EYREAN (Hedley 1894)

EYREAN (Hedley 1894)

Available Names: 
Eremian Hedley 1894: 444.
Additional synonomies: 
Eyrean Spencer 1896: 196–199.
Area Taxonomy: 
TERRESTRIAL ZOOGEOGRAPHICAL AREAS
Sub-Realm: 
AUSTRALIA Prichard 1826
Region: 
EYREAN Spencer 1896
Diagnosis: 
“Includes the whole of the interior, southern and western part of the continent, the coastal region on the east and south-east separating it from the Torresian subregion in the north-east and the Bassian sub-region in the south-east” (Spencer 1896: 196–199).
Type-locality: 
Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia, 25°21'9.34"S 131°2'3.70"E.

Originally termed the Eremian (from Tate’s regionalisation), Spencer’s term Eyrean has been widely used with the zoological literature (Sloane 1915; Main et al. 1958). Since Spencer (1896), only one attempt has been made to rename these regions. Smith (1984) termed much of the Eyrean “Centralian” to regionalise land mollusc fauna. Smith (1984) ignores Spencer’s regionalisation completely, renaming all regions based on marine distributions that were extrapolated inland. This rather baffling regionalisation has, to our knowledge, not been followed within the malacological community, remaining as an historical curiosity. Other sub-regionalisations of the Eyrean Subregion include Pianka (1969), who based his lizard regions on abiotic factors and vegetation. While these are helpful for determining ecological zones, they largely follow geographical and vegetation regions as well as being termed as such (e.g., Mulga Scrub, Mulga Scrub Country, Nullabor Plain, Great Victoria Desert). These areas have been omitted from this classification.

Map: 

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Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith