Live Oral Presentation delivered remotely as part of National Virtual Conference AFSS Conference 2020

Do waterbugs need protection? A case of the wingless Donna Buang stonefly. (#40)

Edward Tsyrlin 1 , Rhys Coleman 2 , Katie Robinson 1 , Ary Hoffmann 1
  1. University of Melbourne, Parkville, VICTORIA, Australia
  2. Melbourne Water, Docklands, VIC, Australia

Mt Donna Buang stonefly, Riekoperla darlingtoni (Illies 1968), is one of the two species of wingless stoneflies found in Australia and the only wingless stonefly species found in Victoria. Apart from winglessness, it has fascinating features of its ecology, distribution, physiology and behaviour unique to Australian stoneflies. The species has been listed as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN since 2014 and we spent the last 10 years gathering data to nominate this species under the EPBC Act for the second time.

Here we present the results of the study, including the recent survey using environmental DNA, and discuss the process of yet another unsuccessful EPBC nomination.