From Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
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Availability of invertebrate prey for micro-carnivores

Created 25/06/2025

Updated 26/09/2025

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The lesser hairy-footed dunnart (Sminthopsis youngsoni, Dasyuridae) is a generalist marsupial insectivore in arid Australia, but consumes wolf spiders (Lycosa spp., Lycosidae) disproportionately often relative to their availability. This project tested the hypothesis that this disproportionate predation is a product of frequent encounter rates between the interactants due to high overlap in their diets and use of space and time. This data set focuses on the dietary aspect. Specifically, invertebrate pitfall trapping was employed to quantify food availability and selectivity for both wolf spiders and S.youngsoni. Pitfall traps were deployed along trails left by tracked individuals, as well as control trails, of both species groups in the north-western Simpson Desert, Queensland. In total, invertebrate pitfall traps were deployed along 11 S.youngsoni and 8 lycosa trails in October 2016. Invertebrates were identified to the level of "Order", except for spiders (Order: Arachnida) and bees, wasps and ants (Order: Hymenoptera) which were identified to the "Family" level using identification keys and were also counted and grouped into seven size classes. This data was used for the following analyses: [1] a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test whether total numbers of arthropods differed between trail type and species, [2] non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and [3] permutational analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) to test whether assemblages of arthropod prey and prey sizes differed between the two trail types for each species and between each species.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Availability of invertebrate prey for micro-carnivores
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/c06ae6c4-6aed-45f0-a396-62c6c32208c0
Contact Point
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery
tamara.finlayson@adelaide.edu.au
Reference Period 10/10/2016 - 23/10/2016
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        138.38193,
        -23.78001
      ],
      [
        138.522,
        -23.78001
      ],
      [
        138.522,
        -23.64673
      ],
      [
        138.38193,
        -23.64673
      ],
      [
        138.38193,
        -23.78001
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network "Availability of invertebrate prey for micro-carnivores". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/availability-of-invertebrate-prey-for-micro-carnivores