Australia (Western Australia: Kimberley region, Northern Territory: Top End) - 2009
Australia (Queensland) - 2006
Australia (Western Australia: Kimberley region, Northern Territory: Top End): 6 weeks (27 July–3 September, 2009), funded by the ABRS grant. The aim of this field trip was to collect scorpions and various arachnids in the remote Kimberley region and the Northern Territory Top End. Urodacus is a scorpion genus endemic to Australia and its representatives construct spiral burrows sometimes more than a meter deep in dry savannahs, a habitat typical of northern and north-western Australia. Liocheles scorpions, on the other hand, inhabit small patches of tropical humid ecosystems scattered in the arid landscape. Lionel Monod (Geneva Museum, Switzerland; Ph.D. student in the AMNH/CUNY program) arrived in Broome (WA) and first travelled through the Kimberley via the rugged Gibb River Road. Several specimens of Urodacus with an unusual lithophilic morphology and probably belonging to undescribed species were collected in several localities. Monod finally arrived in Kununurra (WA) and continued the journey across the border to the Northern Territory for the second part of the expedition. The monsoonal regions of the Top End were extensively surveyed, with emphasis on the Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks. This expedition yielded around 100 specimens of scorpions (3 genera, and around 10 species), opilionids and spiders were also collected along the way.
Australia (Queensland): 7 weeks (7 July–August 27, 2005), funded by the NSF Spider AToL project and by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. Lionel Monod (AMNH & CUNY) flew to Cairns, Queensland, hired a 4x4 and drove more than 7,000 km through eastern Queensland. The aim of this field trip was mainly to collect scorpions of the genus Liocheles that inhabit tropical humid ecosystems. The trip started in Wet Tropics rainforests, north of Cairns. Atherton Tablelands, Daintree National Park and the Cooktown area were extensively investigated and some very remote localities were attained after long and strenuous hikes. Bad conditions of unsealed roads due to 3 weeks of intense rain made the journey difficult and some places could not be reached. Then Monod’s route proceeded from the coastal moist ecosystems to the dry savannahs of the inland outback, then to the rainforests of the Bellenden Ker Range/Mission Beach region. Little collecting was possible in this area because the forests were still badly damaged after Larry, a category 5 cyclone that hit the area on 20 March, 2006. Monod then drove southward along the coast and surveyed patches of forests from Ingham to Brisbane. This expedition yielded 296 specimens in 2 arachnid orders (Scorpiones, Amblypygi), 4 families, 4 genera, and approximately 20 species. Key discovery on the expedition was a new pelophilous Liocheles, the second known species of the genus to have burrowing habits.