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Hi There,

Any help you be greatly appreciated...

I'm working on a database of aquatic insect traits. I need information at the genus level and predominantly for larval stages of UK aquatic insects. I am looking for info about:

ecology (depositional/erosional, thermal preference, predator/collector/shredder, climber/burrower...),

morphology,

mobility (swim?, crawl?, fly?), and,

life history (voltinism, life span, seasonality...).


I'm having a really hard time finding info for the genera in these families:

Chironomidae
Empididae
Limoniidae
Muscidae
Psychodidae
Ptychopteridae
Simuliidae
Stratiomyidae
Tabanidae
Thaumaleida
Tipulidae

I've already exhausted Merritt and Cummin's Intro to Aquatic Insects...

Anyone have any ideas for me?
Anything... please?

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Stubbs & Drake, British Soldierflies and their allies, ISBN 1899935045, has chapters about larvae.

John Bratton

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There's also a handbook for Diptera larvae in the Royal Entomological Society series, reference details are given on Malcolm Storey's bioimages site:
http://www.bioima...147135.HTM

and the Royal Ent Soc is at:
http://www.royens...ndex.shtml

I don't have a copy so not sure how thoroughly it treats the families you list.

See also the Freshwater Biological Association publications:
http://www.bioima...147314.HTM

Martin

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Thanks John and Martin.
I'll see if I can get my hands on those publications.

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A good book is " An Introduction to the immature stages of British Flies" from Smith. it has an initial desciption of the larvae and then in final pages show sketches, schemes of many larvae with some cephalo-pharyngeal skeleton and anterior spiracles very important to ID species level.