The phylogenetic relationships of the Australian scincid lizards currently assigned to the genus Leiolopisma have been examined by quantitative micro-complement fixation (MC'F) comparisons of serum albumin. The results of these comparisons do not support the monophyly implicit in these species' current congeneric status, but suggest instead that the Australian species of Leiolopisma belong to several distinct phyletic lineages within the Eugongylus group. These findings are supported by several sets of non-biochemical characters, including features of scalation, osteology and karyotype. None of the Australian species shares a close relationship with the type-species of Leiolopisrna (L. telfairii), and so a new taxonomic arrangement is proposed which distributes them among the following genera: Bartleia, gen. nov. (jigurru); Bassiana, gen. nov. (duperreyi, platynotum and trilineata); Cautula, gen. nov. (zia); Niveoscincus, gen. nov. (coventryi, greeni, metallicus, microlepidotus, ocellatus, orocryptus, palfreymani and pretiosus); and Pseudemoia Fuhn, 1967 (baudini, entrecasteauxii Group 1; entrecasteauxii Group 2, rawlinsoni and spenceri). Preliminary comparisons suggest that other Leiolopisma species, from New Caledonia, Lord Howe I. and New Zealand, belong to phyletic lineages which are distinct from any of the Australian 'Leiolopisrna' and from the type-species.

Current phylogenetic hypotheses of the relationships of Australian marsupials were tested by microcomplement fixation of albumin. The study involved antisera to albumins of 56 species, and cross- reactions to albumins of 199 species. The most notable and controversial features of the study were as follows. (1) Two major lineages are evident among the Australian marsupials- bandicoots-dasyuroids and diprotodontids; the marsupial mole represents a third lineage. (2) The honey possum Tarsipes is clearly a diprotodontid. (3) Acrobates and Distoechurus are monophyletic, but they are not burramyids; they are closely related to Tarsipes; moreover the Acrobates-Distoechurus-Tarsipes clade may be close to petaurids. (4) The New Guinean species of Antechinus are more closely related to the New Guinean Murexia than to Australian species of Antechinus. (5) The bandicoots fall into two groups-the New Guinean genera and the Australian genera; the bilby, Macrotis lagotis, is not clearly distinct from the bandicoots, and may be monophyletic with the New Guinean genera. (6) The banded hare-wallaby Lagostrophus is clearly the sister-group to all other extant macropodines, and may be monophyletic with potoroines rather than macropodines. (7) The genus Macropus may be paraphyletic. (8) The tree-kangaroos Dendrolagus may be closely related to the rock-wallabies and their allies (Petrogale, Peradorcas and Thylogale). (9) The genus Pseudocheirus (ringtail possums) is paraphyletic and its species are highly divergent at the molecular level. (10) The cuscuses (genus Phalanger) are probably a monophyletic assemblage.

Microcomplement fixation was used to assess albumin evolution in the history of the rodents of Australia. The results confirmed a monophyletic grouping consisting of the genera Pseudomys, Mastacomys and Notomys, and showed that the genus Pseudomys is paraphyletic. The genera Conilurus, Leporillus and Mesembriomys also formed a monophyletic group. A significant finding was that Leggadina was distantly related to all Pseudomys species, and indeed may be the earliest offshoot of all Australian rodents other than Rattus. Albumin evolution in the Australian rodents has occurred in a manner far from clock-like. Mastacomys Thomas, 1882 is synonymised with Pseudomys Gray, 1832.

Phylogenetic relationships among 30 of the 40 species in the Varanidae were examined in the light of molecular information on albumin evolution derived from microcomplement fixation. A phylogeny based on these results is compared with proposed phylogenies based on data obtained using other techniques. Three separate radiations of Varanus are found in Australia, The movement of varanids to Australia from south-east Asia is thought to have occurred approximately 15-20 million years ago.

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