2008 Inquiries

Answer:
While this specimen might certainly be mistaken for a Stingray spine, it is in fact from a different type of fish altogether: a Fork-tailed Catfish (Arius graeffei). Stingrays (cartilaginous fish closely related to sharks) do have barbs on their tails that lack the distinct point of articulation seen at the base of the spine in the image shown here. Catfish, unlike rays, are bony fish. They have a single large serrated spine in their first dorsal (upper) and each pectoral (side) fin. Both catfish and stingrays use their spines for defence.

Fork-tailed Catfish.

Great photo, and thanks for sending it to the Queensland Museum!

Hide this content.

Answer:
No. While the image is of a real spider, the Brown Recluse Spider (Loxosceles reclusa), the story is false. A few points from our Senior Curator of Arachnology:

• this series of photos have been around for years, originating in the US and having nothing to do with Australia
• the spider does not cause the wound
• our native White-tailed Spiders (Lampona spp.) have also been erroneously blamed for the development of a similar lesion
• no Australian spider is known to have necrotic (tissue-destroying) venom
• the causes of these wounds are diverse and not related to spiders
• although the spider does occur in Australia, it only lives in a very restricted suburban area in a southern Australian State, has been here for approximately 20 years, has not extended its range, and no bites have been recorded from it

To access more information about Loxosceles envenomations, see the following freely available journal paper:

Vetter, R.S. (2008). Spiders of the genus Loxosceles (Araneae, Sicariidae): a review of biological, medical and psychological aspects regarding envenomations. The Journal of Arachnology 36:150-163

You can download this review article as a PDF from the American Arachnological Society Journal of Arachnology Volume 36 Number 1*.

If you would like to discover more about spiders that do actually occur in South-east Queensland, check out the Queensland Museum's new pocket guide: Spiders of Greater Brisbane. This handy guide is available from the Queensland Museum Explorer Shop and all good booksellers.

* The content found by using this link is not created, controlled or approved by this department. No responsibility is taken for the consequences of viewing content on this site. This link will load into a new window.

Hide this content.

Answer:
The foam has been made by Spittle Bugs (Amarusa australis). These sap-sucking insects hide underneath foam that they make themselves. The foam is made by bubbling air through the excess fluid ejected from their posterior. You will probably find that the ground underneath will be wet and will eventually darken with Sooty Moulds that grow on the undigested sugars in the foam. If you wipe the foam from a piece of branch you should be able to see the insects. Spittle bugs belong to the same Order as other True Bugs, such as Cicadas and Stink Bugs. The True Bugs (Order Hemiptera) are different from many other types of insects in that they all possess piercing and sucking mouthparts. While most – like Spittle Bugs and Cicadas – use their straw–like mouthparts to suck sap from trees, some (like Assassin Bugs) are predators and use them to kill and suck dry other insects.

Close up of Spittle Bug foam

Links to what these critters look like underneath all that foam:
NSW Department of Primary Industries - Agriculture
http://www.agric.nsw.gov.au/Hort/ascu/cercopid/aphrophor/amarusa.htm*
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts - Australian Biological Resources Study http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/abrs/fauna/details.pl?pstrVol=CERCOPOIDEA;pstrTaxa=74;pstrChecklistMode=2*

* The content found by using this link is not created, controlled or approved by this department. No responsibility is taken for the consequences of viewing content on this site. This link will load into a new window.

Hide this content.

Answer:
The amazing larva that emerged from the unfortunate tourist’s leg was that of the Human Bot Fly, Dermatobia hominis. It was a second instar stage larva as evidenced from the elongated end not seen in further developed stages. The row-upon-row of little black hooks project forwards, making straightforward removal difficult as the hooks bury further into the flesh as the larva is pulled. The Human Bot Fly is prevalent in Africa and South and Central America, using a carrier insect on which it lays its eggs, after which it releases the vector unharmed. The insect vector then lands on a human, at which point the eggs hatch and burrow into a lesion. There is no subdermal migration.

This particular larva (width 5mm extended length 12mm) should have remained in its host until fully mature and significantly larger before emerging, pupating and developing to the adult fly. The human host may have been taking medication that may have made it emerge early. After the gruesome delivery of the specimen, our Danish visitor continued her tour of Australia with yet another fantastic story to tell her friends and family back home.

Hide this content.

Answer:
Your caterpillar is one of the bizarre loopers; a geometrid moth.
Young larvae camouflage themselves with bits of debris and lichen as yours has done. In later moults they discard the debris and rely on the weird lobes of their own body for camouflage.
The other moth is not related to the lichen-covered one. It is in a different family; a noctuid.
We love the caterpillar and moth in your photo. Most people wouldn't see any animals in it at all!

Link for further information
Don Herbison-Evans & Stella Crossley website - Bizarre Looper
http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/geom/pieroid.html*

* The content found by using this link is not created, controlled or approved by this department. No responsibility is taken for the consequences of viewing content on this site. This link will load into a new window.

A bizarre looper; a geometrid moth

Hide this content.

Answer:
Thanks for your query.
Hot rocks result from high-heat producing granites overlain by thick accumulations of sediments with low conductivity. The granites contain radioactive elements which over hundreds of millions of years, decay and produce heat. The passage of this heat to the Earth’s surface via upwards conduction is slowed by layers of sediments which have low thermal conductivity, creating hot spots beneath these areas.
Two things control the amount of heat produced by a rock

1. The amount of heat produced by a rock is due largely to the concentration of naturally occurring radiogenic minerals such as uranium, thorium and potassium. As the concentrations of the radiogenic minerals are very low (commonly less than 50 parts per million) a large volume of the rock needs to be present to generate significantly elevated temperatures. Granites are an example which commonly occurs as large masses which have volumes of greater than 100 cubic kilometres, and are thus an ideal for this type of geothermal energy.
2. An insulating cover of sediments, without this all the heat generated by the heat-producing rocks would be rapidly dissipated. To trap the heat effectively, the blanketing cover must be a good thermal insulator and must also have a minimum thickness of at least three kilometres to maintain suitable temperatures. Shale and coal are ideal for this purpose.

So you can see the heat is not from the magma/lava at the earth’s core.

Binary geothermal powerplant (schematic)

Hide this content.

Answer:
Your photo is one of the 148 described huntsman spiders in Australia, in this case Pediana regina. It is a male as you can see from its lanky appearance and the swollen tips of its palps.
Huntsman spiders are masters at hunting prey on vertical surfaces such as tree bark.

Links for further information
University of Southern Queensland - Female Pediana regina
http://www.usq.edu.au/spider/find/spiders/414.htm*

Brisbane Insects and Spiders - Bark Huntsman Spider - Pediana regina
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_spiders/BarkHuntsmanSpider.htm*

* The content found by using this link is not created, controlled or approved by this department. No responsibility is taken for the consequences of viewing content on this site. This link will load into a new window.

Hide this content.

Answer:
Mrs Watson’s tank is on display in Discover Queensland, on level 2 of the South Bank campus of Queensland Museum. Two paddles, a photo of her, a booklet about her and her bible are also a part of the collection.

Mary Watson’s personal papers, including diary fragments from the 3-11th of September 1881 are held by the John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland and are included in the National Library of Australia’s ‘National Treasures’ exhibition. Mrs Watson’s diary fragments from 1881 detail the final days before her death. Her final entry describes being unable to locate water. The diary fragments and her remains were found in 1882.

A monument dedicated to Mary Watson is located in Cooktown, and is listed in the Queensland’s Cultural Heritage register. The entry contains a short history of the final events of Mary Watson’s life and a description of the monument. It also highlights the significance of the monument as not only a commemoration of Mary Watson’s life and death, but also as the only known public monument of an individual woman (other than a head of state) in Queensland, and as a monument that symbolises prevailing racial tensions and prejudices of the period.

The monument was erected in Cooktown in 1886, and was at one time also a water fountain.
The inscribed western panel reads:

Five fearful days beneat
the scorching glar
Her babe she nursed
God knows the pangs tha
woman had to bear
Whose last sad entry showe
a mother's care
Then - “Near dead with thirst”

John Davis Mayor 1886

Links for further information

John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland
http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/Services/coll/jol/manuscripts

National Library of Australia’s ‘National Treasures’ exhibition
http://nationaltreasures.nla.gov.au/%3E/Treasures/item/nla.int-ex7-s6

Queensland’s Cultural Heritage register
http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/projects/heritage/index.cgi?place=600421&bac

Hide this content.

Answer:
The bones you found are three vertebrae (back bones) from a large fish. Fish vertebrae are identified by having conical depressions on both ends. The spikes are called ‘neural spines’ and would have protected the fish’s spinal cord while it was alive. Ideally, an animal needs a skeleton that is both as strong as possible but is also as light as possible. Aquatic animals (like fish and whales) usually have dense bones, which are strong to resist high pressure in deep water. If a land animal had dense bones it would find them so heavy that it would have difficulty moving! Fish don’t have this problem, because water actually supports part of their weight. Determining the age of bone visually is difficult. Relatively recent bones can look quite old, while bones that are millions of years old can look remarkably fresh! Also, it isn’t unknown for people to find bones while fishing. Commercial fishermen in the North Sea sometimes find the bones of extinct mammoths in their nets.

The fusion of the vertebrae is interesting. It could be the result of disease (something like arthritis). This might even have caused the fish’s death.

I don’t know precisely what species of fish your bones have come from, but I’ve sent your email on to the museum’s resident fish expert in case he has something to add.

Thank you for your inquiry

Hide this content.

Answer:
Thanks for showing this structure that you have photographed. One of our entomologists knows what makes it, but it is a mystery how it makes it.

It is a moth pupa. More specifically it is one of the tiger moths (Arctiidae); a beetle-mimicking one in fact.

The net-like protective structure is constructed when it is about to pupate, using the hairs on the caterpillar’s back. It inserts its own hairs into the bark, around itself, in a fence-like arrangement. It is not clear how it can achieve this difficult feat. More amazing still, the hairs are then bent over and where they intersect they are fused together with silk. As you have seen the effect is very neat and regular and it scarcely seems credible that a caterpillar equipped with seemingly nothing more than stumpy legs and silk glands can do this. Its hairs are barbed so while the structure may seem flimsy they would probably be quite protective. The caterpillar can then pupate and develop to adulthood underneath this structure.

Another species of tiger moth that has a similar habit is pictured here: http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/arct/ombroph.html *, but this is not your species. It gives you some idea of what the caterpillar looks like however.

If you ever come across these again, we would be interested in getting more adult moth specimens to confirm the species identification. The way to do this is to place pupa in a jar until it emerges (taking care not to let the irritating hairs touch your skin and not letting the jar cook in the sun etc).

* The content found by using this link is not created, controlled or approved by this department. No responsibility is taken for the consequences of viewing content on this site. This link will load into a new window.

Hide this content.

Answer:
Your goanna is a young Yellow-spotted Monitor (Varanus panoptes). The differences between V. panoptes and V. gouldii are subtle. I find that the easiest features to use are the spots across the back (small with a discrete edge in V. panoptes, larger with a diffuse edge in V. gouldii) and the throat markings (flecks or small spots in V. panoptes, marbled grey markings in V. gouldii), if you can see them. The adults tend to display notable behavioural differences as well. Large V. panoptes will tend to stand their ground when approached and will often adopt a bipedal stance to appear larger to a possible threat. In comparison, adult V. gouldii are more likely to make a speedy exit!

That is one nice little goanna, thanks for sending us a photo.

Hide this content.

Answer:
What a great photo! The moth is one of the Saturnid moths, Opodiphthera loranthi. The adult moths do not have any feeding mouthparts and live on their body fats long enough to find a mate and reproduce. The females often will lay eggs on unsuitable surfaces; however, the foodplants of the caterpillars of this moth are various species of mistletoe.

I have put a couple of links below to photographs and more information about these insects.

http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/satu/loranth.html *
http://www.ento.csiro.au/gallery/moths/Opodiphtheraloranthi*

* The content found by using this link is not created, controlled or approved by this department. No responsibility is taken for the consequences of viewing content on this site. This link will load into a new window.

Hide this content.