From Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
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Temporal activity of wolf spiders and dunnarts in the Simpson Desert

Created 25/06/2025

Updated 25/06/2025

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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 overlap in the diel acttivity patterns wolf spiders (Lycosa spp.) and the lesser hairy-footed dunnart (Sminthopsis youngsoni) in the Simpson Desert, south-western Queensland Australia. To quantify the temporal activity of lycosids, spotlight surveys were conducted in October 2016 every hour between dusk (19:30 h) and dawn (05:30 h) over three nights. Additionally, remote camera traps were deployed to further quantify patterns in the activity of lycosids and S. youngsoni. 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). Images were tagged with camera location, position, angle, camera ID number, species and confidence and date and time data were extracted from each image. This data was used to identify mean activity times for each species (with confidence intervals) and to assess overlap in nocturnal activity patterns between lycosids and S. youngsoni, and thus the potential for competition and predation using the Overlap v 0.2.7 package in R. This data presents a useful example for investigating how the 'Overlap' package works and the benefits it provides.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Temporal activity of wolf spiders and dunnarts in the Simpson Desert
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/caaf4a6f-d086-4c43-95fa-3d6d7d9af153
Contact Point
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network�s Data Discovery
tamara.potter@adelaide.edu.au
Reference Period 18/07/2016 - 20/10/2016
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        138.35995,
        -23.78001
      ],
      [
        138.53848,
        -23.78001
      ],
      [
        138.53848,
        -23.5813
      ],
      [
        138.35995,
        -23.5813
      ],
      [
        138.35995,
        -23.78001
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network "Temporal activity of wolf spiders and dunnarts in the Simpson Desert". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/temporal-activity-of-wolf-spiders-and-dunnarts-in-the-simpson-desert