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2nd MABA EVENT and 3rd ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2025​

 

The second MABA event and third annual general meeting was held in Melbourne, Victoria over the weekend 28–30 March 2025. Four different activities were held over the weekend, which were attended by members and friends from the Entomological Society of Victoria (ESV) and Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (FNCV).

 

The event started on Friday evening at Pound Bend Reserve, Warrandyte State Park where the ESV ran a well organised field trip to study moths. Five light traps, featuring LED and mercury vapour lamps, were established around the main carpark near the bank of the Yarra River. ESV members Anthony Kurek, Axel Kallies (also President of MABA), Kurtise Templeton, James Peake and Francecso Martoni did a superb job coordinating and setting up the light traps, which were run by batteries or portable generators. The weather was excellent, being warm, calm and slightly overcast, and despite the dry conditions a high diversity of moths were attracted to the light sheets.

 

The talks program was held on Saturday in the hall of the FNCV in Blackburn, about 17 km east of the CBD. This well-attended activity commenced with a keynote presentation by Dr Robert Hoare from Landcare Research, Aukland, New Zealand who presented a fascinating and stimulating talk entitled “The lure of the Siren Bewitcher: hidden riches amongst New Zealand’s depauperate Lepidoptera fauna”. Robert noted that New Zealand’s highly idiosyncratic Lepidoptera fauna is surprisingly different from that of Australia, with 90% endemism at the species level. Almost every family shared between the two countries is far more diverse in Australia, as would be expected for a landmass 29 times the size of her neighbour, and one that has suffered less in the way of cataclysmic geological events and climatic cooling. Indeed, many almost worldwide families are surprisingly absent from New Zealand (apart from the odd adventive species), for example, Opostegidae, Incurvariidae, Heliozelidae, Lyonetiidae, Bucculatricidae, Sesiidae, Zygaenidae, Limacodidae, Pieridae, Hesperiidae, Drepanidae and Lasiocampidae. But a few groups do seem to be more diverse in New Zealand than Australia—notable amongst these are the primitive Micropterigidae and the endemic family Mnesarchaeidae. Another very peculiar example is the Dryadaulidae, a family recently separated from the Tineidae. Robert explained what defines a dryadaulid, and how Alfred Philpott (1870-1930), an Assistant Condenser at a Milk Preserving Works, went on to make a stunning contribution to their study by dissecting the male genitalia. He also discussed the unexpected diversity of New Zealand Dryadaulidae compared to Australia and the possible reasons for their success.

 

Robert’s presentation was followed by a series of shorter talks by 16 members on a wide array of taxa and topics, including systematics, taxonomy and conservation of sun loving moths (Heliozelidae) (by Axel Kallies, Don Sands, Mengjie Jin), sedge moths (Glyphipterigidae) (by Thekla Pleines), Scopariinae (by Abbey Throssell) and sun moths (Castniidae) (by Axel Kallies). After lunch there were six talks on butterflies, which included presentations on the evolutionary relationships of sedge-skippers Hesperilla (Hesperiidae) (by Ziyang (William) Liu), conservation of the endangered Golden Rayed-blue Candalides noelkeri (Lycaenidae) (by Jessie Sinclair), obligate associations of lycaenids with arboreal Anonychomyrma ants and their dependency on old-growth trees (by Michael Braby), food plants and life history of the Tasmanian Brown Argynnina hobartia (Nymphalidae) (by Ross Field), butterfly migration (by Shawan Chowdhury) and an update on the Butterflies Australia database (by Chris Sanderson). Some very interesting talks were given during the last session of the day, most notable being elucidation of the life history of the giant wood moth Endoxyla cinereus (Cossidae) and its interaction with scale insect galls Apiomorpha (by Jessa Thurman) and a new project that is attempting to resolve the taxonomy of the Ochrogaster lunifer complex (Notodontidae) (by Nicole McMullen). Samantha Edley spoke about management issues of carob moths in commercial almonds, and Roger Kitching provided an update of a forthcoming book entitled Moths of Australia: A Natural History. This book has over 40 contributors and is expected to be published in early 2026 by CABI & the Royal entomological Society of London.

 

During the talks program, a second-hand book stall was held in the main foyer of the FNCV hall. Lynette Aitchison did another amazing job managing all the sales and giveaways – we cleared over 50 books from the libraries of Geoff Monteith, Ted Edwards and Tim New that had been gifted to MABA.

 

The day concluded with the AGM, which was followed by a banquet dinner held at Enrik's Restaurant in Blackburn. At the AGM, Andrew Atkins was elected as an honorary Life Member of MABA under Article IV, Section 5 of the Constitution.

 

On Sunday morning, a busy moth workshop was held in the FNCV hall run jointly by Axel Kallies and Andreas Zwick. The workshop involved a combination of processing moths (pinning and setting) that were caught at the light traps, and learning about the morphology of Lepidoptera to enable identification to family level.

 

Overall, the event was a great success, being well attended by 60 people, including 36 members from MABA, 19 members from the ESV and/or FNCV, and 5 guests. We plan to continue running these events approximately every 18 months, with the next event scheduled for Canberra in spring 2026.

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2nd MABA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2024

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Evolution of the Australian Lepidoptera: survival in an arid continent
 

Dr Cathy Byrne (Senior Curator of Zoology, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery) presented an intriguing and stimulating talk on the evolution of the diverse Australian Lepidoptera fauna, from its early beginnings in a moist Gondwanan environment to the present time in which it thrives in a dry, mostly arid and isolated continent. The Lepidoptera are a megadiverse order of insects, with an estimated 180,000 species globally, which represents 10% of all animals. Cathy highlighted some of the key innovations, adaptions and life history strategies that have led to the remarkable success of this diverse group of insects, including scales, proboscis, epiphysis and prolegs. The scales are found only in moths and butterflies, and they provide insulation, repel water, and the means by which they can escape from natural enemies (e.g. through camouflage, warning patterns, deception). Scales are also used in aerodynamics and mate recognition. The proboscis is a coiled tongue that allows moths and butterflies to access water and high energy food (e.g. nectar of flowers); it was probably an important innovation that led to the pollination and diversification of flowering plants. The epiphysis is a structure on the foreleg that is used to clean the antennae and possibly the proboscis, and it is unique to the Lepidoptera. The prolegs are found only in the caterpillar stage and are important in allowing the larvae to cling onto foliage and stems and other substrates whilst feeding. The Australian Lepidoptera fauna has many unique elements, a high level of endemicity, and groups that are well-adapted to a dry environment. Cathy summarised some of the early ‘basal’ lineages in Australia, as well as other more recent groups that are either unique to Australia or have been highly successful following the separation of the Australian continent from Southern Gondwana (Antarctica-South America) 35 mya, the drying of the continent, and concomitant radiation of eucalypts and acacias during the Neogene. She concluded by emphasizing the importance of museum collections and taxonomy in documenting our knowledge of biodiversity. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st MABA EVENT and ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2023

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The inaugural MABA annual event was held at CSIRO Black Mountain Library and the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG), Canberra, ACT, Australia, over the weekend 3–5 November 2023. Below we have a reflection on the weekend written by our secretary, Michael Braby.

 

Six different activities were held over the weekend, which were attended by a total of 61 members and friends. It was wonderful to have six international members from New Zealand, USA and Europe attend the event, highlighting the fact that MABA is now truly an international organisation.

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The event kicked off with a social function and dinner on Friday night at the Black Mountain Library at which guests were welcomed by Axel Kallies (our new President), Doug Hilton (former inaugural President of MABA and now Chief Executive of CSIRO), David Yeates (Director of the Australian National Insect Collection), and Anne-Marie Slattery (Metadata and Discovery Librarian at CSIRO). Federica Turco (Collection Manager of ANIC) gave a short presentation on progress and developments with the new ANIC building, which is expected to be completed by early 2024. Michael Braby then talked about the scientific art exhibition on display based on art works curated in the rare book collection of the library that are not normally viewed by the public. The display included a series of superb original water colour paintings by several notable artists, including Neville Cayley, published in Waterhouse (1932) What Butterfly is That?; George Browning, published in Barrett and Burns (1951) Butterflies of Australia and New Guinea; Ninon Geier, published in Common and Waterhouse (1972) Butterflies of Australia; Sybil Monteith, published in the revised edition of Common and Waterhouse (1981); and Frank Nanninga, published in CSIRO (1970) The Insects of Australia.

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Following dinner, about half of the group headed off to the ANBG to observe, photograph or collect moths at several light traps that were set up by Donald Hobern, Glenn Cocking and Andreas Zwick at the western end of the gardens near Black Mountain Reserve. A range of different light-traps were set up to showcase the methods commonly used to study and sample moths. It was a good night for moths and many species were recorded.

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The highlight of the event was undoubtedly the 20 talks presented by members at the ANBG Theatrette on Saturday. The opening keynote address was delivered by Professor David Lohman (Chair of Biology, City College of New York, USA) who literally blew the roof off with a stimulating and entertaining talk entitled “biogeography and evolution of Indo-Australian butterflies” that covered an array of fascinating topics in relation to past climate changes in SE Asia and mainland New Guinea, including diversification of Delias – reputed to be the largest butterfly genus in the world – and the astonishing mimicry seen in Elymnias. He also touched on Wolbachia in Melanitis.

 

Three student members (Georgina Binns, Siwanon Paphatmethin, Ethan Beaver) gave outstanding talks on their PhD projects, and all jointly won the inaugural Ted Edwards Memorial Award for the best student presentation. Georgina Binns (and Chris Müller) also won the free dinner prize for guessing the correct number of eggs and/or species in a photo, which comprised a single cohort of 170 eggs of the pierid butterfly Delias harpalyce. Marianne Horak closed the day with a moving and fitting tribute to Ted Edwards, who touched the lives of so many of us. Lynette Aitchison kindly managed the large number of books on butterflies and moths for sale, and even sold several books to passers-by! The Annual General Meeting was held at the Theatrette on Saturday afternoon, and ‘conference’ dinner was held at the China Tea Club in North Lyneham.

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The butterfly and larval host plant identification tour at the ANBG was run by Suzi Bond and Steve Holliday on the following Sunday morning. The activity was well attended, but the poor weather precluded seeing the many species that typically fly at this time of the year, and the only highlights were a nectaring Graphium macleayanum and a clump of mistletoe on which the immature stages of Delias harpalyce were found. The moth workshop, run by Axel Kallies, was held in Banksia Building at ANBG during Sunday afternoon. The workshop focussed on relaxing and preparing specimens (collected from the light traps) and how to properly pin and set them in order to establish a scientific reference collection. Participants worked with either macro or micromoths. It was interesting to hear all the different methods used by the various experts.

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