First records of Testate Amoebae (Protozoa: Rhizopoda) from Mount Buffalo National Park, Victoria: preliminary notes

La Trobe University Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre

MDFRC item.

Eighty-nine species and subspecies were identified from eight habitats surveyed in an expedition to Mount Buffalo, Victoria in the winter of 1997. Of these, six have a strict Gondwanan distribution and 34 were new records for Australia. Highest species richness occurred in the wet Sphagnum habitat of Lake Catani where 50 species and subspecies were recorded. In contrast, the lowest species numbers were in the Dry Moss (16 species) and Humus Layer (15 species) at Mount Dunn. The relatively high diversity of testate species from Mount Buffalo may be the result of both the diverse nature of the substrates sampled, and sampling of an environment that has not experienced much anthropogenic activity.