A leaf litter sieve is a piece of equipment used by entomologists, in particular by coleopterists (Cooter 1991, page 7) as an aid to finding invertebrates in leaf litter.
A typical leaf litter sieve consists of a gauze with holes of approximately 5 to 10mm width. The entomologist places handfuls of leaf-litter into the sieve, which is places about a white sheet or tray. The sieve is shaken, and insects are separated from the leaf litter and fall out for inspection.Riley details use of a simple sieve with a cloth bag. A more complex combination sieve is described by Hongfu
Famous quotes containing the words leaf, litter and/or sieve:
“Black creeps from root to root,
each leaf
cuts another leaf on the grass,
shadow seeks shadow,
then both leaf
and leaf-shadow are lost.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“Sunday morning may be cheery enough, with its extra cup of coffee and litter of Sunday newspapers, but there is always hanging over it the ominous threat of 3 P.M., when the sun gets around to the back windows and life stops dead in its tracks.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“It’s like pushing marbles through a sieve. It means the sieve will never be the same again.”
—Before the 1972 Democratic Convention in Miami. As quoted in Crazy Salad, ch. 6, by Nora Ephron (1972)