arthropod traps

Building a Homemade Berlese-Tullgren Funnel

Building a Homemade Berlese-Tullgren Funnel

I recently decided to make a Berlese-Tullgren funnel so that I can collect more litter critters, particularly Myriapods. My typical collecting method is hand collecting with a claw to swipe back leaf litter and move logs, which has worked very well for finding large millipedes and centipedes. But the magic of the Berlese-Tullgren funnel is that it’s a passive method and can extract many more arthropods from a leaf litter sample than I can collect myself in the same period of time. Plus, it should extract specimens I would definitely miss by just hand collecting. Here’s a step by step guide for how to build your own Berlese-Tullgren funnel at home.