Aquatic Entomology

Aquatic insects are the dominant invertebrate fauna in most freshwater ecosystems, and figure prominently in the work of a diverse range of researchers, students, and environmental managers. Often employed as indicators of ecosystem health, aquatic insects are also commonly used as model systems to test hypotheses in ecological topics including metapopulation and metacommunity dynamics, recruitment limitation, trophic interactions, and trophic networks. Due to their complex life cycles, aquatic insects must master both terrestrial and aquatic environments, crossing these ecosystem boundaries during different stages of development and reproduction. In this wide-ranging text, life under and on top of the water surface are covered in unusual detail, including the biomechanics of life in water, locomotion underwater and on surface films, gas exchange, physico-chemical stressors, feeding, sensory perception and communication, reproduction, egg-laying and development, and the evolution of aquatic habits. The threatened status of freshwaters around the world, coupled with an expanding population of researchers and managers charged with their well-being, signals the importance of such a book as many individuals seek to understand how insects function in these often challenging physical environments. Interest in freshwaters may never have been higher with ever-increasing conflict between water allocation for human (agricultural) use and conservation. Aquatic Entomology is suitable for graduate students, researchers, and managers interested in the subject from a perspective of either basic or applied ecology. It will also be a valuable supplementary text for courses in limnology or freshwater ecology, entomology, and water resource management. Researchers, as well as students in entomology with a special interest in aquatic insects have got a handbook on the biology of these species with nearly no wishes left open Bulletin of Fish Biology Aquatic Entomology provides an excellent introduction to the subject, and one which is suitable for a wide readership Freshwater Biology Readers desiring a fundamental understanding of the biology of aquatic insects, with the goal of using that understanding to add depth and breadth to applied purposes, will be rewarded with detailed answers to diverse and complex questions. Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin the book represents a high quality overview of aquatic entomology ... It will please and provide help not only to students of aquatic insects and entomologists angaged in research on this topic but is a suitable textbook for courses in freshwater entomology, biology of aquatic invertebrates/organisms and a supplementary textbook for courses on freshwater ecology, hydrobiology, limnology and conservation of water biota. M Papacek, European Journal of Entomology The text is illustrated with many very clear text figures and half-tone photographs and is supported by a huge range of references, so that it is possible to follow up any specific topic that becomes of interest. BES BulletinPART 1 - INTRODUCTION TO AQUATIC INSECTS ; 1. Insect body structure and the aquatic insect orders ; 2. Evolution, biogeography, and aquatic insect distributions ; PART 2 - ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINTS ON DISTRIBUTION ; 3. Gas exchange ; 4. Physico-chemical gradients and extremes ; 5. The biomechanics of living in and on water ; PART 3 - SENSORY SYSTEMS, MOVEMENT, AND DISPERSAL ; 6. Sensory systems - photoreception ; 7. Sensory systems - mechano- and chemoreception ; 8. Locomotion in and on water ; 9. Dispersal in the terrestrial environment ; PART 4 - POPULATION DYNAMICS AND POPULATION PERSISTENCE ; 10. Reproduction and mating behaviour ; 11. Oviposition and eggs ; 12. Development ; PART 5 - TROPHIC RELATIONSHIPS ; 13. Feeding devices and foraging strategies ; 14. Diet, digestion, and defecation ; References