Bush Blitz

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Visit our website at: http://www.bushblitz.org.au.

Bush Blitz is Australia’s largest biodiversity survey program uncovering species new to science – a unique multimillion dollar partnership between the Australian Government, Earthwatch Australia and BHP.

15/10/2026

From fish to cave crickets, we’re excited to share the list of successful 2026 Bush Blitz Taxonomy Research projects. Bush Blitz is proud to support this year’s deserving scientists to identify, name and describe 65 species new to science that were uncovered on Bush Blitzes across Australia. Congratulations to all the scientists building our knowledge of Australian biodiversity.

🐝 Ben Parslow (South Australian Museum)
🕸️ Ethan Briggs (Australian Museum)
🕷️ Jeremy Wilson (Western Australian Museum)
🐜 Madalene Giannotta (Adelaide)
🦂 Mark Harvey (Western Australian Museum)
🐝 Maura Haas-Renninger (Adelaide University)
🐟 Michael Hammer (MAGNT)
🐞 Nik Tatarnic (Western Australian Museum)
🪲 Olivia Evangelista de Souza (CSIRO)
🦗 Perry Beasley-Hall (Adelaide University)

Read more about the successful projects or Bush Blitz Taxonomy Research funding at bushblitz.org.au/taxonomy-research-projects

23/09/2026

Meet Wednesday Elgar from Team Amphipods! 🔎🦐

Wednesday’s doing a PhD at and looking for underground amphipods during the Barrington Tops Bush Blitz.

Amphipods are tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that live in cryptic water systems with plenty of hidden species to uncover!

Australian Museum Parks Australia NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service

21/09/2026

Our scientists are busy sifting leaf litter, turning stones and setting up collection traps to sample the biodiversity on the Barrington Tops Bush Blitz. They’ve been working hard to uncover new species living in the open woodlands, alpine swamps and Nothofagus forests that cover this beautiful World Heritage area. Here are some of the teams in action!

🐟 Team Fish
🐌 Team Snail
🦇 Team Bats
🦐 Team Stygofauna
🦎 Team Reptiles
🕷️ Team Mites
📸 Ben Daly, Dr Bryan Lessard, Julie Ellmers

Australian Museum Parks Australia NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service

21/07/2026

Mighty moths 💪🦋🌙

It’s moth week so here are five of our favourite moth facts!

🌸Powerful pollinators – moths drink nectar and help pollinate our native plants like orchids, snowgums and Boronia species.

🦋Famous cousins – most attention goes to butterflies, but did you know that butterflies are just daytime flying moths? Recent genetic studies have shown that butterflies are just moths with a flair for more colourful outfits to attract mates in the daylight.

🏠Waterproof scales – moth wings are covered in scales helping them camouflage into their surroundings. Like shingles on a roof, scales also help make moths waterproof by repelling water so they can fly in the rain.

👃 Smell you later – moths use pheromones secreted from their abdomens to identify members of the same species to help choose a date.

🔬Australia has more than 10,500 known species of moths. So far our scientists have uncovered 161 species of moths new to science on Bush Blitz adventures!

Check out these beautiful moths photographed by Heath Warwick on our Bush Blitz to Little Desert National Park in Victoria, Australia.

Parks Australia Earthwatch Australia

15/07/2026

There’s a lot to like about lichens! 💚

We’d lichen you to meet Dr Gintaras Kantvilas, a lichenologist from the Tasmanian Herbarium who’s researching Australia’s unique species lichen there’s no tomorrow.

Lichen or not, they are not a unique kingdom, but a mix of fungi and green algae living together in synergy.

On our recent Bush Blitz survey of Tasmania’s King Island, Gintaras was on a mission to find unnamed species. It was lichen looking for a needle in a haystack!

And just lichen that – he found a species new to science growing on Melaleuca paperbark in the lowland coastal swamps. He must have felt lichen a million bucks!

Gintaras was confident the specimens he found belonged to an unknown species, because he knows all 3000 native species lichen the back of his hand.

Gintaras brough the specimens back to the Tasmanian Herbarium since there’s no place lichen home. And lichen a kid in a candy store, he compared the fresh specimens to known species from the reference collection.

And lichen riding a bike, Gintaras got to work confirming that the new species had a unique opaque maroon-red to red-brown colour and elliptical, wall-like spores (called ascospores).

Gintaras named the species Arthothelium palustre, which in Latin refers to the swampy habitat where the species lives. We think the name sounds lichen a winner!

If you’d lichen to speak to the collection manager, visit the Tasmanian Herbarium or read the full paper!

Lichen subscribe for more native species content!

🖋️ Dr Bryan Lessard

Parks Australia Earthwatch Australia

01/07/2026

Did you know that Australia has 1,200 different moss species? That’s 10% of all moss species in the world. Moss can also break-up the wood and rocks that they grow on to help build new soils.

Earthwatch Australia

22/06/2026

Happy World Rainforest Day 🌱

Today we’re celebrating Australia's precious rainforests that are home to some of our most extraordinary biodiversity. Rainforests are the world’s life support, acting as the Earth’s lungs to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and recycle nutrients that are relied on by so many animals, plants and fungi.

We’ve been lucky enough to bring our scientists to some of Australia’s most pristine rainforests across Australia to uncover species new to science.

Celebrate today by taking a walk and appreciate the little things buzzing, crawling or flying in your local rainforest (if you’re lucky to have one!) or visit your closest botanic gardens. Together we can protect and enjoy our rainforests well into the future!

Earthwatch Australia

03/06/2026

Did you know female spiderwasps can carry huntsman spiders 10-20 times their size? She stings, paralyses and lays an egg in the spider. The wasp larva then hatches and eats the spider from the inside out.

💪🐝+🕷️ = 🐛🕷️🍽️

📷bry_the_fly_guy Ngunnawal Country, Canberra ACT

29/05/2026

Most people find wasps scary, but here are seven reasons why we should love wasps!

💛🐝

7. They eat spiders so they can’t bite you 🕷️💀

Female spiderwasps sting, paralyse, rip the legs off and lay eggs inside spiders so their babies have something to eat.

6. Flower power 💪🌸

Adult wasps are helpful pollinators of veggies and native plants thanks to their craving for pollen.

5. Hidden beauties 🔎👄

Most of the 12,000 native Australian wasp species are drop dead gorgeous.

4. Masters of disguise 🕵️

To bee or not to bee? Some wasps mimic bees or ants to blend in or avoid predators.

3. Ancient wonders 🦴⌛

Wasps have been around since the time of the dinosaurs like this fossil sawfly that’s 11 million years old!

2. Mumma bears 🐛🍼
Female wasps care for their young like mudwasps and paperwasps that build nests, or sawflies that guard their brood.

1. Their sting could cure your next headache 💉🧠
Wasp venom has a unique effect on the central nervous system that could one day be used to treat Alzheimer’s.

Watch Dr Juanita Rodriguez () share her love of wasps as she searches for ‘sneaky’ spiderwasps on the Pilliga Bush Blitz in our latest YouTube video!

✍️

27/05/2026

Spider wasps are the friends you didn’t know you needed! 🐝💛

Are wasps really that scary? Can they help us in the garden? What if they could take the sting out of our next headache using their venom?

Meet Dr Juanita Rodriguez (), a CSIRO () entomologist who’s dedicated her career to all thing’s wasps, from naming species new to science to unlocking potential new medicines from their venom.

Take a walk on the wild side with Bry the Fly Guy () and Juanita as they search for ‘sneaky’ spider wasps on a Bush Blitz to the Pilliga (NSW, Australia).

You won’t believe what they uncover as they look for clues that help answer some of our waspiest questions!

🐛What do wasps eat?
🧑‍🍼Are wasps good parents?
🪽Do all wasps have wings?
💉Could we treat Alzheimer’s with the sting of a wasp?

How many wasp species do you there are? Turns out there’s a lot – Australia has more than 12,000 species buzzing across the continent!

Watch the full episode of our new Bush Blitz: Nature Uncovered series on our YouTube channel (youtube.com/) or read the full interview on our website (bushblitz.org.au) or the CSIRO Blog (www.csiro.au/en/news).

This episode was filmed on the lands of the Gamilaraay, Gamilaroi and Gomeroi peoples in the Pilliga in New South Wales, Australia.

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http://bushblitz.org.au/contact-us/

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