The 5th instalment of the Great Southern Bioblitz has come to an end and once again the Coffs Harbour Region has performed well. Another top 3 finish for the number of species found is a fantastic achievement for our 81 participants, especially when you compare us to the winning region, Greater Melbourne, who were able to muster 865 observers!
More than 8500 participants from 200 regions around the southern hemisphere took part this year, reaching a total of 260 000+ sightings of 26 000+ different species that have been identified so far. All within just 4 days!
We had many new participants join us for this year’s Blitz, some contributing an impressive number of sightings, as well as some of our regular naturalists, several of whom were taking part for the 4th or 5th year in a row.
Congratulations and a big thankyou to everyone who put time aside to be involved. We had everything from backyard sightings to underwater surveys resulting in a wide range of environments covered. There was a large amount of nighttime surveying taking place this year, with spotlighting, mothing and invertebrate surveys yielding a high number of insect and nocturnal animal sightings.
Results for Coffs in overall event:
* Overall position based on number of species – 3rd
* Overall position based on number of observations – 6th
* 2nd most observations and species out of the Australian regions, behind Greater Melbourne.
Totals for Coffs over 4 days:
* Total observations – 9111 (8244 last year)
* Total species – 2437 (2305 last year)
* Total participants – 81 (99 last year)
Deeper dive into GSB 2024 output data - Thanks to ‘The Stat Man’ Matt Nimbs!
Using the top 10 locations for total observations we analysed the efficiency of observer efforts to get another, potentially more refined, set of results (not competitive at all!!)
Some of the locations with very high observation counts had low observer efficiencies, for example at Melbourne, AU and Sydney, AU the number of observations per individual participant was low (<25) in comparison to Pondoland, ZA, Overberg, ZA, and Coffs Harbour, AU (>100) where participants recorded nearly 5 to 10 times more species per person.
For the purposes of recording overall biodiversity (numbers of species), one of the main drivers of the GSB, the efficiency of each participant in capturing diversity can be measured by examining the number of species recorded by each person. Again, Pondoland, Overberg and Coffs Harbour recorded more than seven to eight times more species per participant than the locations with the lowest efficiencies (Melbourne and Sydney).
Analysis of the number of observations of each species also indicates a level of observer efficiency. In this case Coffs Harbour, AU and Garden Route, ZA recorded around 4 observations of each taxon whereas Melbourne, AU recorded more than twice that with 9 recordings of each. Of course, these numbers are averages, and there were certainly many singular observations of species (the relatively rarer ones) and greater observation counts of common species.
Thanks Matt!
Species stats:
Observation stats [Last year’s in brackets]:
* Plants (37% of total sightings) – 3404 sightings of 817 different species [3752 / 827]
* Insects (26%) – 2396 sightings of 819 species [1793 / 693]
* Molluscs (11%) – 1018 sightings of 287 species [718 / 258]
* Birds (7%) – 640 sightings of 126 species [667 / 138]
* Arachnids (5%) - 464 sightings of 113 species [361 / 88]
* Fungi (2%) – 184 sightings of 48 species [293 / 89]
* Crustaceans (1.7%) – 154 sightings of 46 species [89 / 37]
* Cnidarians (corals etc) (1.2%) – 109 sightings of 25 species [56 / 21]
* Brown Algae (1.1%) – 105 sightings of 15 species [52 / 9]
* Sponges (1.1%) - 104 sightings of 9 species [13 / 5]
* Fish (1.1%) – 101 sightings of 29 species [49 / 27]
* Mammals (0.9%) – 81 sightings of 21 species [53 / 14]
* Echinoderms (urchins etc) (0.8%) – 69 sightings of 17 species [33 / 11]
* ‘Worms’ (0.5%) – 46 sightings of 16 species [34 / 11]
* Reptiles (0.4%) – 36 sightings of 11 species [90 / 26]
So in terms of raw numbers, we were down in only a few areas compared to last year: plants, birds, fungi and reptiles were all down slightly in both number of sightings and species recorded. This could be more to do with the change in time of year for this year’s event, perhaps less of the migratory birds have arrived and less fungi due to conditions. Reptiles were very low, maybe we need a couple of herpers for next year?
Top 5 most observed plants in our area:
* Dendrobium tetragonum (Tree Spider Orchid) – 22 observations - Mostly thanks to the excellent orchid surveilling skills of Lillian Clementine.
* Smilax australis (Austral sarsaparilla) - 21 observations
* Dioscorea transversa (Common Yam Vine) – 21 observations – Stood out this year with lots of hanging buds and fruits to photograph.
* Platycerium bifurcatum (Elkhorn Fern) - 20 observations
* Hibbertia scandens (Climbing Guinea Flower) - 19 observations – In flower.
Notable endangered plant species observed:
Gingidia rupicola – Heath Milne
Phaius australis (Lesser Swamp-Orchid) - kmackau
Rhodomyrtus psidioides (Native Guava) – Nick Lambert
Zieria prostrata – Adrian Gale
Grammitis stenophylla (Narrow-leaf Finger Fern) – Nick Lambert
Rhodamnia rubescens (Scrub Turpentine) – 4 observers
A few other rare or uncommonly encountered species included:
(Images also attached to this post)
Hakea ochroptera seen by Lillian Clementine & Alesha Teitzel -
Taeniophyllum muelleri – Lillian Clementine & Alesha Teitzel -
Podocarpus spinulosus (Dwarf Plum Pine) – Paul Sheringham -
Blechnum penna-marina (Alpine Water Fern) – Ros Coy -
Swainsona fraseri – Nick Lambert. Only 27 records of this plant -
Santalum obtusifolium – Paul Sheringham -
Asterolasia correifolia – Matt Nimbs -
Emmenosperma alphitonioides (Bonewood) – Nathanael Green -
Plectorrhiza purpurata – Ros Coy. Only around 50 records of this small orchid -
Helicia ferruginea (Rusty Helicia) – Nick Lambert .
Top 5 most observed animals in our area:
* Ranoidea barringtonensis (Mountain Stream Frog) – 25 observations – 21 from Lillian!
* Phrissogonus laticostata (Apple Looper Moth) - 22 observations
* Cominella eburnea (Ribbed Cominella) – 21 observations – Mostly dead shell finds, but a few living animals photographed too.
* Phalacrocorax sulcirostris (Little Black Cormorant) – 20 observations
* Dacelo novaeguineae (Laughing Kookaburra) – 18 observations – Twelve different observers for this iconic bird.
Notable endangered animal species observed:
Although we had 81 sightings of 25 different vulnerable or threatened species in our area, only two of those are recognised as endangered within NSW and they are probably not what you’d expect:
Mixophyes iteratus, the Giant Barred Frog, was seen in good numbers up the mountain by Lillian and Alesha.
The second is a Grass-skipper Butterfly, Ocybadistes knightorum, commonly known as the Black Grass-Dart. It feeds solely upon the endangered grass species Alexfloydia repens, which is only known from a few places in the Boambee area. It was photographed by Virginia Halford in Bongil Bongil NP -
Some rare or uncommonly encountered animal species (see attached images):
There were also some excellent small, cryptic species recorded this year. Below I have done a terrible job of limiting it to only a few highlights….:
Paradise Riflebird, seen by Don Cooper in West Coffs -
A couple of Moss Mantises, Calofulcinia australis, were found by Alesha Teitzel and Lillian Clementine -
The Ribbon Worm, Argonemertes stocki was a nice find, in fact it’s only the second one ever found and these are the first photos of a living specimen! The first was found on a 1975 expedition by a group of Nemertean experts, the paper detailing this is linked in the observation. Most Ribbon Worms are marine, but there are a small number of land nemerteans like this one. A. stocki has two rows of around 30 eyes in two circles around it’s head -
Gould's Wattled Bat (Chalinolobus gouldii), seen by @coolduck.
The tiny Smallfin Clingfish (Parvicrepis parvipinnis) seen by Lillian, grows to a total length of 3 centimetres. It seems quite rare in the area as there are only 2 records north of Newcastle and 64 Australia-wide. Great find!
This spectacular Evan's Sea Spider (Anoplodactylus evansi) was spotted by Steve Smith.
An unknown Velvet Worm (Peripatopsidae) was found by Lillian
A strange and uncommonly encountered Spittlebug, Hindoloides appendiculata, was photographed by Nathanael Green. These constructed cases are sometimes known as ‘Pseudo-snails’ as they are often mistaken for land snail shells. There seem to only be a handful of records for this species so far! -
A rarely seen Naticid, the Chestnut-banded Sand Snail (Polinices powisianus) was photographed by Adrian Gale. Only 33 Australian records have been made of this species.
Another rare find from Lillian who seemed to be on fire during this event, with several significant finds of rare or cryptic species. This sea slug, Hermaea evelinemarcusae, has only been recorded in the country 12 times.
Here’s one from a strange group of insects called Webspinners. Metoligotoma reducta has only 3 other official records, all of them from the Sydney region. As the name suggests, these insects spin silk enclosures that they then live in, often in family groups!
A colourful Flying Peacock Spider (Maratus Volans) was photographed by Matt Nimbs.
Another beauty of a Jumping Spider, this time found by someone who really had their eye in for this event, guess who…… Macaulay's Ant-mimic Spider (Myrmarachne macaulayi) does as the name suggests with some awesome mimicry. Well spotted Lillian!
The flamboyant Obama Seaslug (Placida barackobamai) was photographed by Kerry Cameron. Despite the colours it is still easy to miss as it is just 3-4mm long!
This weevil, Ouroporopterus diurus, has only been recorded a total of 14 times, with the closest record in time being from 1946.
Nathanael also managed to photograph a tiny cryptic Flea Weevil, likely an undescribed species from the genus Orchestes.
We’ll finish with another beauty from Lillian, a spiky Bird-dropping Spider from the genus Celaenia. Species currently not known.
Thankyous
Thanks so much to all of our local observers during the event, in particular our top 20 observers:
@lillianclementine @drmattnimbs @nathanael_green @adrian2370 @a_teitzel @coolduck @profmollusc @kimwin @ros_coy @quinkin @ralfmagee @kmackau @jmillerillustrated @isie @urungaroger @clairecottage @vhandp @nadsyg @lachlancopeland @nicklambert
Also a huge thank you to our top identifiers, without whom we would have many, many more unknowns and a much smaller species list!
@adrian2370 @alx4mtmel @quinkin @coolduck @thebeachcomber @daniel_heald @leoncrang @lynsh @ben_travaglini @a_teitzel @profmollusc @benkurek__ @the-reef-stalker @wildroo @felix75 @george_seagull @drmattnimbs @kmackau @pennywort_man @nicklambert
All stats and sightings for the Coffs/Bellingen/Nambucca region can be found on our iNaturalist project by clicking this link:
It’s an incredible effort when you think that just 80 observers managed to generate 9111 observations that each were photographed, uploaded, and identified within the short time period. Hopefully this data will be of use in the future and hopefully you all saw something new and learnt something new this time around!
One last comment:
On reviewing the map after the event, it’s clear that this BioBlitz we were particularly biased towards the northern half of our zone. We may need to recruit some more observers from the Nambucca and Bellingen regions, or perhaps venture down that way ourselves for next years event. There’s plenty of exploring to be done down there!!
Thanks once again for your participation and we hope to see you all again next year. Bring it in on! But for now, it’s time to get some sleep….
[This Wrap-up can be better viewed with images in-line and clickable links on the iNat project journal page, link here: https://www.inaturalist.org/.../100153-coffs-region-wrap... ]
taken from https://www.facebook.com/coffsbioblitz
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