PEET - Austral Staphylinidae

Methods | Collecting Methods for Staphylinidae and other Staphylinoidea | Indirect Collection Methods: Substrate Collection, Sifting, and Berlese/Tullgren Processing

Substrate Collection

A very important way of collecting staphylinids is to extract them straight from leaf litter and other substrates. Litter extraction is the most effective technique for collecting Euaesthetinae, Quediina, and many other groups. Since larvae often co-occur with adults, it is thus especially important for determining adult-larval associations for litter-inhabiting beetles (e.g. Solodovnikov & Newton in press: Arrowinus spp.).

We collect a range of different substrates from which staphylinids can be extracted. Among the most productive is general forest litter, which we gather from the forest floor and near streams. We also target different microhabitats, including tree bases, under and around logs and rocks, in hollows of trees and other areas of accumulation, and generally moist looking litter. Flood debris (accumulations of leaves, twigs, and other decaying plant matter partly in small streams) can be especially productive for certain staphylinoids including Oxytelinae, Paederinae, some Staphylininae, and Hydraenidae. We also occasionally collect samples of rotting wood, bark and decaying subcortical wood, large masses of fungal fruiting bodies, or old wrack from ocean beaches, all of which can have staphylinoids specific to those microhabitats.

Depending on where litter is collected, beetles are extracted in one or two steps, described below – 1) sifting to collect the beetles and remove larger debris, and 2) Berlese/Tullgren processing to extract the beetles from the sifted material. General forest and stream edge litter are first sifted in the field before processing in Berlese funnels. Substrates such as rotting wood and bark may or may not be sifted prior to Berlese processing, whereas fungal masses and flood debris are generally not sifted (the latter is usually very wet and cannot be sifted effectively), and instead are placed straight into Berlese funnels.

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