Australeuma simile Golovatch, 1986

(Order Chordeumatida, family Metopidiotrichidae)

This widespread western species was first collected in 1975. Over much of the A. simile range the dark brown colouring shown in the photo (above) is only present on the outer rims of the paranota and at the bases of the long dorsal setae, and to the naked eye the animal is uniformly pale yellow.

A. simile is mainly found in wet forest (Mesibov 1993b), but recent pitfall collections by Mike Driessen and Don Driscoll have shown it to be abundant in buttongrass moorland in the Southwest. A. simile occurs from sea level to at least 1300 m (on the Central Plateau). Like A. jeekeli, it has been found in forestry plantations (Bonham et al. 2002).

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Localities for A. simile. Scale bar = 100 km.
For an interactive map with more up-to-date localities, go to the mapper page.

More information:
 
Taxonomy - Golovatch (1986), Shear & Mesibov (1997)
Distribution, conservation and general - Mesibov (1993b), Mesibov (1998a), Bonham et al. (2002)