I am looking for a protocol that would give me some idea about the diet of the carrion beetles and probably some other species of beetles. I do not need to know exact species they ate, but only broad categories (plant, vertebrate (carrion) or invertebrate based diet).
The biggest obstacle is that the protocol should be doable from start to finish in field condition as I cannot take samples back to lab. Although I will have access to some limited equipment including a microscope.
Thank you for any suggestions.
Hello Pavel; I once did a similar project on the larval diet of Pleocoma (Scarab). The larvae feed on the roots of trees and shrubs. I needed to distinguish between plant tissue that had been eaten from live roots and that from dead roots. There was a good deal of soil in the gut along with the stuff of interest.
1. I submerged the larvae in boiling water for 20 seconds. That stopped digestive activity and toughened the gut wall.
2. The gut could then be floated in a shallow dish of water or alcohol and the contents floated out and sorted.
3. A dissecting microscope provided plenty of magnification.
I had no trouble doing this in the back of my pickup truck. Tedious!! Best regards, Jim Des Lauriers
Dear James,
thank you for sharing your protocol. It looks very robust, so it should be feasible to do during my field work. I will give it a shot and see how tedious it really is.
Best regards,
Pavel
Dear Pavel,
Is this article of any help to you?
Try articles on forensic??
Best,
Guy
Dear Guy,
thank you for suggestion. I am aware of this option, but the protocol I am searching for should be doable under field conditions. Taking samples back to the laboratory is not an option for me due to the fact that it would involve taking them across boarders, which is difficult to achieve legally (Nagoya protocol...). However thank you for responding to my plea.
Best regards,
Pavel
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