pilbara), which...

Background The New Zealand collembolan genus Holacanthella contains the largest species of springtails (Collembola) in the world. Using Illumina technology we have sequenced and assembled a draft genome and transcriptome from Holacanthella duospinosa (Salmon). We have used this annotated assembly to investigate the genetic basis of a range of trait...