berlese-tullgren funnel

2022 Collecting Summary

2022 Collecting Summary

Last year, I tallied up all my myriapod collecting from 2021 and now it’s time to take a look back at 2022’s collecting! This was my first full year of having my homemade Berlese funnels up and running, and I was excited to see how the species I collected would change from season to season. For each Berlese sample, I typically left the litter in for 5-7 days with an 8-hour light/16-hour dark cycle (I didn’t want to leave the lights on when I was not at home). I also removed the top layer of dried out litter every few days and replaced it with moist litter that hadn’t been cycled through yet, mixing up the litter as I added in the new batch.

The Great Myriapod Extravaganza of 2021

2021 is behind us, so it’s time to take a quick look and see what my Myriapoda collecting was like last year! I pulled together my stats from the specimen database I use to track my collection, and these numbers include millipedes (Diplopoda), centipedes (Chilopoda), symphylans (Symphyla), and pauropods (Pauropoda). Let’s dive in.

Building a Homemade Berlese-Tullgren Funnel

Building a Homemade Berlese-Tullgren Funnel

I recently decided to make a Berlese-Tullgren funnel so that I can collect more litter critters, particularly Myriapods. My typical collecting method is hand collecting with a claw to swipe back leaf litter and move logs, which has worked very well for finding large millipedes and centipedes. But the magic of the Berlese-Tullgren funnel is that it’s a passive method and can extract many more arthropods from a leaf litter sample than I can collect myself in the same period of time. Plus, it should extract specimens I would definitely miss by just hand collecting. Here’s a step by step guide for how to build your own Berlese-Tullgren funnel at home.