SEE-U 2000: Black Rock Forest - Module 08:Exercise 08

## 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:
   - 50ml Falcon Tubes (at least one per trap for all sites)
   - Soft forceps (for handling things you don’t want to touch!)
   - Latex gloves (optional)
   - Pure Ethanol
   - Sampling Bucket
   - Funnel
2. Before going into the field, do the following:
   - Prepare the Falcon Tubes with 20 ml of pure ethanol
   - Label the tops of each of the tubes with a distinct identifiers of each trap
3. Once at the field site do the following:
   - Take the GPS waypoint reading for the trap
   - Remove the lid to the Falcon tube and set in a stand (the Styrofoam Falcon tube holders work ideally for this)
   - Record distance from the linear disturbance
4. Pour the beetles into the sampling bucket
   - Be very careful not to let the quick to flight beetles fly away when you dump them into the bucket- THEY CAN BE QUICK!
   - We need to hang onto them, as they are a vital part of our biodiversity, probably composing more than a third of the total species in the trap
5. Count and record the numbers of individuals of each of the larger species that are in the trap.
   - Those that will need to be released will be mostly Necrophila americana (the large flattened beetles with the pale yellow pronotum and black elytra), Necrodes surinamensis (smaller flattened beetle, similar in shape to the Ne. americana but with a pinkish red pronotum and black elytra), Nicrophorus tomentosus (with golden yellow hairs on their pronotum, just behind their head, and with black with orange spots on their wing coverings), and Nicrophorus orbicollis (similar to Ni. tomentosus but without the golden yellow on their pronotum).
   - Refer to http://collaboratory.acns.nwu.edu/fmnh/urbanwatch/hifi/fieldguide/beetles/index.html for a nice set of photographs of almost all of these species (Necrodes surinamensis is not included on this page).
   - Release these individuals when you are finished with them. Species with individuals that are larger have slower reproduction rates than the smaller species and as such are much more strongly affected by our type of harvesting.
6. Moving quickly, place the bottom of the funnel into the Falcon tube
   - They should fit perfectly and stay together of their own accord because of the fit
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.
   - Be thorough! There are many small beetles in each of these traps and they are difficult to determine as beetles when they are stuck to the sides of the pitfall trap
   - Use forceps to clean the sides of the bottle and the bucket of all debris
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