Chapter 1

Professor Adam suggested I expand my "report" for my first presentation. Another milestone passed. I petitioned to have Dr. Challis as an external advisor. Piece of cake. At the outset of my second year at BEES I continued to work at the Museum. I also continued to see Winnie, my "friend with benefits." Actually, there were many benefits: Winnie took me to art shows and the opera and (as she put it) broadened my horizons.

In April 1994 I reused the presentation, turning it into a presentation at the Australian Entomological Society meeting in Brisbane. I got in a visit to my parents on the dosh UNSW gave me for expenses. I was certain that I wanted to write my dissertation about ants, but what was unclear.

I did a great deal of reading, too. About taxonomy, exploration, invertebrates in general, and ants in particularly. Many new books flowed through the office at the Australian Museum. One that caught my eye was a copy of a book by Bolton. In it he wrote: "Camponotus is a very large (currently around 600 described species), complex, taxonomically confused genus, and in great need of revision."

Fascinating.

There are over 100 Camponotus species in Australia, I knew. Though labelled by Gustav Mayr in his book about ants seen on the expedition of the Novara (a sail frigate of the Austro-Hungarian Navy that circumnavigated the globe in 1857-59), real detail was lacking. Camponotus, I learned, have an omnivorous diet and workers are also significant predators of many small invertebrates.

I found we had a nice specimen in room 2. It was labelled "Camponotus pitjantjatarae Macarthur: black, similar to inflatus but with less pilosity, erect setae scattered on front of head, mesosoma, node, gaster, none under head, on scapes nor tibiae. Specimen: major worker. Head sides mostly convex, anterior clypeal margin projecting; node summit blunt."

Really interesting.

The specimen came from Bladensburg. I wondered whether Professor Adam had an interest in the region and did some work on the area.

Bladensburg is a national park in Queensland, located 1152 km northwest of Brisbane, and just south of the town of Winton. The park features grassland plains, river flats, sandstone ranges and flat-topped mesas. The 84,900 hectares of national park were declared in 1984.

Bladensburg was once a station, now a protected area containing mulga lands of high biodiversity. It covers both the Channel Country and Mulga Grass Downs bioregions.

The park contains dinosaur fossils as well as aboriginal story places and ceremonial grounds.

I looked at Barker and Vestjens, The Food of Australian Birds: Non-Passerines [CSIRO, 1989], and found that emus ate ants. The part of Queensland that wasn't desert or urban was emu habitat. More thought. Then I went to Australian Entomological Society 25th Annual Meeting in Adelaide on my own. I took the Indian Pacific via Broken Hill. I met several blokes who were quite nice, especially an older chap working on acarids [mites and ticks] at the CSIRO in Canberra and a Yank named Steve who worked at the Insect Collection at Black Mountain.

When I got back to Sydney, I sat down and wrote a brief note to Prof. Adam with a copy to Dr. Challis. I printed out a draft to show to Winnie before submission. I supposed that was the first step. I needed to have a dissertation proposal approved by them (and my Committee) before progressing.

Winnie made only a few corrections and I submitted my note. The next morning Dr. Challis said: "Nice job. I called your advisor. Write the damn thing up and we'll have the proposal approved."

"How long, sir?"

"More than three and under 20 pages. There's a copy of Mayr downstairs. Put a copy of the appropriate page in. Also Wheeler and Holldobler and Wilson. Bibliography of about two pages, if there is that much. Something general on taxonomy to make the outsiders happy. See Adam on the make-up of the committee."

"Yes, sir. Thank you."

"Oh, and estimate your time in the field: you'll want at least two visits to each of those sites at different seasons."

"Right."

Sounds easy. But it was work – yakka. And the research and then the writing would be yet more work – hard yakka. Life being what it is, I was interrupted.

I was at the Museum and a volunteer asked me to come to the Director's Office, a place I'd never been. When I got there, I found Dr. Challis and – amazingly – Winnie's father. After introductions and greetings, I was handed a sample vial.