The Mary Cairncross evidence register

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

From the book. The strangling figs of the hinterland rainforest, the ones we met throttling their hosts in the scrub at Mary Cairncross, depend for their very existence on an insect a few millimetres long, and that insect depends absolutely on them. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. An absolute connection: no wasp, no fig seed; no fig, no wasp. It is authored one-way from the wasp's act because the fig pays its pollinator in brood room, not nectar, so a mutual pollination row would misname the currency; the two-way dependence is the anchor's own claim.

The claim. The stingless bees visit its flowers, and likely carry its pollen.

From this web's own account. The tiny open cream flowers of the laurels get worked over by them, and so does almost everything else that holds its pollen out where a small bee can reach 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: small open cream flowers in quantity are stingless-bee packaging, and the laurels carry them by the canopy-full. No pollen-transfer study stands behind this pair, so the verb stays at visiting. The edge used to name the blue quandong, which was wrong: Elaeocarpus anthers shed through an apical slit and need a bee that can vibrate them, which a stingless bee cannot do.

The claim. The flying-foxes eat its fruit or seed, and likely spread it.

From this web's own account. On the blue quandongs they strip the flesh and let the stone fall. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. A big stone-fruit is built for a big animal, and on this range the flying-fox is the biggest one working the canopy.

The claim. The flying-foxes eat its fruit or seed, and likely spread it.

From this web's own account. A flying-fox thinks nothing of twenty kilometres in a night, which makes it the one courier that routinely carries a rainforest seed from this remnant to the next one, out across all the cleared dairy country in between. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. The long-distance link between fragments. Nothing else here crosses open farmland with a seed on board.

The claim. The flying-foxes eat its fruit or seed, and likely spread it.

From this web's own account. They are messy eaters, which is the point: they chew the flesh, spit the fibre, and drop or carry seed as they go, so a strangler fig gets its seed moved by bat as well as by bird. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology, and about as well established as anything in Australian frugivory: figs are a staple of both flying-fox species.

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

From this web's own account. The dangling strings of scarlet fruit on a walking-stick palm are exactly its size, and the seed comes out somewhere else in the forest. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: small scarlet fruit at understorey height is bird packaging, and the catbird is the understorey's most committed fruit-eater.

The claim. The Australian brush-turkey eats its fruit or seed, and likely spreads it.

From this web's own account. Not all of it travels by air, either: the Australian brush-turkey works over whatever hits the ground and shifts the seed sideways as it goes. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: a ground bird that eats fallen fruit moves seed short distances in quantity, which is how a good deal of a rainforest gets replanted.

The claim. Lewin's honeyeater eats its fruit or seed, and likely spreads it.

From this web's own account. Most of what it takes is fruit, small and soft and swallowed whole, which quietly makes it one of the busiest seed carriers in the forest even though nobody would mistake it for a fruit-pigeon: it works the laurels and everything else bearing in the mid-storey, and the seed comes out somewhere else. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: this honeyeater is a heavy fruit-eater, and small-fruited laurels are the mid-storey's standard offering.

The claim. The rose-crowned fruit-dove eats its fruit or seed, and likely spreads it.

From the book. Every one of them is part of the delivery service: they swallow the fruit whole and carry the seed away, so that a rainforest with its pigeons shot out or starved is a rainforest that can no longer move. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The chapter sends the fruit-doves to the figs by name and then states the connection for all of them at once: fruit swallowed whole, seed carried away. No local gut-passage record is on file, so the tier stays at expectation.

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

From the book. Every one of them is part of the delivery service: they swallow the fruit whole and carry the seed away, so that a rainforest with its pigeons shot out or starved is a rainforest that can no longer move. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The topknot's flocks follow the fruiting from patch to patch, which makes it a long-range carrier: the seed it swallows here can come down a ridge away.

The claim. The wompoo fruit-dove eats its fruit or seed, and likely spreads it.

From this web's own account. It takes fruit whole, holds the pulp and drops or voids the seed, and its gape is wide enough for the big single-seeded fruits most other birds cannot manage, which is exactly what the laurels are packaged 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: a big-gaped fruit-dove is the standard carrier for large single-seeded laurel fruit. No local feeding record stands behind it.

The claim. The wompoo fruit-dove eats its fruit or seed, and likely spreads it.

From the book. Every one of them is part of the delivery service: they swallow the fruit whole and carry the seed away, so that a rainforest with its pigeons shot out or starved is a rainforest that can no longer move. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The book's own summary of what the fruit-pigeons do for this place: swallow whole, carry away, deposit far from the parent. The dependence runs both ways, which is why losing the pigeons grounds the forest.

The claim. The wompoo fruit-dove eats its fruit or seed, and likely spreads it.

From the book. A strangler fig (here most often the Watkins' fig, *Ficus watkinsiana*) begins life as a seed wiped from a pigeon's gut onto a high fork of some other tree, germinates up there in a pocket of trapped leaf litter, and lets down slender roots toward the soil far below. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The fig's whole life starts in a pigeon's gut, and the wompoo is the first fruit-dove the chapter names at the fig crops. A gut-passage study for this bird and this fig is not on file, so the edge claims expectation and no more.

The claim. The leaf-chewers feed on it.

From this web's own account. And some chewers get past every defence there is: the giant stinging tree is furred with silica hairs that will put a person in hospital, and the beetles chew it anyway. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. The book states the immunity as observed natural history and leaves the insects unnamed; this row names them no more precisely than the beetles and their company.

The claim. The leaf-chewers feed on it.

From this web's own account. The laurels take their share of the damage like everything else. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: insect herbivory on rainforest foliage is heavy and falls on every family, laurels included.

The claim. The red-legged pademelon feeds on it.

From the book. And in one of the small marvels of this forest, several animals eat it without the slightest trouble: red-legged pademelons can strip a whole plant overnight, and beetles and other insects chew the leaves, dining in comfort on a plant that would put a person in hospital. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. One of the chapter's small marvels: dining in comfort on a plant that would put a person in hospital. The book states the immunity as observed natural history; no feeding study for this site is on file, so the tier stays at expectation.

The claim. The regent bowerbird feeds on it.

From the book. It is also one of the forest's most important larders: a big fig in fruit feeds pigeons, bowerbirds, flying-foxes and half the canopy at once, and because different figs fruit at different times, a forest with its figs intact rarely has a month when nothing is bearing. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The bowerbirds are in the book's queue at the fig larder by name. Asynchronous fruiting is the larder's trick: with the figs intact there is rarely a month when nothing is bearing.

The claim. The stick insects feed on it.

From this web's own account. They feed at night on the foliage of the canopy and the understorey, the woody vines included, and by day they hang motionless where nothing will find 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: phasmids are broad foliage feeders, and vine leaves are soft, plentiful and within reach of a climber.

The claim. The ants hunt it.

From this web's own account. They take the litter invertebrates by the thousand, they farm sap-sucking bugs on stems for the sugar they leak, and they carry seeds and insect eggs down into their nests, which quietly makes them one of the forest's planters. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. The litter's small fauna is the standing food supply of every ground-foraging ant colony.

The claim. The ants hunt it.

From this web's own account. They are hunters as well, and a termite gallery opened by a falling branch is raided within the hour. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: ants are the main predators of termites almost everywhere the two occur together.

The claim. The carpet python hunts it.

From this web's own account. What it takes is bigger than it looks capable of: an Australian brush-turkey off a low roost, a bandicoot on the floor, a possum out of a fork. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: ground birds and medium mammals are the standard diet of an adult carpet python.

The claim. The carpet python hunts it.

From this web's own account. It hunts by ambush and by scent, and it will sit on a well-used route for days waiting for the animal that uses 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 patch of rainforest yet. A bandicoot works the same runs every night, which is exactly what an ambush hunter is set up for.

The claim. The eastern yellow robin hunts it.

From this web's own account. Almost everything it eats is small and invertebrate: the litter invertebrates, spiders, whatever a grub is doing under a leaf. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: a pounce-hunting robin lives on the floor's small invertebrates.

The claim. The powerful owls hunt it.

From this web's own account. the powerful owl is the largest pair of feet in the forest: half a metre of bird able to carry a possum out of a fork, and a specialist in exactly that, taking possums, gliders and, where they roost within reach, flying-foxes · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: the powerful owl is the one bird here big enough to take a flying-fox, and it does. The two owls are separate residents here, so that each row says what its own bird can do.

The claim. The golden orb weavers hunt it.

From this web's own account. The web is a tax on everything with wings: moths, flies, and the adult beetles of the leaf-chewers working the canopy above. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: an orb web takes whatever flies into it, and in this forest most of what flies is somebody's leaf-eater.

The claim. The green tree snake hunts it.

From this web's own account. It hunts by sight rather than by heat, which is why it works the day shift, and most of what it takes is frogs and small skinks off the wet floor and the lower 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: frogs are the mainstay of this snake's diet across its range.

The claim. The grey goshawk hunts it.

From this web's own account. Pigeons are a staple, and a flock of topknot pigeons blowing out of a fig in a clatter is often a goshawk's doing. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: pigeons and other medium birds are the standard prey of this hawk through eastern forests.

The claim. The gully frogs hunt it.

From this web's own account. All of them hunt the same way, sitting still and taking whatever walks or flies past: the litter invertebrates, moths, beetles, spiders. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: a sit-and-wait frog on a rainforest floor eats what the floor supplies.

The claim. Lewin's honeyeater hunts it.

From this web's own account. The rest of its living is insects gleaned off leaves and bark, and it is a thorough enough hunter that the leaf-chewers have to get through a day with it in the tree. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. Gleaning insects off foliage is what most rainforest birds do between fruit crops.

The claim. The Australian brush-turkey hunts it.

From this web's own account. Everything that hunts on this floor is ultimately eating them, from the robins and the logrunner up to the Australian brush-turkey, which spends its whole day raking the litter apart and taking what runs. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology. The turkey's own page tells the mound and the chicks; the raking is what it does the rest of the year, and this is what the raking is for.

The claim. The logrunner hunts it.

From this web's own account. What it is after is the litter invertebrates: spiders, beetle larvae, the small soft things in the top few centimetres of damp leaves. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: the raking is a feeding technique aimed at exactly this layer.

The claim. The noisy pitta hunts it.

From this web's own account. The rest of its living comes out of the litter, mostly earthworms and beetles, and in winter some of these birds drop off the range to the lowlands and come back in spring. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: worms and beetles are the bulk of a pitta's diet between snails.

The claim. The noisy pitta hunts it.

From this web's own account. A pitta carries land snails to a favourite stone or root, smashes the shell against it and eats the animal, and it uses the same anvil for months, so the ring of broken shells around a stone is the record of a bird's whole 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 patch of rainforest yet. The anvil habit is one of the best known things about this bird anywhere in its range.

The claim. The northern brown bandicoot hunts it.

From this web's own account. It works by smell, digging a snout-sized hole wherever something underground registers, and it eats what it finds: beetle larvae, earthworms, insects, roots and the odd fallen fruit. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: worms and grubs are the staple of a digging omnivore on a wet, worm-rich soil.

The claim. The paradise riflebird hunts it.

From this web's own account. The leaf-chewers of this forest lose a great many of their young to birds that hunt the bark rather than the leaves, and this is the most specialised of 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: a probing bill working bark and rotten wood takes beetle and moth larvae, which is where most leaf-chewers spend their youth.

The claim. The slime moulds hunt it.

From this web's own account. For most of its life a slime mould is a single enormous cell with many nuclei, a sheet of protoplasm creeping over rotting wood and through the litter at a few millimetres an hour, engulfing the soil bacteria, yeasts and spores it meets on the way. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: bacteria are what a plasmodial slime mould eats, which makes it a predator at a scale nobody watches.

The claim. The southern boobook hunts it.

From this web's own account. the rest is whatever small warm thing it can pick off a log or a stump, an antechinus among 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 patch of rainforest yet. A small nocturnal marsupial is standard boobook food; nothing here says which night, or which stump.

The claim. The whipbird hunts it.

From this web's own account. They work the dense stuff near the ground, and what they are after is down there: the litter invertebrates, beetles, spiders, anything turned up by flicking leaves aside. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: this is a litter forager, and the litter is where its food is.

The claim. The subtropical antechinus hunts it.

From this web's own account. It hunts the trunks, the logs and the litter, and what it takes is invertebrate: beetles, spiders, cockroaches, the litter invertebrates in bulk. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: an antechinus is an insectivore first, and the litter is the richest hunting ground it has.

The claim. The blue triangle raises its young on it.

From this web's own account. The caterpillars will not: they are laurel specialists, and the female works along the mid-storey testing leaves with her feet until she finds the right family to lay on. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: this butterfly's larvae are restricted to the laurel family, which is standard and long-established for the species.

The claim. The fig wasp raises its young on it.

From this web's own account. A strangler fig raises a generation of wasps in every crop it sets, and the wasps have nowhere else on earth to raise 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 patch of rainforest yet. The other half of the currency: the fig pays in nursery room, which is why this pair holds two rows rather than one.

The claim. The araucarias grow in it.

From the book. The hoop pines spearing above the canopy, and the bunya on certain ranges, are araucarias, an ancient line of conifers that dominated the forests of the southern supercontinent Gondwana when the continents were joined and dinosaurs browsed forests not unlike these. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The living-museum claim, grouped the way the prose groups it: the emergent conifers as one ancient line. The bunya's mast years and the gatherings they once drew are the sidebar's story, told strictly from the published record, and they stay in the prose. The hoop pine and bunya pine each keep a full guide page of their own.

The claim. The bird's-nest fern grows in it.

From the book. The nests of stiff, upright, apple-green fronds wedged into the crotches of trees are bird's-nest ferns (*Asplenium australasicum*), shaped like a giant shuttlecock for exactly one reason: to funnel falling leaves and rainwater into their own centre and build themselves a private compost heap up in the canopy. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. Not a parasite: the book is careful that the epiphytes take nothing from the tree but a perch. The fern builds its own soil up in the air, which is why the branches of one big tree can carry a hanging garden.

The claim. The booyongs grow in it.

From the book. The massive grey trunks nearby that flare out at the base into great thin fins of wood, like the buttresses of a cathedral, belong most often to the booyongs (*Argyrodendron* species), the towering signature trees of the subtropical big scrub. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The book's chapter notes name both species, white and black booyong, at Mary Cairncross itself. The buttresses answer shallow rooting in deep soil; that engineering stays in the prose because a brace is not a connection with a partner.

The claim. The carpet python lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. carpet python, red-legged pademelon — standard SE Qld rainforest fauna · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The walk leaves it looped along a branch, digesting, and names no prey for it here, so its residence is the only edge the book supports; the hunting rows below are general ecology.

The claim. The epiphytic orchids grow in it.

From the book. Beside them ride the staghorns and elkhorns (*Platycerium*), their round brown backing-fronds pressed flat to the bark and their forked green fronds thrown out like antlers, and, smaller and far harder to find, the orchids. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The book's field checklist gives the king orchid as the signature rainforest orchid, but the chapter's walk names the orchids only as a group, so the node stays a group. Their fungal seed-nursing is told for the coast's orchids generally and is left in the prose.

The claim. The giant stinging tree grows in it.

From the book. It is one of the fastest of all the rainforest pioneers, shooting up wherever a big tree has crashed and opened the canopy. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The gap specialist: its opening is a crashed giant and a hole of sunlight.

The claim. The golden orb weavers live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. She builds across flyways, in the gaps in the woody vines and between shrubs at the track edge, because a gap is where flying insects have to 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 patch of rainforest yet. The vine tangle supplies the frame: two anchor points and a hole between them is all an orb weaver needs.

The claim. The green catbird lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. Wompoo & rose-crowned fruit-doves, topknot pigeon, green catbird, regent bowerbird, paradise riflebird · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. Registered on the walk by voice alone, a drawn-out wail like a cat out of the gloom, so the anchor is the chapter's own fauna record for the interior.

The claim. The green tree snake lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From this web's own account. The vine tangle is its road, and it will go thirty metres up through the woody vines after something calling in a wet fork. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. The vines are the only continuous route from floor to canopy that a climbing snake can use without crossing open bark.

The claim. The land mullet lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. land mullet *Bellatorias major* (formerly *Egernia major*) — large glossy blue-black rainforest skink · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. Under the rotting logs, and nearly out of continent: the Conondale Range just west of here is about as far north as the species reaches.

The claim. The laurels grow in it.

From this web's own account. The family runs to dozens of species here, most of them plain, dull-green, unmemorable trees you would walk straight past, and between them they hold the canopy the way grass holds a paddock. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. The laurel family is the structural core of subtropical rainforest canopy across eastern Australia.

The claim. The lawyer cane grows in it.

From the book. Wait-a-while / lawyer cane *Calamus muelleri* — clustering climbing rattan (to ~20 m) with recurved-hooked flagella (~1.2 m); the SE Qld "wait-a-while" (Gympie south into NE NSW). · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The warrant is the chapter's own species record for its rainforest flora; the walk's snagged-sleeve portrait names no stratum outright, so the record line carries the edge. The neighbours whose backs it climbs go unnamed, leaving the connection with the forest whole.

The claim. The woody vines grow in it.

From this web's own account. A rainforest is not only trees; it is trees tied together. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. Woody climbers are a defining structural feature of subtropical rainforest, which is one of the ways you tell it from wet eucalypt forest.

The claim. The litter invertebrates live in, nest in or shelter in it.

From this web's own account. They ride upward too: a bird's-nest fern holds its own private litter heap thirty metres up in a fork, and it holds its own private population of springtails and mites along with 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 patch of rainforest yet. The fern's compost basket is a patch of forest floor in the canopy, with the fauna to match.

The claim. The paradise riflebird lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. green catbird, regent bowerbird, paradise riflebird — the southernmost of the birds-of-paradise · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. A scrap of New Guinea performing in a Queensland gully, at the far edge of its family's world.

The claim. The piccabeen palm grows in it.

From the book. So little light reaches the floor of a closed rainforest that almost nothing grows there but the shade-hardened seedlings of the canopy trees, a scatter of ferns, and the palms: young piccabeens crowding the shaded floor in colonies before they race up for the canopy, and the truly small walking-stick palm (*Linospadix monostachyos*), a single slender stem no higher than your chest, hung with dangling strings of scarlet fruit. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. Placed with the floor crew for the stage of life the walk actually meets: the shade-hardened juvenile colonies waiting on a gap. The adults are canopy palms, and the book tells that climb in the same sentence.

The claim. The quandongs grow in it.

From this web's own account. It is one of the rainforest's fast big trees, first up into a gap and often the tallest thing in young regrowth, and its small white bell flowers hang in rows under the branches for anything small enough to work 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 patch of rainforest yet. A gap species that ends up an emergent: blue quandong is one of the standard fast trees of eastern Australian rainforest.

The claim. Red cedar grows in it.

From the book. Within a few decades of European arrival the great forest was felled (for its red cedar first, then for the dairy farms that replaced it) and reduced from an unbroken canopy to a scatter of remnants, patches saved by steep ground, luck, or deliberate foresight. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The ghost of the forest: the tree the cutters came for first, and the reason the big scrub fell. The reserve is one of the surviving remnants, and the book's chapter notes list red cedar among its documented flora. The seed spins away on the wind, so no courier holds a dispersal connection with it; the wind is not a partner.

The claim. The red-legged pademelon lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. Pademelons — small round rufous wallabies, here the red-legged pademelon (*Thylogale stigmatica*) — browse the edges at dusk and crash into the undergrowth at the first footfall, though the habituated colony at Mary Cairncross has long since stopped bothering to run. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The reserve's signature animal, browsing the edges at dusk; at Mary Cairncross the colony is habituated enough to hold its ground while you pass.

The claim. The staghorns and elkhorns grow in it.

From the book. Beside them ride the staghorns and elkhorns (*Platycerium*), their round brown backing-fronds pressed flat to the bark and their forked green fronds thrown out like antlers, and, smaller and far harder to find, the orchids. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. Perch tenants of the canopy limbs, next to the bird's-nest ferns. The book names no single carrying tree, so the connection is authored with the forest itself rather than invented for a particular trunk.

The claim. The walking-stick palm grows in it.

From the book. So little light reaches the floor of a closed rainforest that almost nothing grows there but the shade-hardened seedlings of the canopy trees, a scatter of ferns, and the palms: young piccabeens crowding the shaded floor in colonies before they race up for the canopy, and the truly small walking-stick palm (*Linospadix monostachyos*), a single slender stem no higher than your chest, hung with dangling strings of scarlet fruit. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. A palm that lives its whole life in the dimness the closed canopy makes.

The claim. The whipbird lives in, nests in or shelters in it.

From the book. The light drops by half; the air cools, dampens and goes still; the glare and the traffic fall away behind you; and the sounds that replace them are water dripping from leaf to leaf, the crack of a whipbird, and the sudden clatter of an unseen pigeon leaving a branch. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The first voice the walk gives you at Mary Cairncross.

The claim. Strangler fig lives at its expense.

From this web's own account. A booyong also makes a fine perch for something it cannot refuse, and a tree carrying a strangler fig in a high fork has a tenant that will outlive 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: a big rough-barked emergent is exactly the host a strangler starts on, and the host loses. Which individual tree carries a fig here is nobody's record.

The claim. The land leeches live at its expense.

From this web's own account. Most of their living, though, is made off the animals that actually live here, and a red-legged pademelon pushing through wet undergrowth at dusk is the usual customer, not you. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: a warm-blooded animal moving through wet undergrowth every evening is what a land leech is built for.

The claim. The laurels and it trade sugar and minerals underground.

From this web's own account. Their flowers are tiny, cream and open, worked over by whatever small insects are about, and below ground their roots run in the ordinary alliance with the mycorrhizal fungi: sugar down, minerals and water up, on the tight loop this forest lives by. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. Effectively every rainforest tree runs a mycorrhizal partnership; naming one canopy family makes the trade visible on a single trunk.

The claim. The mycorrhizal fungi and it trade sugar and minerals underground.

From the book. Nearly every plant on this coast — the rainforest giant, the wallum banksia, the gum tree, the paperbark — runs its roots in alliance with fungi, in a relationship called mycorrhiza, literally "fungus-root." · 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 patch of rainforest yet. Sugar for minerals, photosynthesis for plumbing: the book opens its partnership chapter with this trade and puts the rainforest giant first in the queue. On this rich basalt the trees can afford to lean on it less than the wallum's paupers do, and the chapter says so.

The claim. The earthworms break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From this web's own account. That is the main way the surface litter of this rainforest gets underground and stays 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: worms are the principal route by which surface litter enters the soil in a wet, non-acid ground like this one.

The claim. The land snails break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From this web's own account. A rasping tongue works over wet bark, fallen leaves and the film of algae and fungal threads that coats everything, and in doing it they shred a real share of the leaf fall of this rainforest into pieces small enough for the fungi to finish. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: snails are shredders, and shredding is the step that lets the fungi work fast.

The claim. The litter fungi break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From the book. In the warm, wet, windless air, fungi and insects rot fallen leaves and timber far faster than in the dry forest upslope, and the nutrients they release are seized back almost at once by the shallow, hungry roots of the living trees and the mycorrhizal fungi threaded through them. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The fast half of the forest's tight nutrient loop: litter taken apart at speed so the wealth barely touches the ground.

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

From this web's own account. Most of them are under two millimetres long, and between them they graze the fungal threads, chew the softened leaf tissue and eat each other, which is what keeps the decomposition of this rainforest running at the speed it does. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: the small litter fauna is the engine room of decomposition in every warm wet forest.

The claim. The luminous fungi break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From this web's own account. What these fungi are doing the rest of the time is the ordinary work of a wet forest floor, which is rotting the fallen wood of the rainforest back into something a root can use. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. The glow is the famous part; the rot is the job. Which luminous species are on this particular ground is nobody's record.

The claim. The millipedes break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From this web's own account. Almost the whole leaf fall of this rainforest passes through some shredder's gut on the way to becoming 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: millipedes are among the principal litter shredders of warm wet forests everywhere.

The claim. The soil bacteria break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From this web's own account. The fungi and the shredders do the coarse work; the bacteria finish it, taking apart what is left and releasing the nitrogen, phosphorus and sulphur locked up in it in forms a root can actually take. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: bacteria are the last step of decomposition and the one that puts nitrogen back within reach of a root.

The claim. The termites break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From this web's own account. On the floor they work fallen branches and litter, so a fair share of the leaf fall of this rainforest goes underground through a termite before anything else gets a turn. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: termites are a principal decomposer of wood and litter in every warm Australian forest.

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

From this web's own account. A booyong that took three hundred years to grow is taken apart over a decade or two by an organism with no moving parts. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. General ecology: wood-rotting fungi are the only organisms that take apart a fallen rainforest giant, whatever species it was.

The claim. The wood-rotting fungi break down its fallen leaves and litter.

From this web's own account. What they release goes straight back into the tight loop this rainforest runs on, and what they leave behind, the soft rotten wood and the hollow trunk, is housing for half the animals here. · 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 patch of rainforest yet. The wood half of the fast loop. The hollows are not this crew's work alone: rot and termites together are what open an old trunk, which is how the termites' own row puts it.

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

From this web's own account. Every year it drops a season of leaves onto the floor, and within a season the goodness in them is back in the living wood overhead, which is the whole trick of this place: the soil is rich, but the wealth is not kept 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 patch of rainforest yet. The leaf fall of the canopy trees is where the floor's whole budget comes from, and it is taken back almost as fast as it lands.

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

From the book. In the warm, wet, windless air, fungi and insects rot fallen leaves and timber far faster than in the dry forest upslope, and the nutrients they release are seized back almost at once by the shallow, hungry roots of the living trees and the mycorrhizal fungi threaded through them. · the book manuscript

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 patch of rainforest yet. The handover: what the litter crew releases, the root-threaded fungi seize almost at once. This hand-to-hand cycle is why clearing costs so much here; the wealth rides in the living loop, not banked in the ground.