A method for separating benthic arthropods from detritus

Benthic arthropods were sorted from stream bed detritus (size range 300–1 000 µm) with a phase-separation technique using kerosene and 70–90% ethanol. 88.00% of the arthropods were retained at the interphase and this efficiency was significantly increased to 94.49% if the detritus was processed twice. This method shows high yields and low variability for non-crustacean arthropods and is potentially useful for standardizing the efficiency of sorting in projects where more than one sorter is employed.