Bush Blitz aids description of three new species and a new genus of Australian beeflies (Diptera, Bombyliidae, Exoprosopini)

Abstract

Bush Blitz is a three-year multimillion dollar program to document the plants and animals in hundreds of properties across Australia’s National Reserve System. The core focus is on nature discovery – identifying and describing new species of plants and animals. The Bush Blitz program has enabled the collection and description of beeflies (Diptera, Bombyliidae) from surveys in Western Australia and Queensland. Three new species of Australian beeflies belonging to the Exoprosopini are described; Palirika mackenziei Lambkin sp. n., Palirika culgoafloodplainensis Lambkin sp. n., and Larrpana bushblitz Lambkin sp. n. Phylogenetic analysis of 40 Australian exoprosopine species belonging to the Balaana generic-group Lambkin & Yeates 2003 supports the placement of the three new species into existing genera, and the erection and description of the new genus Ngalki Lambkin gen. n. for Ngalki trigonium (Lambkin & Yeates 2003) comb. n. Revised keys are provided for the genera of the Australian Balaana genus-group and the species of Palirika Lambkin & Yeates, 2003 and Larrpana Lambkin & Yeates 2003. With the description of the three new species and the transferral of Munjua trigona Lambkin & Yeates 2003 into the new genus Ngalki Lambkin gen. n., three genera are rediagnosed; Munjua Lambkin & Yeates 2003, Palirika and Larrpana.

Engaging the broader community in biodiversity research: the concept of the COMBER pilot project for divers in ViBRANT

“…The current volume offers two exemplar papers that demonstrate the data publishing workflow described above ( Faulwetter et al 2011 ; Lambkin and Bartlett 2011 ). Both papers published data through (a) PENSOFT’s GBIF IPT, (b) Dryad Data Repository and (c) DwC-A supplementary files associated with the articles and downloadable from the journal’s website.…”

From text to structured data: Converting a word-processed floristic checklist into Darwin Core Archive format

“…Darwin Core Archive files can also be generated from data uploaded on the IPT and then published as a zipped supplementary file, associated with a research article, for example species occurrence data and checklists underlying any taxonomic revision (see sample papers by Talamas et al 2011 ; Faulwetter et al 2011 ; Lambkin and Barlett 2011 ). The publication of large datasets in the form of data papers is also supported ( Chavan and Penev 2011 , see Narwade et al 2011 for an example of such a data paper).…”

The City Nature Challenge – A global citizen science phenomenon contributing to biodiversity knowledge and informing local government practices

“…Bioblitzes are typically organised in natural areas of particular significance, often but not exclusively where biodiversity knowledge is scarce but highly valuable to guide local management. Despite not necessarily being driven by a specific research agenda, bioblitzes are well-known for their contribution to contemporary biodiversity knowledge (Ballard et al 2017, Spear et al 2017) and the documentation of species not previously known to Western science (Barrett 2015, Cassis and Symonds 2016, Fagan-Jeffries et al 2019, Lambkin and Bartlett 2011, Vendetti et al 2018). Importantly, bioblitzes contribute to increase participants’ engagement with nature and conservation, especially those with no previous expertise (Lundmark 2003, Postles and Bartlett 2018, Roger and Klistorner 2016).…”