Invertebrates at night

Introduction

"Almost finished a new course on "life in the rainforest"! Here is a sample lesson on some nocturnal critters".

Many rainforest invertebrates are nocturnal and remain well hidden during the day. In this lesson, and the video above, we check the nightlife of some of the invertebrates associated with rainforest trees.

Many insects are nocturnal including a number of spiders.

Tree trunks in the rainforest provide a great habitat for invertebrates with their bark providing structure and sources of food including algae and bacteria which can be exploited by invertebrates.

If you select a few trees during the daytime and investigate the surface of their trunks you may not find any signs of life on the bark. If you return to the same tree at night, you may observe nocturnal species including millipedes and centipedes as well as snails and insects moving over the bark. If you look into the branches, you may also observe web weaving spiders setting their...

What are Pademelons?

Most of us are used to seeing kangaroos and wallabies (macropods) foraging on the pastures, grasslands and saltmarsh areas along the East Coast of Australia. Pademelons are small macropods that inhabit our subtropical rainforests and wet sclerophyll forests. There are three species of Pademelon in Australia, including the Red-bellied Pademelon (Thylogale billardierii), which is only found in Tasmania, the Red-legged Pademelon (Thylogale stigmatica) and the Red-necked Pademelon (Thylogale thetis), which reside amongst the forests along the east coast of Australia. The two east coast species overlap in distribution, particularly around the Queensland/New South Wales border, generating interest from researchers particularly around their origins, methods of co-existence and behaviour when they encounter each other.

Left: Red-legged Pademelon on the forest floor. Right: Red-necked Pademelon moves out of the rainforest edge to take advantage of the pasture.

The...