On the trail of a critically endangered fungus: A world-first application of wildlife detection dogs to fungal conservation.

Plant and animal conservation have benefited from the assistance of wildlife detection dogs (WDDs) since 1890, but their application to fungal conservation has not been trialed. In a world-first, we tested the effectiveness of WDDs and human surveyors when searching for experimentally outplanted fungi in natural habitat. We focused on a critically endangered fungus from Australia, and showed that a WDD outperformed a human surveyor: our WDD detected a greater proportion of targets, had a faster time to first discovery, and had fewer false negatives.

Octopus djinda (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae): a new member of the Octopus vulgaris group from southwest Australia.

A new Octopus Cuvier, 1797 species, Octopus djinda Amor, 2021 (previously treated as O. cf. tetricus and O.

Characterization of the complete plastid genome of (J. H. Willis) L. B. Moore (Asteliaceae, Asparagales).

is a robust understorey plant with a highly restricted distribution in southeastern Australia. Here we report its complete plastid genome. The genome was 157,943 bp in length and comprises a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) of 27,028 bp separated by a large single-copy region (LSC) of 85,699 bp, and a small single-copy region (SSC) of 18,188 bp.

Allopatric speciation within a cryptic species complex of Australasian octopuses.

Despite extensive revisions over recent decades, the taxonomy of benthic octopuses (Family Octopodidae) remains in a considerable flux. Among groups of unresolved status is a species complex of morphologically similar shallow-water octopods from subtropical Australasia, including: Allopatric populations of Octopus tetricus on the eastern and western coasts of Australia, of which the Western Australian form is speculated to be a distinct or sub-species; and Octopus gibbsi from New Zealand, a proposed synonym of Australian forms. This study employed a combination of molecular and morphological techniques to resolve the taxonomic status of the 'tetricus complex'.