Brief description
Invertebrates dominate the animal world in terms of abundance, diversity and biomass and play critical roles in maintaining ecosystem function. Despite their obvious importance, disproportionate research attention remains focused on vertebrates, with knowledge and understanding of invertebrate ecology still lacking. Due to their inherent advantages, usage of camera traps in ecology has risen dramatically over the last three decades, especially for research on mammals. However, few studies have used cameras to reliably detect fauna such as invertebrates or used cameras to examine specific aspects of invertebrate ecology. Twenty-four Reconyx PC800 HyperfireTM cameras were deployed on 7th July 2016 at Main Camp and left until 12th October 2016 (98 days, or 2352 h of deployment) in the Simpson Desert, south-western Queensland, capturing 372 time-lapse images of Wolf spiders (Family Lycosidae). Images were tagged with camera location, position, angle, camera ID and presence of lycosids. Additionally, spotlight surveys were conducted in October 2016 every hour between dusk (19:30 h) and dawn (05:30 h) over three nights with a total of 352 lycosids observed. This data set was used to determine whether: 1) camera traps provide a viable method for detecting wolf spiders, 2) diel activity patterns of the spiders can be ascertained, and 3) patterns in spider activity vary with environmental conditions, specifically between burned and unburned habitats and the crests and bases of sand dunes. This data presents a useful example of the utility of cameras as a tool for determining the diel activity patterns and habitat use of larger arthropods such as wolf spiders.Please note: Camera trap images are not provided and only species occurrence records are included. Also, image files were renamed after collection, resulting in a number versus time conflict. However, dates and times of sightings provided are correct.
Lineage
Data Creation
Camera traps - Twenty-four Reconyx PC800 HyperfireTM cameras were deployed in burned and unburned areas, as well as on dune crests and dune bases. Cameras were attached to metal posts ~50 cm above the ground along four north-south facing 100 m transects, with six cameras per transect each spaced 20 m apart. Additionally, based on results from pilot trials, half the cameras were positioned vertically (facing down) and half angled at ~45° to the ground. Cameras angled at 45° had a greater field of view while those facing down were believed to have a better chance at capturing and allowing identification of lycosids. Settings were as follows: time-lapse – single image every 5 minutes between 19:00 h and 07:00 h (i.e., from just before dusk to just after dawn), and motion-trigger – single image with no delay between triggers (i.e., rapid-fire) and sensitivity set to high. Photos were tagged with location, position, angle, camera ID and species present.
Spotlighting - Spotlight surveys were conducted in October 2016 and consisted of walking a 100 m transect for 10 minutes every hour between dusk (19:30 h) and dawn (05:30 h), using a hand-held spotlight (Fenix TK35, 960 lumens) to detect lycosid eye shine. The numbers of spiders observed in each 10-minute survey were tallied. Spotlight surveys were repeated over three nights, yielding a total of 33 transect surveys. For consistency, each survey was conducted along the same 100 m transect, which was marked by a row of six remote cameras.
Notes
CreditThis work was funded by the Australian Research Council and the Australian Government’s Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (www.tern.gov.au), an Australian research infrastructure facility established under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and Education Infrastructure Fund—Super Science Initiative through the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education. This research also received support from the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program through the Threatened Species Recovery Hub. C.R.D. was also supported by an Australian Research Council Fellowship.
This data set was used to determine whether: 1) camera traps provide a viable method for detecting wolf spiders (Family Lycosidae), 2) diel activity patterns of the spiders can be ascertained, and 3) patterns in spider activity vary with environmental conditions, specifically between burned and unburned habitats and the crests and bases of sand dunes.
Created: 2016-10-26
Issued: 2020-07-03
Modified: 2020-06-26
Data time period: 2016-07-07 to 2016-10-12
text: Main Camp, Ethabuka Reserve, Simpson Desert, South-western Queensland
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Point-of-truth metadata URL- URI : geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/cf7dc9b0-6684-4102-b6f7-f0167a9be879
- global : cf7dc9b0-6684-4102-b6f7-f0167a9be879
