TASMANIAN FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB BULLETIN Page 4 
Mr. van Gessel, who operates under the auspices 
of the Australian Bird-Banding Scheme, is undertaking 
a study of the curlew sandpipers and other palaearctic 
waders which visit the Newcastle area. 
...The curlew sandpiper breeds in the Arctic regions 
of Siberia during the northern summer, and each 
autumn makes the long trip to southern latitudes to 
escape the bitter Siberian winter. During the northern 
winter it is found along the coasts of Africa, India, 
south-east Asia and Australia. 
PUBLICITY UNEARTHS BABY "MONSTER" 
First live specimen of new insect family - Publicity 
in a Brisbane newpaper has resulted in the discovery 
of a live specimen of the so-called "Cooloola Monster" 
The Monster, identified by CSIRO entomologist, Dr. 
David Rentz earlier this year as representing a new 
family in the insect order Orthoptera, created 
considerable excitement when the first specimen, an 
adult male, was discovered in Queensland coastal 
rainforest. It is the first addition at family level 
to the Orthoptera for more than a century. The 
second specimen was found by a ranger who was digging 
in sandy heath on Fraser Island, which is adjacent to 
the site where Monster No. 1 was found. His first 
spadeful of sandy soil uncovered a 1cm juvenile 
specimen of the Monster which, to his great credit, 
he recognised from the original CSIRO newspaper 
article despite differences in both size and appear¬ 
ance to the adult. The circumstances of the 
discovery lend weight to the theory that the 
creature lives an entirely subterranean existence, 
perhaps surfacing only during soil waterlogging. 
Buffalo-profiled and strikingly muscled, both juve¬ 
nile, and adult Monster are superbly adapted for 
digging. From observations of the juvenile, they do 
not construct tunnels like their distant cricket 
relatives - instead they bore through the soil, 
allowing it to close behind them. 3 > 
