Dr Doug Hoese receives the Whitley Commendation from Dr Frank Talbot.
[Photo: B. Kuchlmayr]
ABRS commendations
ABRS Publications at the Whitley Awards
Fish and flies took several ABRS staff to Sydney for the 2007 Whitley Award ceremony on 14 September.
Both the Zoological Catalogue of Australia, Volume 35, Fishes and On the Fly, The Interactive Atlas and Key to Australian Fly Families were awarded Commendations in the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales 2007 Whitley Awards. These awards are made annually for outstanding publications on Australian fauna.
And the Fish Catalogues are certainly outstanding. The impressive three-volume set lists all valid names — close to 4,500 — applied to the Australian fish fauna, and gives a great deal of detail on each name. It provides the basic name data for all studies on Australia’s fishes and for management of fisheries. The work involved a dedicated group of Australian and International fish scientists led by Dr Doug Hoese at the Australian Museum, Sydney, working for almost 20 years. The team included Dianne Bray, John Paxton, Gerald Allen, Jennifer Gates, Norbert Cross, Connie Allen, Anthony Gill, Martin Gomon, Helen Larson, John McCosker and Mark McGrouther. The chief editor, Pam Beesley of ABRS, saw the project through to completion, with publication by CSIRO Publishing and ABRS .
On the Fly is a very different product. Its chief function is identification, providing an easy way of tracking a fly to family. A superb ‘Atlas of Fly Anatomy’ allows users to locate any part of the fly that is used in the key, and the very fine illustrations and images of flies can be used for confirmation of features and identity. Entry to the key is possible at any point, using a very basic or more detailed set of characters. As are all Lucid-based products, On the Fly is ideal for teaching.
On the Fly had a large team of authors: at CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, Joanna Hamilton, David Yeates, Anne Hastings, Don Colless; at the Australian Museum, Sydney, David McAlpine and Dan Bickel; at University of Queensland, Greg Daniels and Margaret Schneider; at University of California, Davis, Peter Cranston; and at University of Guelph, Ontario, Steve Marshall. It was published jointly by the Australian Governments Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) and the University of Queensland’s Centre for Biological Information Technology (CBIT).