I recently joined the Australian Invertebrate Forum to learn and share more about Australian insects and spiders. To try to learn how to find more critters, I got the following advice from one of the more experienced members there, "critter guy":
I used to only do hunts of critter's for macro's when my wife wanted to check on her sites/show me the progress they'd made on them before I got into capture and sales.
That's how I already knew good spots and where to look for things when I first starting doing it as well as had a general idea of the population sizes and distribution of certain insects for each area and what times of year they increased making it easier to know how many would be safe to take and when.
Long post, but plenty of tips and info for you and others.
Times of day the best are early morning-11am and then again from 2:30pm-5/6pm (whichever is sunset for you), inbetween is the hottest part of the day when alot of things will retreat into their hides/shade to conserve energy and minimize moisture loss.
For the nocturnal insects it's sunset - 9pm and 9pm-12am depending on the type of critter.
I know it's not a natural setting but in the middle of summer you'll get a large variety of insect's at well lit places at night like IGA and fuel stations both of which spray insecticide 2-3 of times a year (usually in winter and August and January/Feb), but the spray usually wears off in 1-3 month's and then you'll see all the critter's appearing alot again.
Nov-Feb is the time of year you'll get the most variety of insects out and about and in large numbers, spring is also good but not as good for things like mantids, stick insects and beetles, but great for different sp of flies, wasps, bees and other things that like flowers.
Alot of jumping spiders make a silk retreat in curled parts of leaves, the underside of leaves, under bark and can pull sections of leaves together as well, so do alot of sp of other things including some spiders, leaf curling cricket sp, some sp of native roach, sp of Orb weavers and crab & triangular spiders.
Sometimes you can find the silk retreats containing a spider as well as juvie insects like juvie native roaches sharing it.
The orbweaver daytime retreats are easy to find as they will have a large web attached next to it by a long strand/several strands of silk.
Be careful opening these as the orbweavers can be a little narky as one would be if someone broke into their bedroom while they were sleeping, only partially open the entrance to them as well, just enough to get the lens and some of the flash/daylight in, you don't want to damage them.
Sp of Eucalyptus and Meleuka (can't remember how to spell it, paperbarks anyway) that have soft, smooth not very waxy leaves are good for Stick insects as are river she-oaks and sp of pines. Some sp of baekhousia that have soft, less spiky leaves are good as well.
Stocking gums - Corymbia tesselaris are good for finding bark and boxing bark mantids and a few other things on the rough bark section.
Young pandanus's can contain a good variety of things including small sp of frogs, huntsmans, leaf rolling crickets and some sp of carnivourous katydids, they can be extremely spiny but can be worth it to have a look through.
Rough but smooth looking barked trees are good for Tree running mantid, smooth gums with segments of peel away type bark are good for jumping spiders, ants, some sp of True bugs and communal huntsman as are lily type of plants (good for huntsmans too).
Try to only peel the bark outwards enough to peek under to look for critter's but not enough to break it off the tree, too much segments peeled off is bad for the tree and also deprives plenty of insects, some reptiles, amphibians and spiders of habitat to make home in or hide under when resting/hunting to be safe from prowling predators.
At certain times of year alot of the bark will just drop off the tree naturally, those times of year are bad for finding the things that would usually hide under it when it was on the tree, but you can find plenty of things hiding under the fallen off bits on the ground.
With bark, wood, logs and rocks always make sure to lift them on a angle that makes the top surface of them face you not away from you so as if there is anything potentially dangerous under them like snakes they can sliver away from you and not be facing you when you tilt their hide up and give them a scare accidently making them feel cornered and have the need to defend themselves.
Make sure you put the wood etc back in as close to the position you found it in as you can wreck the small ecosystem that was under it for micro-organisms and the other occupants, throw off how much moisture builds under it etc.
I know it doesn't sound like it would do much damage but it can if you are lifting enough things to check under them in an area, especially logs as they can usually have a complex ecosystem under and in them.
A no brainer I'm sure, but don't stick your hands, feet and face underneith/into said logs, rocks etc or near the gaps under them before you check under/in them and when you do tilt them to look make sure your fingers/fingertips only stay near the tops of them and don't go underneith them much.
If you need to check in a large crevice between rocks/under a log with a torch make sure to keep a min of 1/2 a metre away when you first check it as that is the avg reach a striking snake will have and will also leave room enough for other frightened inhabitants to come flying/crawling/slithering out and get away if you accidently scare any out of the crevice when you shine the torch in.
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Oh and the other main thing is take someone with you (even if they just wait in the locked car sleeping or bored) or make sure you are in reception to call help or atleast let someone know you are going on the hunt, how long you'll be and where before you do incase you encounter trouble and need help, whether it be dodgy people in that area, bush pigs, snakebite, strain/break a limb etc, alot can happen and that includes the manmade sites like the well lit IGA or petrol station as you can get unsavoury/possibly dodgy types of people hanging around them.
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