SEE-UBlack Rock Forest

Procedure for Carrion Beetle Sampling

Exercise 8: Recycler Communities and Internal Forest Fragmentation
Module 8: Decomposers: The End and The Beginning

Harvesting Pitfalls

  1. Have with you the following equipment:
  2. Before going into the field, do the following:
  3. Once at the field site do the following:
  4. Pour the beetles into the sampling bucket
  5. Count and record the numbers of individuals of each of the larger species that are in the trap.
  6. Moving quickly, place the bottom of the funnel into the Falcon tube
  7. Dump the smaller beetles into the 50 ml Falcon tube from the sampling bucket or pan if you can
  8. Collect all of the other individuals that are stuck to the sides of the traps and place them into the tube.
  9. On the remote chance that you get more beetles than will fit into one of the Falcon tubes, always carry more tubes than you need. The extras will serve as backup in case you need to put the beetles into another tube
  10. Screw the Falcon tube(s) shut and be certain that they are labeled appropriately with the identification code specific to that sample.
  11. Go back to the Research Station when you are finished with your traps and sort these beasts to morphospecies (into the well trays) and record the number of individuals of each species in each trap—enter the data into an Excel file