An established population of the mainland Australian false garden mantis Pseudomantis albofimbriata (Stal, 1860) (Mantodea: Mantidae) in northern Tasmania

摘要

Australia is home to some 160 spp. of Mantodea comprising 37 genera in 3 families (Rentz, 1996). Tindale (1923) suggested that five species occur in Tasmania: Paraoxypilus tasmaniensis, P. verreauxii (Amorphoscelidae), Orthodera ministralis, Tenodera australasiae and Pseudomantis albofimbriata (Mantidae), and further Rentz (1996) states that Mantis octospilota (Mantidae) occurs in all Australian states. However, of these six species, only three are known to occur naturally in Tasmania with any degree of certainty. No specimens of P. verreauxii or M. octospilota are held in any public Tasmanian entomological collections nor are there any registered specimens in any mainland institutions and (until recently) no specimens of P. albofimbriata either (Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), 2018 a,b,c,S. Grove pers. comm., J. Davies pers. comm.) In addition, the author has not seen or collected any Mantodea corresponding to these three species in 40 years of field work in Tasmania. The original reference to Tasmanian specimens of P. verreauxii and P. albofimbriata (Tindale, 1923) refers to old specimens held in European institutions and the collection data may be in error. It is interesting and possibly significant that the distribution of both species appears to be essentially tropical so that the reference to Tasmanian specimens is somewhat incongruous (Tindale, 1923, ALAa,b). Of perhaps even more significance is that there are no specimens of any of the three doubtful species in the entomology collection of Museum Victoria (K. Walker pers. comm.). All Victorian records of P. albofimbriata on ALA (ALA, 2018b) are citizen science sighting records, are mostly centered on Melbourne' and all later than 2010. Graham Milledgc of the Australian Museum (pers. comm.) is currently working on a revision of Paraoxypilus and suggests that available evidence so far indicates that Tasmanian records of P. verreauxii are probably in error and that published records of Tasmanian M. octospilota