2 
Psyche 
[March 
York to the southern tip of Tasmania. 2 A brief itinerary with maps 
and list of localities has been published (1961). Information and 
collections obtained during this trip have enabled me to correlate other 
information and write the present paper. New genera and species re- 
ferred to now (but not by name) will be described in forthcoming 
numbers of Psyche and Breviora. 
The Forests 
My “wet forests” are rain forests as classified in “The Australian 
Environment” (CSIRO 1950, 77-96). That is, they are dense, ever- 
green (non-deciduous) forests with closed canopies, often (in tropical 
rain forest) with many woody vines, but with comparatively little 
low vegetation, the ground being covered with dead leaves and leaf 
mold rather than grass or herbs. 
Two main types of rain forest exist in the Australian Region: 
tropical (including subtropical) (Figs. 1, 2) and south temperate 
(Figs. 3, 4). Tropical rain forest is widely distributed in New 
Guinea at low and middle altitudes, although in the drier country of 
southern New Guinea it is replaced by op n savannah woodland like 
that of much of northern Australia. Tropical rain forest occurs also 
on the eastern edge of Australia in separate tracts spaced irregularly 
from parts of Cape York south through Queensland and northern 
New South Wales (map, Fig. 6). The best of this forest in tropical 
and subtropical Australia as well as in New Guinea is real, Malaysian- 
type rain forest, although some tracts in Australia are lighter and 
seasonally drier, and light rain forest sometimes grades into semi- 
deciduous monsoon forest. 
The northernmost rain forest in Australia is the tip-of-peninsular 
(Fockerbie or Somerset) tract on the tip of Cape York. It is lowland 
rain forest, but somewhat depauperate (see p. 17) . 
2 This trip was supported in part by a fellowship of the John Simon Guggen- 
heim Memorial Foundation. I am especially indebted to Dr. L. J. Webb, of 
the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, for in- 
formation on the distribution of rain forest in Queensland, to many members 
of the Queensland Department of Forestry who aided or guided us in the field, 
and to Mr. P. J. Killoran, of the Queensland Department of Native Affairs, 
who arranged our visit to Bamaga and the tip of Cape York. I very much 
regret that I do not have space to acknowledge other assistance in detail here. 
Explanation of Plate 1 
Fig. 1. Tropical rain forest, Lake Barrine, Atherton Tableland, North 
Queensland (P. J. D. 1932). 
Fig. 2. Interior of tip-of-peninsular (tropical) rain forest, from edge of 
new clearing, Lockerbie, Cape York, Queensland (P. J. D. 1958). This is 
the habitat of Mccynognathus. 
