Congratulations Professor Anya Reading!
RST Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people 2021.
RST Apology to Tasmanian Aboriginal people 2021.
Lissotes menalcas (the Mt Mangana Stag Beetle) is an obligate log dwelling beetle and is presently classified as vulnerable under the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995. The distribution, habitat and conservation status of this species were investigated through a combination of collation of known locations and searches for the in decaying logs across likely areas of occurrence.
L. menalcas was found to have a wide distribution in south eastern Tasmania and is now recorded from 34 localities. The species was found in a variety of wet forest habitats from old-growth mixed forest through to 23-year-old wet eucalypt silvicultural regrowth. About 12% of wet eucalypt forest within the predicted range of L. menalcas is formally reserved, and another 14% on Crown land is unlikely to be subject to logging. L. menalcas appears to tolerate both wildfire and clear felling with regeneration burning. Because the species depends on an ongoing supply of rotting logs for its long-term survival, plantation development will probably lead to the elimination of the species from such areas. Analysis of the likely impact of plantation establishment within its range over the next ten years indicates that it will not reach levels that would lead it to be considered as vulnerable. Thus, it is recommended that the status of the species be changed from vulnerable to rare. However, there is a need to determine the ecological sustainability of present forest management practices in relation to the decaying-log habitat and to continue to monitor the extent of clearing and modification of the species’ habitat.
Royal Society of Tasmania, RST, Van Diemens Land, natural history, science, ecology, taxonomy, botany, zoology, geology, geography, papers & proceedings, Australia, UTAS Library
Published Papers
The Royal Society of Tasmania acknowledges, with deep respect, the traditional owners of this land, and the ongoing custodianship of the Aboriginal people of Tasmania. The Society pays respect to Elders past, present and emerging. We acknowledge that Tasmanian Aboriginal Peoples have survived severe and unjust impacts resulting from invasion and dispossession of their Country. As an institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge, the Royal Society of Tasmania recognises Aboriginal cultural knowledge and practices and seeks to respect and honour these traditions and the deep understanding they represent.
On 15 February 2021, the Royal Society of Tasmania offered a formal Apology to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
