News 2022

Anthrenus Beetle Damage

Help The C.V.R.I.C To Avoid This……
 
The Anthrenus beetle infests insect collections and effectively destroys specimens. The use of fumigants like Camphor can stop them. Here is what the damage looks like and you can even see the cast-off skin of the larval stage still hanging on the specimen.
 
Help us to control this damage by supporting us here:

The Diversity of Ants

Diversity Of Ants

An Example of Australian Ant Diversity

 

To give you an idea of the wonderful diversity among the ants of Australia, here is a scanning electron microscope image of Myrmecia brevinoda with Carebara atoma (small ant) sitting on its eye!

 

Why Just Ants?

Why Just Ants?

Our first practical use for the C.V.R.I.C will be a joint research paper between

Dr Jenny Shield and the collections curator, Bert Candusio to correlate the regions ants to the regions ant mimicking spiders of the family Zodariidae.

This project will provide a better understanding of the relationships between different groups of invertebrates within a habitat.

To do this, the C.V.R.I.C ant holdings must be imaged, identified and databased.

Ants Away!

 

Labelling

Labelling

 We use really, really small letter printing for our specimen labels.

 

Tehoma font / Size 3 on Acid Free card.

Take a peek.

 

First Research Project

DOCUMENTING THE INSECTS AND SPIDERS OF NORTH CENTRAL VICTORIA

J Sheild1           bc1
Dr Jenny Shield             Bert Candusio

Overall Aim:

To document the insects and spiders of Central Victoria one group at a time.
Short term aims:
To document the Hymenoptera (Ants and Wasps).
To document the ant-mimicing spiders: Zodariidae (Ant-eating spiders).
1. Description of undescribed species. Many species of Australian Zodariidae have been described in recent years by Dr Barbara Baehr and others. Yet there are still undescribed species in Central Victoria. This will involve taxonomic work and description of these currently undescribed species and publishing them in taxonomic journals and/or collaborating with other entomologists/arachnologists who are working on these groups to have them described.
2. Database based on the specimens in the collection to begin to define where each species occurs and publish online.
3. Photographic documentation of each species.
 
References:
Shield JM and Harrison S. Invertebrate biodiversity conservation education: experience in a Bendigo primary school. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 1994; 36: 197-201.
Shield JM and Strudwick J. Diasterea, a new genus of flower spider (Thomisidae: Thomisinae) from Eastern Australia and a description of the male Diasterea lactea. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victora 1999; 111:271-281.
Shield JM. Spiders (Araneae) of irrigated pasture with and without shelterbelt of native vegetation near Cohuna, Victoria. Records of the South Australian Museum Monograph Series 2003; No. 7:187-191.
Shield JM. Spiders of Bendigo and Victoria’s Box Ironbark Country. Bendigo: Bendigo Field Naturalists Club, 2001.
Candusio, B. 1996, 'Ecology of forest vertebrates in Central Victoria', Park Watch, vol. March, pp. 23-25.