Last month I was given the opportunity to attend the inaugural Australasian Invertebrate Conference held in Melbourne. The conference brought together Australian researchers, butterfly breeders and other invertebrate keepers for the first time to learn and discuss a wide range of topics about invertebrate biology, husbandry and display.
Australia is home to approximately 1200 recorded species of ants. Some of these will occasionally wander into people’s houses and make them their own. One group of ants are commonly known as 'Carpenter Ants' due to their association with wood, but belong to a larger group of species (a genus) called Camponotus.
It not just humans that have had to face challenges from the recent flooding in Eastern Australia. An enquirer near Grafton has sent some interesting photos showing how the regions spiders have handled the rising water levels.
Slightly larger than a Common Garden Snail, Fraser's Rainforest Snail, Sphaerospira fraseri, is a native species of land snail that inhabits wet forested habitat of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. Very little of its natural history is known, except that it feeds on fungi and rotting vegetation. By keeping and breeding this species in captivity the Australian Museum are reducing the need for wild snails to be collected for display. The following paper was written to describe the breeding events and the details of the species captive care at the Australian Museum.
