Obeying the zeitgebers: Circadian rhythms of forest leaf litter arthropod communities

Various groups of terrestrial arthropods have been shown to exhibit circadian rhythms of activity. These cycles of activity affect the observed abundance of arthropods throughout the day and night. Previous studies on circadian rhythms have focused on using pitfall traps during the sampling period. For this study, leaf litter collection and subsequent Berlese funnel extraction was used to examine arthropod diversity (including Myriapoda, Coleoptera, and Formicidae) and abundance at a forested site in northwest Arkansas. The results of the leaf litter sampling were compared to similar studies that focused solely on pitfall trapping.