Live trapping of macroinvertebrates in small moorland pools: A method developed for the threatened syncarid allanaspides hickmani (syncarida: Anaspididae)

Abstract

Allanaspides hickmani Swain Wilson and Ong 1971 is a rare freshwater crustacean that occurs in small pools in buttongrass moorlands of southwest Tasmania, Australia. I tested several simple methods to live trap and release this species and found that an unbaited plastic petri-dish, with a hole drilled into the lid, was a successful trap. Both male and female A. hickmani entered the traps and all size classes appeared to be caught. The trap may be useful for other freshwater invertebrates as several non-target species were also caught. © 2002, Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.