SREBA - Terrestrial Invertebrates

Terrestrial invertebrates will be surveyed at the same sites and times as for comprehensive vertebrate surveys. The samples will be collected by DENR staff from approximately 100 sites during March – June 2021 using an array of small pitfall traps, supplemented by collection from the larger vertebrate pitfall traps and funnel traps (see Appendix 1 for design details). The invertebrate groups targeted from these samples will be ants and other selected families. Ants represent >50% of total invertebrate biomass in inland Australia, are exceptionally diverse, and include specialist herbivores (granivores) and predators as well as generalist predators and scavengers. They also cover a broad range (1 – 25 mm) of insect body size and dispersal abilities (winged and wingless queens). All these factors are likely to have important influences on species distributions. Other families will be selected based on their abundance and trophic representation, and are likely to include carabid (predators), curculionid (herbivores) and tenebrionid (omnivores) beetles and mutillid wasps (parasites).