Book review: The chironomidae: biology and ecology of non-biting midges. P. D. Armitage, P. S. Cranston and L. C. V. Pinder. Chapman and Hall, London, 1995. No of pages: 572. Price: £69.00. ISBN 0-412-45260.
✍ Scribed by Milner, Alexander
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 19 KB
- Volume
- 13
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0886-9375
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✦ Synopsis
Eighteen chapters penned by 10 authors make up this comprehensive book covering the biology and ecology of the Chironomidae. The book is divided into three main sections; (1) Taxonomy, Morphology and Biogeography, (2) Biology, Behaviour and Ecology and (3) Interactions with Humans. As outlined in the preface, there are an estimated 15 000 chironomid species worldwide. Within any freshwater community, chironomids may form 50 per cent of the abundance and diversity within which this family play an important role in detritus processing and trophic cycles.
The book opens with a comprehensive review of the morphology of the different life stages of Chironomidae by Cranston. There follows an excellent discussion of the differences between phenetics and cladistics and its importance for understanding systematics, which is not only the case in Chironomidae, but in other groups. The systematic relationship of each subfamily is outlined followed by a key to the larvae, pupae and adults of these subfamilies. The final chapter of this first section covers biogeography.
Pinder overviews the habitats of chironomid larvae and remarks, despite few morphological modifications to adapt them to their habitat, how ubiquitous this family are in freshwaters, ranging from the only invertebrates in glacier-fed rivers, to films of water