The Cooloola evidence register

The claim. Christmas bells and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From this web's own account. The white-cheeked honeyeater is the bird on offer in this heath: it works the trumpets for that nectar and carries pollen from stalk to stalk as it feeds. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The showiest flower in the heath is a bird flower, and this is the heath's flagship honeyeater. The book names the couriers only as birds; naming this one is the page's own reading. Visitation and carried pollen are what the record supports, so the verb stays hedged.

The claim. The eastern spinebill and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From the book. The eastern spinebill probes the tubular flowers with a fine down-curved bill; little wattlebirds squabble raucously in the banksias; and the flagship of these heaths, the white-cheeked honeyeater, works steadily through the brushes, ferrying pollen from plant to plant as it feeds. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The book puts this bird in the day queue at the heath's banksias, where the wallum banksia is the named flagship nectar source. Visitation and carried pollen are what the record supports, so the hedged verb stands.

The claim. The feathertail glider and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From the book. Meanwhile the flower-brushes are among the richest nectar sources in the heath, feeding honeyeaters through the day and pygmy-possums and gliders through the night. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The book names gliders on the banksia night shift and its notes give the feathertail as the example. It carries that shift alone here: the pygmy-possums named beside it in the same sentence are not part of this sand country's mammal fauna, so this page departs from the book and leaves them out.

The claim. The flower beetles and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From this web's own account. Jewel beetles and flower chafers blunder into the open bowls of the boronias and the loose brushes of the grevilleas, chew a little of everything, and carry pollen on their backs from one flower to the next entirely by accident. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Beetle pollination is messy and effective. The flower pays in pollen eaten as well as pollen moved.

The claim. The flower beetles and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From this web's own account. Jewel beetles and flower chafers blunder into the open bowls of the boronias and the loose brushes of the grevilleas, chew a little of everything, and carry pollen on their backs from one flower to the next entirely by accident. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. An open grevillea brush is a landing platform. Beetles are heavy, hairy and cover a lot of it.

The claim. The grevilleas and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From the book. They are the pollinators, the flying half of the bargain the banksias and grevilleas depend on. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The book names the heath's honeyeaters as the flying half of this partnership, with the white-cheeked honeyeater the flagship working the brushes. What it describes is visitation and carried pollen, so the hedged verb is the honest one.

The claim. The hoverflies and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From this web's own account. The adults live on nectar and pollen and are steady visitors to the wattles and the boronias. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Flies are undercounted as pollinators everywhere, and shallow open flowers like these are the ones they can reach.

The claim. The hoverflies and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From this web's own account. The adults live on nectar and pollen and are steady visitors to the wattles and the boronias. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Wattle flowers offer pollen rather than nectar, which is what a hoverfly is after. Carried pollen is likely here, and unmeasured.

The claim. The little wattlebird and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From the book. little wattlebirds squabble raucously in the banksias · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. One of the day-shift honeyeaters the book names in the flowering banksias, the wallum banksia their named flagship. Visitation and carried pollen are what the record supports.

The claim. The lorikeets and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From the book. Lorikeets pour in by the screeching, tumbling flock; honeyeaters work the spikes from first light; and after dark the flying-foxes arrive to drink, ferrying pollen from tree to tree and, as it happens, carrying the seed of the rainforest fruits they also feed on from one patch of forest to the next. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The day shift at the paperbark feast, as the book tells it; the region's field checklist names the rainbow lorikeet as the one in these pages. Visitation and carried pollen are what the record supports.

The claim. The mistletoes and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From this web's own account. Honeyeaters work the mistletoe's own tubular flowers for nectar through the cold months, when little else in the heath is open, and carry its pollen from clump to clump as they go. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Mistletoe flowers are built for a honeyeater's bill and open when little else does. Visitation and carried pollen are the honest claim, so the verb stays hedged.

The claim. The native bees and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From this web's own account. They work the wallum banksia's brushes, the grevilleas, the native peas and the boronias, moving pollen between plants for the simple reason that pollen is what they came for. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Small open boronia flowers with a strong scent are insect flowers, and bees are the bulk of the traffic.

The claim. The native bees and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From this web's own account. They work the wallum banksia's brushes, the grevilleas, the native peas and the boronias, moving pollen between plants for the simple reason that pollen is what they came for. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Grevillea flowers are open to anything that lands. Bees are the commonest visitor by count in Australian heath.

The claim. The native bees and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From this web's own account. They work the wallum banksia's brushes, the grevilleas, the native peas and the boronias, moving pollen between plants for the simple reason that pollen is what they came for. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A pea flower is a sprung trigger built for a bee's weight, and one of the tighter fits in the heath.

The claim. The native bees and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From this web's own account. They work the wallum banksia's brushes, the grevilleas, the native peas and the boronias, moving pollen between plants for the simple reason that pollen is what they came for. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The birds get the credit at a banksia brush and the insects do much of the work. Visitation and carried pollen are the claim; nobody has run the transfer study here.

The claim. The night moths and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From this web's own account. Moths work the pale, strongly scented blossom that is wasted on a daytime insect, and the paperbark in flower at night carries more insects than any daylight count of it would suggest. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The book gives the paperbark's night shift to the flying-foxes. The insects are the other half of it, and they are far more numerous.

The claim. The flying-foxes visit its flowers, and likely carry its pollen.

From the guide. after dark the flying-foxes arrive to drink, ferrying pollen between the trees · read it in place →

The source. Leiper, G. et al. (2022). Mangroves to Mountains (3rd ed.). Native Plants Queensland.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The guide records mass nectar flows drawing flying-foxes to this species, and the chapters carry the night shift at the swamp bloom. That key is a plant guide speaking about animal behaviour, so the edge is authored at expected until a second source lands. What is recorded is visitation; carried pollen is the likely consequence, not a demonstrated transfer.

The claim. The orchid dupe wasp visits its flowers, and likely carries its pollen.

From the book. Its flower mimics a female wasp closely enough, in shape and above all in scent, that male wasps arrive and try to mate with it, and in their fumbling carry its pollen away to the next fraud. · the book, Ch 15: Plants and the partnerships that feed them

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A deception, not a trade: the wasp gets nothing, which is why this edge is authored one-way from the wasp's visits rather than as a mutual exchange. The chapter's sources name one wasp species for all the Australian tongue orchids.

The claim. The white-cheeked honeyeater and it trade nectar and likely carried pollen.

From the book. the flagship of these heaths, the white-cheeked honeyeater, works steadily through the brushes, ferrying pollen from plant to plant as it feeds · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The book's flagship bird of the flowering heath, at the brushes the wallum banksia crowns. Ferried pollen is the book's own phrase; a demonstrated transfer study is not on file, so the verb stays hedged.

The claim. The forest diggers dig up and eat it, and likely spread its spores.

From the book. They sniff out these buried fungi, dig them up and eat them, and carry the spores off in their gut to be dropped, still alive, across the forest floor. In eating the fungus they plant it. · the book, Ch 16: Animals and their dependencies

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The truffle is the fungus's fruiting body and the spores ride the digger's gut, so the fixed seed-movement sentence is the honest fit for a partner that grows no seed. The book's chapter carries the connection; no local spore-dispersal study is on file, so the edge claims expectation.

The claim. The mistletoebird eats its fruit or seed, and likely spreads it.

From this web's own account. Its gut is a short straight tube that passes the seed in under half an hour, still sticky and still alive, and the bird then wipes it off sideways onto a branch, which is exactly where a mistletoe needs to land. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. One of the tightest partnerships in Australian bush, and general ecology rather than a local record: the gut, the wipe and the branch are the same everywhere the two occur together.

The claim. The ants eat its fruit or seed, and likely spread it.

From the book. The ants haul the seeds home, eat the morsel, and dump the seed itself, intact, in their underground rubbish chambers, out of the reach of seed-eating birds and buried deep enough to ride out the next fire, until its moment comes. · the book, Ch 15: Plants and the partnerships that feed them

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The bribe is an oil-rich food body glued to each hard seed. The book's sidebar calls Australia's heaths one of the great world centres of ant-planted flora; no local wallum study is on file, so the edge claims expectation.

The claim. The feral pig feeds on it.

From this web's own account. Most of what they eat is underground and they reach it by ploughing the ground open with the snout, which is why the thick rhizomes of the swamp water fern are exactly the kind of buried food a pig is built to find. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Rooting is how a pig feeds. A fern bed in a wet swale is dug over for the rhizomes, and what is left behind is bare churned peat.

The claim. The feral pig feeds on it.

From this web's own account. The starchy bases and roots of the wallum sedges go the same way, and the peat they stand in is left turned over and open behind the mob. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Sedge bases and roots are the same buried starch, in the wettest ground, which is the ground pigs work hardest. The cost lands on the peat as much as on the plant.

The claim. The ground parrot feeds on it.

From the guide. not so old that the low sedges and heath plants it lives on have gone · read it in place →

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The parrot feeds in the heath it hides in, on the seeding ground layer that middle-aged heath carries. No key on file covers the diet itself, so this edge claims expectation and nothing more; the fire-age dependence beside it is the cited story.

The claim. The heath grasshoppers feed on it.

From this web's own account. They chew the blades of the wallum sedges and the softer new shoots of the shrubs, turning a great deal of tough plant tissue into something a bird can swallow. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. This is the step that makes sedge edible to the rest of the web. Almost nothing eats a Gahnia blade directly.

The claim. The springtails and mites feed on it.

From this web's own account. That film is a whole country for the springtails and mites, which graze the algae and fungal threads in it and shelter under it when the surface bakes. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The moss film is grazed, not merely lived in. This is the bottom of the litter food chain, and it is the same in every damp temperate litter on Earth.

The claim. The leaf beetles feed on it.

From this web's own account. Leaf beetles are the cattle of the eucalypt canopy: small, hard-shelled, and present in numbers that can strip a scribbly gum of its new growth in a season. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Chrysomelid outbreaks on eucalypts are ordinary, not exceptional. The tree grows the leaves back and pays for it in stored nutrient.

The claim. The lerp insects feed on it.

From this web's own account. The nymph of a psyllid bug settles on a eucalypt leaf, taps the sap, and builds itself a crisp white lid out of its own sugary waste to sit under; on a scribbly gum in a good year the leaves can be spotted white with them. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Sap-sucking is grazing by another route. Heavy lerp years visibly set a eucalypt back.

The claim. The ground parrot feeds on it.

From this web's own account. The ground parrot feeds on the small hard seed the sedges shed. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Ground parrots are seed eaters, and sedge seed is the staple on offer at their own height. General ecology of the bird, not a local diet study.

The claim. The ants hunt it.

From this web's own account. They take seed for the oil-rich body glued to it and bury the seed itself in their chambers, they scavenge whatever dies on the surface, and they raid the termites. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Ants are the main predator of termites almost everywhere the two occur, and the raid is one of the easier things to see on bare sand.

The claim. The grey butcherbird hunts it.

From this web's own account. The grey butcherbird and the red-bellied black snake take the young. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A ground nest under a tussock is reachable by everything that walks or slides.

The claim. The red-bellied black snake hunts it.

From this web's own account. The grey butcherbird and the red-bellied black snake take the young. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Eggs and chicks in a scrape are standard snake food where the two share ground.

The claim. The dragonflies hunt it.

From this web's own account. The blackwater's acid does not seem to trouble them, which makes them one of the few animals that will eat the tadpoles of the acid frogs. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The acid refuge is a partial one. Invertebrate predators tolerate the chemistry better than fish do, so the wall keeps out the mosquitofish and not the dragonfly larva.

The claim. The feral pig hunts it.

From this web's own account. A pig takes animals as readily as roots, and the acid frogs of the wallum, sitting in the wet ground cover it is rooting through, are eaten with whatever else comes up. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Pigs are omnivores and take frogs, eggs and anything else a snout turns up in wet ground. This is the acid's blind spot: the chemistry that holds the mosquitofish out does nothing whatever about a pig.

The claim. The feral pig hunts it.

From this web's own account. The wetland invertebrates of the churned shallows are picked out of the mud in the same pass. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The invertebrates of the swamp floor are the incidental catch of every rooting bout, taken along with the roots the pig came for.

The claim. The grey butcherbird hunts it.

From this web's own account. The adults drink at the christmas bells, and they are taken on the wing by the grey butcherbird and hawked at dusk by the microbats. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Butcherbirds take large flying insects from a perch. A butterfly in the open over heath is an obvious meal.

The claim. The microbats hunt it.

From this web's own account. The adults drink at the christmas bells, and they are taken on the wing by the grey butcherbird and hawked at dusk by the microbats. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Day-flying butterflies are caught at dusk, when both are still active. The bats' main business is with moths.

The claim. The brown quail hunts it.

From this web's own account. The brown quail and the tawny grassbird pick them off the ground and the laughing kookaburra takes them from a perch; the wolf spiders and the praying mantises take them at close range, and the microbats catch the ones that fly at night. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Quail take insects as well as seed, and large orthopterans are the best value on the ground.

The claim. The microbats hunt it.

From this web's own account. The brown quail and the tawny grassbird pick them off the ground and the laughing kookaburra takes them from a perch; the wolf spiders and the praying mantises take them at close range, and the microbats catch the ones that fly at night. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Crickets and katydids fly at night and call while they do it, which is a poor combination in bat country.

The claim. The laughing kookaburra hunts it.

From this web's own account. The brown quail and the tawny grassbird pick them off the ground and the laughing kookaburra takes them from a perch; the wolf spiders and the praying mantises take them at close range, and the microbats catch the ones that fly at night. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Large insects are the everyday diet of a kookaburra; the snakes are the story people remember.

The claim. The praying mantises hunt it.

From this web's own account. The brown quail and the tawny grassbird pick them off the ground and the laughing kookaburra takes them from a perch; the wolf spiders and the praying mantises take them at close range, and the microbats catch the ones that fly at night. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A mantis takes whatever lands within a foreleg's reach, and these are among the largest things that do.

The claim. The tawny grassbird hunts it.

From this web's own account. The brown quail and the tawny grassbird pick them off the ground and the laughing kookaburra takes them from a perch; the wolf spiders and the praying mantises take them at close range, and the microbats catch the ones that fly at night. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A grassbird works the base of the tussocks, which is where these insects sit out the day.

The claim. The wolf spiders hunt it.

From this web's own account. The brown quail and the tawny grassbird pick them off the ground and the laughing kookaburra takes them from a perch; the wolf spiders and the praying mantises take them at close range, and the microbats catch the ones that fly at night. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A hunting spider on open sand at night and a night-calling insect are on the same schedule.

The claim. The hoverflies hunt it.

From this web's own account. The larvae of many kinds crawl through the foliage hunting aphids and the lerp insects, so the same animal works both sides of this web: a pollen courier as an adult and a predator as a maggot. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Syrphid larvae are among the main things keeping psyllid numbers down on eucalypts. Standard ecology, not a local count.

The claim. The laughing kookaburra hunts it.

From this web's own account. It hunts from a perch over open ground, dropping on skinks, big insects and, often enough, on the red-bellied black snake, and it kills by beating the animal against the branch. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Snake-killing is the kookaburra's public reputation and a genuine part of its diet, mostly young snakes rather than adults.

The claim. The red-backed fairywren hunts it.

From this web's own account. The red-backed fairywren takes them anyway, and so do the parasitoid wasps, which lay in the grubs. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Fairywrens are gleaners, working foliage and low cover for insects of just this size.

The claim. The white-cheeked honeyeater hunts it.

From this web's own account. That sugar is a serious resource in a country with almost none going spare, and honeyeaters strip the lerps off the leaves and eat the lid as readily as the insect under it. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Lerp is a standard honeyeater food across eastern Australia, and a reason these birds are in the trees when nothing is flowering.

The claim. The mosquitofish hunts it.

From the book. a pugnacious little import that nips fins and eats the eggs of frogs and native fish · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The threat the acid holds at bay: the book says the blackwater chemistry keeps the mosquitofish largely away from this fish, and where the water sweetens, this is the connection that follows. The wall is real and it is partial, and that is why it matters.

The claim. The mosquitofish hunts it.

From the book. a pugnacious little import that nips fins and eats the eggs of frogs and native fish · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The same held-off threat as for the honey blue-eye: the sour water limits the invader, and anything that sweetens it lets this connection in.

The claim. The microbats hunt it.

From this web's own account. Their caterpillars are the heaviest leaf-eaters in the wallum, and they are the reason the microbats and the tawny frogmouth can make a living here at all. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Moths are the staple of almost every insect-eating bat in eastern Australia. This is the base of the night food chain.

The claim. The tawny frogmouth hunts it.

From this web's own account. Their caterpillars are the heaviest leaf-eaters in the wallum, and they are the reason the microbats and the tawny frogmouth can make a living here at all. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A frogmouth takes large soft-bodied insects off the ground and off foliage. Moths are the bulk of that.

The claim. The orb weavers hunt it.

From this web's own account. The web takes whatever flies into it: the native bees, the hoverflies, the night moths that were still out at first light. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Fast level fliers are what an orb web is built to intercept.

The claim. The orb weavers hunt it.

From this web's own account. The web takes whatever flies into it: the native bees, the hoverflies, the night moths that were still out at first light. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. An orb web is indiscriminate, which is why a pollinator is as likely a catch as a pest.

The claim. The orb weavers hunt it.

From this web's own account. The web takes whatever flies into it: the native bees, the hoverflies, the night moths that were still out at first light. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Moth scales shed on contact and let many escape the web, so this is a partial catch rather than a reliable one.

The claim. The praying mantises hunt it.

From this web's own account. In this heath that means the flower beetles and the native bees as often as anything else: a mantis eats the pollinators along with everything else that visits a flower. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Sitting on a flower is the whole hunting strategy, so the catch is whatever the flower attracts.

The claim. The praying mantises hunt it.

From this web's own account. In this heath that means the flower beetles and the native bees as often as anything else: a mantis eats the pollinators along with everything else that visits a flower. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A reminder that the web is not a story of goodies and baddies: the same flower feeds the courier and the ambush waiting on it.

The claim. The red-bellied black snake hunts it.

From this web's own account. It swims well, hunts the wet margins and the sedge beds, and takes the acid frogs and their tadpoles as readily as anything on land. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. This snake is a frog specialist across its whole range. Sour water is no obstacle to an animal that only puts its head in.

The claim. The robber flies hunt it.

From this web's own account. They are big, bristly and harmless to people, and among the few insects that routinely kill the native bees and the hoverflies on the wing. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A hovering insect is an easy mark for something that hunts on the wing.

The claim. The robber flies hunt it.

From this web's own account. They are big, bristly and harmless to people, and among the few insects that routinely kill the native bees and the hoverflies on the wing. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Robber flies specialise in aerial interception, and bees are a large share of what is flying over open heath in the middle of the day.

The claim. The grey butcherbird hunts it.

From this web's own account. The red-bellied black snake and the grey butcherbird take it and its young. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Butcherbirds take small birds and nestlings, which is the part of their character the carolling hides.

The claim. The tawny grassbird hunts it.

From this web's own account. It hunts insects and the orb weavers low in the vegetation, and it needs the structure of tall unburnt tussock to nest in, which ties it to much the same fire rhythm as the ground parrot. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Small insectivorous birds take spiders as a matter of course; a web-sitting spider is a stationary target.

The claim. The red-bellied black snake hunts it.

From this web's own account. The red-bellied black snake and the grey butcherbird take it and its young. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A nest a metre off the ground in a tussock is what a swamp snake finds.

The claim. The forest diggers hunt it.

From this web's own account. The forest diggers open the nests up to get at them, and so does almost anything else that can. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Bandicoots take soil and litter invertebrates as a staple; a termite nest is a concentrated version of the same meal.

The claim. The mosquitofish hunts it.

From the guide. That absence matters most for one fish in particular: the mosquitofish (*Gambusia holbrooki*), the little livebearer that has invaded so much of Australia's fresh water and cleans out native tadpoles almost wherever it lands · read it in place →

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The threat, written as the connection it is: where the fish reaches the frogs' water, it cleans out the tadpoles. The recovery plan records most acid breeding waters as fish-free and asks that every effort be made to keep the fish out; nothing verified says the acid itself bars it, which is why the refuge is called partial on this very page.

The claim. The white-faced heron hunts it.

From this web's own account. It takes the acid frogs and the dragonflies out of the shallows, and small fish like the honey blue-eye when a pool shrinks around them; the wallum's summer drawdown is exactly the kind of event that lays a table for a heron. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The larvae are taken out of the shallows and the adults off the vegetation. Either way the heron is above them.

The claim. The white-faced heron hunts it.

From this web's own account. It takes the acid frogs and the dragonflies out of the shallows, and small fish like the honey blue-eye when a pool shrinks around them; the wallum's summer drawdown is exactly the kind of event that lays a table for a heron. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Natural predation on a threatened fish, which is not the thing endangering it. Shrinking pools concentrate the fish and the risk together.

The claim. The white-faced heron hunts it.

From this web's own account. It takes the acid frogs and the dragonflies out of the shallows, and small fish like the honey blue-eye when a pool shrinks around them; the wallum's summer drawdown is exactly the kind of event that lays a table for a heron. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Frogs are standard heron food. The acid keeps fish predators out of this water and has no reach over a bird standing in it.

The claim. The wolf spiders hunt it.

From this web's own account. They take the leaf beetles and anything else the size of a fingernail that crosses bare ground. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A ground-running hunter takes whatever falls or wanders down. Beetles that drop from foliage when disturbed land in exactly the wrong place.

The claim. The heath butterflies raise their young on it.

From this web's own account. Skippers lay on the wallum sedges and their caterpillars roll a blade into a shelter and eat it from inside; other species grow up on the wattles. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Sedge-feeding skippers are a large part of Australia's butterfly fauna and sedgeland is where they breed. The rolled blade is the field sign.

The claim. The heath butterflies raise their young on it.

From this web's own account. Skippers lay on the wallum sedges and their caterpillars roll a blade into a shelter and eat it from inside; other species grow up on the wattles. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Acacia is one of the most used caterpillar host genera on the continent. Which species use which wattle here is not on record.

The claim. The scribbly gum moth raises its young on it.

From this web's own account. The caterpillar hatches on the trunk, tunnels between the old bark and the new, doubles back along its own track to feed on the fresh tissue at the edge of it, and leaves before the bark sheds. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The scribbles are the guide's own field cue for this tree, and this moth is what makes them. The doubling-back track is the diagnostic.

The claim. The bladderworts grow in it.

From the book. Out in the swampy hollows, hidden in the tea-coloured water, the bladderworts (*Utricularia*) do something stranger still: they hang tiny hollow bladders along their underwater stems, each one pumped empty and cocked like a mousetrap, and when a passing water-flea brushes a trigger-hair the bladder springs open and sucks it in on a rush of water. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A carnivorous plant that lives inside the blackwater itself. Its prey in the book is the passing water-flea, which has no node of its own, so the trap stays a story and this web carries only where the plant lives.

The claim. The boronias grow in it.

From the book. This starved white sand grows a low, scrubby heath that, in spring, erupts into flower: grevilleas and peas, wattles and boronias, wax flowers, ground orchids, lilies, and the glittering, insect-eating sundews (the banksias, despite naming the place, sit the spring out; their season is autumn and the cold months), hundreds of species packed together where you would expect almost nothing. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Counted by the book in the flowering heath; its fire chapter adds that for the peas and boronias it is the spring flowering that makes the heath such a spectacle.

The claim. The brown quail lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. A brown quail walks the litter under the heath, eating fallen seed, green shoots and whatever insects it turns up. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The floor of the heath is the quail's whole world: cover overhead, bare litter underfoot.

The claim. Christmas bells grow in it.

From the book. Push on and, especially in the year or two after a fire, you may find, standing clear of the scrub on a slender stalk, Christmas bells (*Blandfordia grandiflora*), a spray of big, waxy, pendulous trumpets glowing red-orange and tipped with gold, hung out like lanterns. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The book walks past this plant inside the heath itself, most showily after a burn.

The claim. The Cooloola sedgefrog lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. These are the acid frogs, among them the wallum froglet, the wallum and Cooloola sedgefrogs, and the wallum rocketfrog. Rather than avoiding the poisonous water, they have evolved the physiology to breed in it, through quiet feats of plumbing that let their eggs and tadpoles hold onto vital salts where other species would lose them. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. This is the species the measured salt-balance work was done on; the acid frogs' collective page carries that cited edge. This row is the book's placement of the animal itself, and claims expectation and no more.

The claim. The dragonflies live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. It climbs a sedge stem to split its skin, and the adult that comes out patrols the same swamp overhead, catching insects in a basket of legs. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Both halves of the life are in the swamp, so draining one costs you the adults over the heath as well.

The claim. The wallum rests on it.

From the guide. The pioneers make the ground stand still, and the scrub and the heath move in behind the shelter they build · read it in place →

The source. Leiper, G. et al. (2022). Mangroves to Mountains (3rd ed.). Native Plants Queensland.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. The guide names these three plants as the sand binders ahead of dune scrub and wallum heath. The heath stands on ground the pioneers hold still; what they give it is stability, never richness, so this edge is a sheltering and not a feeding of the sand.

The claim. The feral pig lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. Pigs lie up by day in thick wet cover and wallow to keep cool, so the paperbark swamp is shelter, water and larder to them at once. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A pig needs shade, water and cover through the middle of the day, and the swamp margins are the one part of this country that offers all three. General ecology of the animal, not a local count.

The claim. Grass-tree grows in it.

From the guide. Here grows *Xanthorrhoea fulva*, low and all but trunkless, a wet-heath plant that never bothers with a tall stem · read it in place →

The source. Leiper, G. et al. (2022). Mangroves to Mountains (3rd ed.). Native Plants Queensland.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. The warrant is the field guide's habitat split, inside its competence: the low trunkless grass-tree belongs to the wet heath, the tall square-leaved one to the dry ridges above it.

The claim. The grevilleas grow in it.

From the book. This starved white sand grows a low, scrubby heath that, in spring, erupts into flower: grevilleas and peas, wattles and boronias, wax flowers, ground orchids, lilies, and the glittering, insect-eating sundews (the banksias, despite naming the place, sit the spring out; their season is autumn and the cold months), hundreds of species packed together where you would expect almost nothing. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The spring heath crowd, as the book walks it. Their cluster-root phosphorus mining is real, and the guide tells it, but the fixed sentences of this web cannot state a mining flow honestly, so that story stays off the graph on purpose.

The claim. The ground parrot lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the guide. The bird needs the middle of that arc, and only the middle · read it in place →

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Retiered from seen-here, August 2026, and its reasoning corrected once the paper was read in full: dooley-2023 records no ground parrots at all, here or anywhere, because it measures vegetation and topsoil and no fauna of any kind. That alone is decisive and is the whole argument. The retier was first argued on a second ground that turned out to be false, that the experiment ran outside this sand country: one of its three sites is at Mt Bilewilam in the Cooloola Recreation Reserve, squarely on the sand mass. The fire-age dependence itself is standard ground-parrot ecology and the book carries it, which is exactly what expected means.

The claim. The mosses and liverworts grow in it.

From this web's own account. Mosses and liverworts are the smallest plants here and the first to green up after rain, spreading as thin films over damp peat, shaded sand and the base of the paperbarks. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A plant with no roots lives on the surface it sits on. Bare shaded sand is the surface on offer between the shrubs.

The claim. The honey blue-eye lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. And in the acid, tea-dark wallum waters live two specialists found almost nowhere else on Earth: the honey blue-eye (*Pseudomugil mellis*) and the Oxleyan pygmy perch (*Nannoperca oxleyana*), both now nationally threatened. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. One of the two blackwater specialists the book names, holding on in exactly the chemistry that keeps the weeds out and the mosquitofish largely at bay.

The claim. The microbats live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. They spend the day jammed into a crack in a dead limb or under a hanging sheet of paperbark, and that is the one thing an old tree gives them that a young one cannot. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Loose peeling bark is a roost, which is one of the plainer reasons the paperbark counts as an engineer of this country.

The claim. The laughing kookaburra lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. It needs a hollow in an old tree to nest in, which in this country means an old scribbly gum or paperbark, and that is the one resource here nobody can make quickly. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Hollows take a century or more to form. Fire age and logging history decide whether this bird can breed at all.

The claim. The longfin eel lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. The longfin (*Anguilla reinhardtii*) and the shortfin (*A. australis*) feed and grow in these tea-dark lowland waters for years, even decades — fattening quietly, seemingly settled — then slip away downstream, out through the estuary and off into the open sea, to spawn, once, far out in the Coral Sea, and die there. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The swamp is where this fish spends nearly its whole life; the one journey it leaves for is the book's sidebar story, and the sea end of it is outside this web.

The claim. The millipedes live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. They need damp, so in this country they live in the wettest litter they can find, under the swamp water fern and along the edges of the swamp, and they go underground in a dry spell. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Millipedes lose water fast and have no way to hold it, so the wet margin is not a preference but a requirement.

The claim. The native bees live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. Bare, sun-warmed sand between the shrubs is as important to them as the flowers, because that is where the burrows go. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The reason a tidy, mulched, fully vegetated heath loses its bees. Ground-nesting bees need open sand, and the wallum has plenty.

The claim. The native peas grow in it.

From the book. This starved white sand grows a low, scrubby heath that, in spring, erupts into flower: grevilleas and peas, wattles and boronias, wax flowers, ground orchids, lilies, and the glittering, insect-eating sundews (the banksias, despite naming the place, sit the spring out; their season is autumn and the cold months), hundreds of species packed together where you would expect almost nothing. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Part of the spring crowd the book counts in the flowering heath.

The claim. The nodule bacteria live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. Bacteria do, inside nodules the plant builds and feeds on its own roots: the plant supplies sugar and a low-oxygen chamber, and the bacteria pull nitrogen straight out of the air and hand it over as ammonium. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The nodule is built by the plant for the tenant, which is about as literal as housing gets. The book's own phrase for it is a fertiliser factory pre-installed.

The claim. The Oxleyan pygmy perch lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. And in the acid, tea-dark wallum waters live two specialists found almost nowhere else on Earth: the honey blue-eye (*Pseudomugil mellis*) and the Oxleyan pygmy perch (*Nannoperca oxleyana*), both now nationally threatened. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The second of the two blackwater specialists the book names, in the same sour refuge as the honey blue-eye.

The claim. Paperbark grows in it.

From the guide. The paperbark is one of the few trees at home in water no nursery would recommend · read it in place →

The source. Leiper, G. et al. (2022). Mangroves to Mountains (3rd ed.). Native Plants Queensland.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. The warrant is a field guide's note on the species' waterlogging, flood and acid-water tolerance, a claim inside the guide's plant-identity competence, so the guide alone carries seen-elsewhere here.

The claim. Paperbark grows in it.

From the guide. The tree that gives these swamps their name is the broad-leaved paperbark · read it in place →

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The swamp is where this tree stands; the tree is what makes the place a paperbark swamp rather than open sedge. The claim is the page's own framing of who lives in the deepest, longest-flooded hollows, with no per-edge observation record behind it, so it claims expectation and nothing more.

The claim. Paperbark swamp and blackwater sedgeland rest on it.

From the guide. all of this leans on something invisible: a groundwater-fed water table that keeps the streams and swamps alive through the dry · read it in place →

The source. Dyring, M. et al. (2025). A hydrogeochemical approach to coastal groundwater-dependent ecosystem conservation: the Cooloola Sand Mass. Science of the Total Environment 958: 177892.

How sure. Recorded or measured in this sand country itself. The dependence is mapped for this exact sand mass in the cited work. Lower the water table, by drainage or extraction, and the swamps go with it, with nothing changing at the surface first.

The claim. The red-backed fairywren lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. They live in dense cover about a metre off the ground, which makes them one of the first birds to leave heath burnt flat and one of the first back once it thickens up again. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A fire-age response, like the ground parrot's, but at the opposite end: this bird wants the young thick regrowth.

The claim. The red-bellied black snake lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. It is venomous, slow to anger and quick to leave, and it is the animal most likely to make a visitor turn back at the edge of a wallum swamp. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Wet margins are where this snake lives, hunts and shelters, which is why it is the one people meet here.

The claim. The robber flies live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. Their own larvae live down in the sand and eat other insect larvae there. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Half of this animal's life is underground, which is true of a surprising share of the heath's insects.

The claim. Scribbly gum grows in it.

From the guide. its country is the leached sand behind the beaches, the wallum and the sandy lowlands · read it in place →

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The gum's whole economy answers the leached podzol it stands on. The page's cited soil story carries this; no per-edge observation record exists, so the edge claims expectation and nothing more.

The claim. The shortfin eel lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. The longfin (*Anguilla reinhardtii*) and the shortfin (*A. australis*) feed and grow in these tea-dark lowland waters for years, even decades — fattening quietly, seemingly settled — then slip away downstream, out through the estuary and off into the open sea, to spawn, once, far out in the Coral Sea, and die there. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Named beside the longfin in the book's sidebar on the swamp's great travellers.

The claim. The wallum rests on it.

From the guide. the force, then, behind the poverty every wallum plant is built to live with · read it in place →

The source. Thompson, C.H. (1981). Podzol chronosequences on coastal dunes of eastern Australia. Nature 291: 59–61.

How sure. Recorded or measured in this sand country itself. The giant leached podzols under this very heath are documented locally, and the chronosequence work measures the topsoil phosphorus falling away dune by dune. The heath is what that bankrupt ground still carries; the edge claims the standing, and leaves what the heath makes of the poverty to the wallum's own page.

The claim. The springtails and mites live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. They are also food for almost everything small enough to hunt in litter, and they spend the wet months in the mosses and liverworts. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A moss film holds water and structure at a scale that suits an animal a millimetre long.

The claim. The sundews grow in it.

From the book. These small, jewel-like plants of the wet wallum spread leaves studded with glistening droplets that look like dew and are in fact glue, and digest whatever lands on them for the nitrogen the sand will not provide. · the book, Ch 15: Plants and the partnerships that feed them

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The wet heath is where the book places them, and their carnivory is in the same sentence. But the insects they take go unnamed in the record, so no predation edge is authored: a connection needs a named partner.

The claim. The swamp water fern grows in it.

From this web's own account. The swamp water fern carpets the floor of the wet swales under the paperbarks, sending thick rhizomes through the peat of the swamp itself and throwing up coarse fronds wherever the shade thins. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The fern layer is one of the plainest field cues for a wallum swamp floor. Where it stops, the ground has dried.

The claim. The tawny frogmouth lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. Its nest is a careless platform of sticks in the fork of a paperbark, and it will use the same fork for years. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The nest is barely a nest, and the tree is doing most of the work of holding it up.

The claim. The tawny grassbird lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. A tawny grassbird lives inside dense sedge and rank heath and is almost never seen except when it springs up, sings a bubbling tumble of notes and drops back in. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Structure is the whole habitat requirement here: tall dense tussock, whatever species it is made of.

The claim. Wallum banksia grows in it.

From the guide. The banksia grows on the bleached, acid sand of the older dunes · read it in place →

The source. Leiper, G. et al. (2022). Mangroves to Mountains (3rd ed.). Native Plants Queensland.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. The warrant is a field guide's placement of the species on exactly this ground, inside the guide's competence. How the shrub answers the podzol's poverty, cluster roots included, is the page's own story and is not claimed as part of this edge.

The claim. The acid-water fish of the wallum live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From the guide. Two fish live in the acid, tea-dark water of the wallum, in the swamps and the slow blackwater streams and the hollows between the sand ridges · read it in place →

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Knight & Arthington 2008 place the pygmy perch in exactly these dystrophic, acidic sand-country waters, but that is a habitat statement from a distribution study, not a local observation, so the edge stays at expected.

The claim. The wallum froglet lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. These are the acid frogs, among them the wallum froglet, the wallum and Cooloola sedgefrogs, and the wallum rocketfrog. Rather than avoiding the poisonous water, they have evolved the physiology to breed in it, through quiet feats of plumbing that let their eggs and tadpoles hold onto vital salts where other species would lose them. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Named by the book in the club of frogs that breed in the acid water. The measured physiology on file was done on the Cooloola sedgefrog; for this species the claim is the book's own, so it stands at expected.

The claim. The acid frogs of the wallum live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From the guide. they have evolved the plumbing to breed in it, holding onto the salts their eggs and tadpoles would otherwise bleed away · read it in place →

The source. Meyer, E.A., Franklin, C.E. & Cramp, R.L. (2021). Physiological and morphological correlates of extreme acid tolerance in larvae of the acidophilic amphibian Litoria cooloolensis. Journal of Comparative Physiology B 191(1): 159–171. DOI 10.1007/s00360-020-01316-y.

How sure. Recorded or measured in this sand country itself. The larval salt-balance work behind this ref was done on the Cooloola sedgefrog, locally, down to about pH 3.5. Authored at seen-here on that study; the grounding flag that once held this edge down to expected was cleared on 2 September 2026.

The record. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-020-01316-y

The claim. The wallum rocketfrog lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. These are the acid frogs, among them the wallum froglet, the wallum and Cooloola sedgefrogs, and the wallum rocketfrog. Rather than avoiding the poisonous water, they have evolved the physiology to breed in it, through quiet feats of plumbing that let their eggs and tadpoles hold onto vital salts where other species would lose them. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Another of the acid-water breeders the book names; for this species the claim is the book's own, so it stands at expected.

The claim. The wallum sedgefrog lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. These are the acid frogs, among them the wallum froglet, the wallum and Cooloola sedgefrogs, and the wallum rocketfrog. Rather than avoiding the poisonous water, they have evolved the physiology to breed in it, through quiet feats of plumbing that let their eggs and tadpoles hold onto vital salts where other species would lose them. · the book, Ch 9: Dunes, wallum and acid waters

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The book counts it among the frogs that breed in the acid water, and the chapter's sources map the narrow pH window this species can breed within. The per-edge tier stays at expected until that survey key lands in the register.

The claim. The wallum sedges grow in it.

From this web's own account. Where the heath dips into wet ground the shrubs give way to sedges: dense, harsh, saw-edged tussocks standing in peat and shallow water for months at a time. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Wet heath and sedgeland are the same country at different depths of water. This is where the sedges take over from the shrubs.

The claim. The acid frogs of the wallum live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. Their crowns are shelter at ground level, and the acid frogs of the wallum call and hide down among the stems. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. One of these frogs is named the sedgefrog for this. The structure matters as much as the chemistry: a frog needs somewhere to sit as well as water it can breed in.

The claim. The wallum rests on it.

From the guide. That hidden sponge is why the heath never quite dies each dry season · read it in place →

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The groundwater mapping for this sand mass covers its wetlands, lakes and streams; the heath's own draw on the buried store is the book's reading of the same system. So this edge claims expectation and leaves the mapped, cited dependence to the swamp's page.

The claim. The white-faced heron lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. A white-faced heron stalks the shallow edges of the swamp on stilts, freezes, and strikes. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The shallow margin is the habitat: too deep to wade and the bird has no business there.

The claim. The wolf spiders live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. They hunt on open sand at night, run their prey down, and by day sit in a burrow with a lid of silk and sand grains at the top of it. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The burrow is the habitat requirement. Loose deep sand is easy to dig and holds a shaft, which is why these spiders do so well here.

The claim. The zamia grows in it.

From the book. The zamias of the heath and open forest, the *Macrozamia* cycads, are survivors from an older world, gymnosperms from a lineage older than the flowering plants, squat and palm-like, their fat cones packed with vivid, poisonous seeds. · the book, Ch 15: Plants and the partnerships that feed them

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The book names its pollinators only as specialist thrips or weevils, insects with no node of their own here, so that older partnership stays in the prose and this web carries only where the plant stands.

The claim. The parasitoid wasps live at its expense.

From this web's own account. The insect inside is safe from most birds and not at all safe from the parasitoid wasps, which drill in through the wall. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A gall is a fortress that cannot be moved and cannot be hidden, which is why their parasitoid fauna is so large.

The claim. The gall insects live at its expense.

From this web's own account. A tiny wasp or fly lays in a bud or a stem, and the chemistry of the larva makes the wattles or the scribbly gum grow a woody chamber around it and go on feeding the very thing that is eating them. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Eucalypt leaf and stem galls are ordinary here. Which insect makes which gall on this sand is not recorded.

The claim. The gall insects live at its expense.

From this web's own account. A tiny wasp or fly lays in a bud or a stem, and the chemistry of the larva makes the wattles or the scribbly gum grow a woody chamber around it and go on feeding the very thing that is eating them. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Acacia galls are among the commonest in the country. The plant pays in tissue and growing points, rarely in its life.

The claim. The parasitoid wasps live at its expense.

From this web's own account. The red-backed fairywren takes them anyway, and so do the parasitoid wasps, which lay in the grubs. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Parasitoids are the main control on leaf-beetle numbers between outbreaks.

The claim. The mistletoes live at its expense.

From this web's own account. Its seed germinates on a branch and drives a wedge of tissue into the wood, tapping the host's plumbing for water and dissolved minerals; the paperbark grows on around the theft, weakened rather than killed unless the load gets heavy. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Standard mistletoe biology, and the paperbark is the host these plants use most in wet coastal country. A load heavy enough to kill a tree is the exception, not the rule.

The claim. The parasitoid wasps live at its expense.

From this web's own account. The spider is itself a meal, for the tawny grassbird by day and for the parasitoid wasps that paralyse it and lay an egg on it. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Spider-hunting wasps are common wherever webs are. The spider is stored alive and eaten slowly.

The claim. The parasitoid wasps live at its expense.

From this web's own account. Parasitoid wasps find the tunnels and lay in the caterpillar, which is one reason a tree covered in scribbles is not a tree in trouble. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Bark-mining larvae are heavily parasitised everywhere they have been looked at. No wasp is named for this moth here.

The claim. The root market and it trade sugar and minerals underground.

From the guide. Almost every plant on this coast runs its roots in partnership with fungi: threads finer than any root, reaching further than any root could afford, trading the minerals they find for the sugar the plant makes in the light · read it in place →

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The one measured trade here is the scribbly gum's, told on its own page. This edge carries the wider claim this page itself makes: that most of the heath's plants are customers too. That is an expectation from how mycorrhizal partnership works, with no wallum fungus yet named and no second measurement on record, so it claims expectation and nothing more.

The claim. Scribbly gum and it trade sugar and minerals underground.

From the guide. runs its roots in partnership with fungi, trading sugar it makes in the light for minerals it could never reach alone · read it in place →

The source. Schmidt, S., Handley, L.L. & Sangtiean, T. (2006). Effects of nitrogen source and ectomycorrhizal association on growth and δ¹⁵N of two subtropical Eucalyptus species from contrasting ecosystems. Functional Plant Biology 33(4): 367–379. DOI 10.1071/FP05260.

How sure. Documented for these species, and not as a record made at this place. The source may well cover this coast; what it does not carry is the observation here. The tier word, not the verb, says where the work was done. Measured in this species on wallum sand: grown on rich ground the gum barely used its fungal partners, grown on wallum sand it leaned on them heavily. Retiered from seen-here, August 2026: the paper names its soils by habitat and never by locality, and it is closed access with no copy obtainable, so nobody can say the sand came from this country rather than wallum somewhere else. The measurement is real and the species is right; the place is unestablished. Note too that it is a glasshouse result on collected soil, so even a Cooloola provenance would warrant measurement on soil FROM this country, not in it. The fungal species doing the trading are not named anywhere in our record.

The record. https://doi.org/10.1071/FP05260

The claim. The litter fungi break it down when it falls.

From this web's own account. The hard leaves of the wallum banksia and the paperbark are armoured with wax and lignin that almost nothing else can digest, and fungal threads grow straight into them, dissolving the leaf from the inside and leaving what remains as fine dark crumbs the sand can hold onto. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Paperbark leaf and bark litter is the bulk of what falls in the swamp margin, and it is oily and slow.

The claim. The litter fungi break it down when it falls.

From this web's own account. The hard leaves of the wallum banksia and the paperbark are armoured with wax and lignin that almost nothing else can digest, and fungal threads grow straight into them, dissolving the leaf from the inside and leaving what remains as fine dark crumbs the sand can hold onto. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. A sclerophyll leaf is built to be expensive to eat, and that applies after it falls as much as before. Fungi are what finally get through it.

The claim. The millipedes break it down when it falls.

From this web's own account. They eat dead leaves and rotting wood, largely for the fungus growing on them, and their droppings are a big share of what turns leaf fall into soil. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Fern fronds collapse rather than rot quickly, and the shredders are what start them on their way.

The claim. The peat microbes break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From this web's own account. Under the swamp the litter does not disappear, it accumulates, and the reason is that decay without oxygen is slow. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The one place in this web where the cleanup crew cannot finish the job: waterlogged, airless and acid, so the litter only part-rots, and the peat and the blackwater are both the result.

The claim. The peat microbes break it down when it falls.

From this web's own account. Half-rotted sedge and paperbark leaves bank up as peat instead, which is where most of the carbon in this country is stored. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Sedge stems are the main raw material. Peat is what a swamp makes when the decomposers cannot finish.

The claim. The springtails and mites break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From this web's own account. Springtails and mites graze the fungal threads and bacterial films on rotting leaves, shred what they cannot digest, and pass it out finer than they took it in, which is exactly what lets the fungi get at it again. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Shredding is not glamorous and it is most of the work. Surface area is what decomposition runs on.

The claim. The termites break it down when it falls.

From this web's own account. They work from inside, running covered galleries up a dead wattle stem and digesting the wood with the help of microbes in their own guts, and in country this dry and this poor they do a good share of the job earthworms do in richer soil. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Wattles are short-lived and their dead stems are everywhere, which makes them the standing supply this crew works on.

The claim. The wetland invertebrates break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From the book. They live, in the main, on detritus: the slow rain of dead leaves and sedge-stems rotting in the shallows. They turn it into the abundant, protein-rich food that the frogs, the fish and the waterbirds all draw on. · the book, Ch 10: Paperbark swamps and freshwater wetlands

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The book calls them the real powerhouse of a wetland: the crew that pulls the swamp's fallen litter apart and hands it back up the food chain. No local invertebrate survey is on file, so the edge claims expectation.

The claim. The wood-rot fungi break it down when it falls.

From this web's own account. Wood-rot fungi are the only organisms here that can take lignin apart on any scale, and a fallen scribbly gum limb will be worked through by them for years, going punky and pale long before it goes at all. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Lignin is the hard part of the job and fungi are effectively the only ones doing it. Everything else in the litter is working on what they have already loosened.

The claim. The ants feed the soil beneath them.

From this web's own account. A wallum ant colony is a granary, a rubbish tip and an abattoir at once, and the sand they turn over building and rebuilding it is a real part of how this soil gets mixed at all. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. In sand with no worms and almost no clay, ants and termites are the mixing. Their chambers move organic matter and buried seed down out of the fire's reach.

The claim. The litter fungi feed the soil beneath them.

From this web's own account. Without this crew the litter would pile up and the nutrients banked in it would never come back. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. On sand this poor almost all the nutrient in the system is inside living tissue or the litter above it. The turnover is the fertility.

The claim. The lichens feed the soil beneath them.

From this web's own account. A crust of them binds the surface grains against the wind, and the kinds that farm cyanobacteria pull nitrogen out of the air and leak it into the sand beneath, which on ground this poor is a real contribution. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Soil crusts do this on poor sandy ground worldwide. The size of the contribution here is not measured, which is why the edge claims expectation and no amount.

The claim. The native peas feed the soil they grow in.

From the book. And a great many, the wattles and the native peas above all, solve the nitrogen problem by renting it. · the book, Ch 15: Plants and the partnerships that feed them

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The rent is paid in nitrogen fixed from the air by bacteria the plant houses and feeds; the starved sand is the ground that gains by it.

The claim. The nodule bacteria feed the soil beneath them.

From this web's own account. On sand this poor that is very nearly the only nitrogen entering the system apart from what falls in the rain, which is why a burnt patch greens up with wattles first and why the ground under them is richer than the ground beside them. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Nitrogen enters this country by fixation and by rain, and by very little else. Phosphorus has no equivalent, which is the whole asymmetry the soil chapter turns on.

The claim. The termites feed the soil beneath them.

From this web's own account. Their galleries carry organic matter down into the sand and their workings mix it. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Moving carbon down into bleached sand is real work in a soil that has no worms to speak of and no clay to hold anything.

The claim. The wallum sedges feed the soil they grow in.

From this web's own account. Their own fallen stems are the bulk of what rots down into the peat, so the swamp is in large part built out of dead sedge. · general ecology for this kind of country, written here rather than quoted from the book or a guide page

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. Peat is unfinished sedge. The swamp's ground is made by the plants standing in it, which is why draining it destroys the soil as well as the water.

The claim. The wattles feed the soil they grow in.

From the book. It is why wattles are so often the first plants to colonise bare or burnt ground, arriving with their own fertiliser factories pre-installed. · the book, Ch 15: Plants and the partnerships that feed them

The source. None on this row. The tier claims honest inference, not a recorded observation, and rests on the owning page's own cited prose.

How sure. Established for these species generally, and expected here for that reason. What is missing is the local record: nobody has published the observation made in this sand country yet. The bacteria in the nodules pull nitrogen from the air; the sand gets what the plant banks. The book's soil chapter carries the same story: nitrogen builds up under generations of wattles on the middle-aged dunes.