Product Description

Popular interest in the observation and study of freshwater invertebrates is increasing. This book meets the needs of this growing audience of naturalists, environmentalists, anglers, teachers, students, and others by providing substantive information in easy-to-understand, non-technical language for many groups of invertebrates commonly found in the streams, lakes, ponds, and other freshwater environments of North America. Section One provides background information on the biology and ecology of freshwater organisms and environments and explains why and how invertebrates can be studied, simply and without complex equipment, in the field and the laboratory. Section Two describes nearly 100 of the most common groups of invertebrates, and for each group a whole-body colour illustration is provided along with brief text pointing out the most important features that identify members of the group. Section Three contains in-depth descriptions of the life history, behaviour, and ecology of the various invertebrate groups, and explains their important ecological contributions and relationships to humans. The Guide is broad in scope, geographically and taxonomically, and it is written at a substantive yet easily accessible level that will appeal to both novices and those with more advanced knowledge of the subject. It also contains more than 100 specially commissioned colour illustrations by the well-known scientific illustrator Amy Bartlett Wright that will greatly facilitate the easy and rapid identification of specimens.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70425 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 456 pages

About the Author
Dr J Reese Voshell has taught in the Department of Entomology at Virginia Tech since 1976. He has received numerous research grants to study the effects of pollution and environmental stress on freshwater invertebrates, and has been named to the university's Academy of Teaching Excellence. His 30 years of teaching, outreach, and research have convinced him that people of all ages, educational backgrounds, and personal interests can become fascinated with freshwater invertebrates.

Customer Reviews

In and out of water
A GUIDE TO COMMON FRESHWATER INVERTEBRATES OF NORTH AMERICA helps ordinary people find and name about 100 crustaceans, insects and worms, in shallow waters and without microscopes. Freshwaters are all inland waters, unaffected by sea tides and usually lacking in much salt. That means streams, rivers, ponds and lakes.

Freshwater invertebrates make up 70 percent of all known animals, microbes and plants. These skeletonless critters are important, in the food chain and to the environment. Some are scrumptious food, such as crayfish and river shrimp. All are hard-working environmentalists, earthworm-like in breaking down and cycling organic matter and nutrients. All are reality-checks to freshwater health. All are wake-up calls to changed living conditions, nature's temper tantrums, and pollution.

All are easy-to-know, too, because of this beautifully, one-of-a-kind illustrated, organized and written book. Illustrator Amy Bartlett Wright's artwork is outstanding. So is author J Reese Voshell, Jr's know-how. For he gives each invertebrate's breathing and feeding needs, life history, living space, movement, and stress level. In addition, he tells how to set up acceptable aquarium living for live catch.

Gravel can be on the bottom. But add stones, sticks, live plants, dead leaves, and bottom sediment, from where the invertebrates were caught. Water must be from where they were caught, too. It has fine detritus and microbe tidbits. Otherwise, a pump must bubble air in. That gets killer chlorine out of treated water.

An air stone letting out small amounts of air keeps down natural decay and smells. Likewise, it keeps water chock full of dissolved oxygen. So does a screen cover. Also, it keeps invertebrates from getting out.

Big chores are food and water. Take out what's not eaten within 24 hours. Change about 1/3 of the water every 2 weeks, if there's a lot of algae or scum.

The best bets are caddisflies, crustaceans, damsel and dragon flies, flat and segmented worms, mollusks, true bugs and flies, and water beetles. Specifically, those most likely to grow, from larvae into adults, are damsel and dragon flies. With my next stream quality monitoring, as soon as water levels go down, I'd like to start mine!

Technical identification for the layman
Dr. Voshell has taken the highly technical methodologies involved in family level benthic macroinvertabrate identification and ecology and translated it for all to enjoy. His book is beneficial for the amateur, yet appropriate for the professional.

An excellent place to start for benthic macroinvertebrates
If I could recommend only one book to someone interested in getting started to learn about benthic macroinvertebrates, Voshell and Wright's Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America would be it. The colored pictures are superb, and the text is clearly written and very informative. The introductory section of the book provides information to get the novice started: what are freshwater invertebrates and why are they of interest; how are they classified; a quick look at freshwater ecology; basics of freshwater invertebrate biology; and how to study these fascinating little critters.

The second section, which includes Amy Wright's beautiful pictures, provides very clearly written material on the distinguishing features of the various families. The third section, which is keyed to the second, provides information about the ecology, habitat, movement, feeding, breathing, life history, and significance (including pollution tolerance) for each of the families discussed.

This book is an excellent introduction. True, it is not as complete as Peckarsky, et al, Thorp and Covich, or McCafferty and Provonsha. On the other hand, it is nowhere nearly as intimidating as these much larger, very detailed, and more technical books are. For the amateur, Voshell and Wright's Guide provides a fine stepping stone to these other, less accessible works. I should expect that a bright, interested high school student would have no trouble using this book. Certainly it was a blessing to a retired chemist who needed to get up to speed on benthic macroinvertebrates.