Research

Research

Zoology Unit staff engage in research on a wide range of topics relevant to the collections and to the fauna of Tasmania and Australia more generally. They publish their findings in peer-reviewed academic journals.

For example, Dr Catherine Byrne conducts research on Australian native moths in the family Geometridae (earth measurers or loopers). She is currently working on revisions of four genera of geometrids: the Western Australian Omoplatica, mainland Lipogya and two genera found in Tasmania as well as mainland Australia, Nisista and Scioglyptis, with descriptions of approximately 15 new species. She is also continuing her work on a sub-family of the Geometridae that are well-represented in the montane areas of Tasmania, the Archiearinae, by supervising a revision of the genera Acalyphes and Dirce, including two new species.

Dr Simon Grove is formally describing a new species of Tasmanian hoverfly, and has designs on describing several more undescribed insects and molluscs from the collections. He has recently compiled and published a checklist of Tasmanian beetles, and hopes to progressively publish similar checklists for the Orders comprising the rest of Tasmania’s insect fauna.

The Zoology Unit also regularly receives visits from Australian and international researchers interested in making use of the collections for their scientific research.  Some researchers are long-term collaborators. For example, Dr Dave de Little is revising the Tasmanian species of a genus of leaf-beetle Paropsisterna, including describing a new species that has recently been recognised as a pest of exotic eucalypts in Ireland.