Water bugs are familiar insects in aquatic habitats throughout the World. Because of their diverse lifestyles and because they are easily observed in their natural habitats, water bugs are excellent model organisms in evolutionary biology, ecology and conservation biology.
This handbook is the first comprehensive guide facilitating the identification of Australian water bugs. It provides an overview on all 15 families, 17 subfamilies, and 55 genera known to occur on mainland Australia, Tasmania and nearby islands. Illustrated keys, featuring a minimum of technical language, are offered to assist with the identification of adult water bugs.
For each genus, the handbook includes a description of the characters used to identify the genus and to separate the genus from similar genera, an illustration to show overall appearance ('habitus') of a representative species, an illustrated key to species recorded from Australia, overview of the biology of the genus, and a map showing the locations where the genus has been found in Australia.
Includes an illustrated identification key for all species recorded in Australia
Well illustrated with images and micrographs
Comprehensive volume covering distribution, biology and identification of Australian water bugs
Abstract
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Biology and Ecology
3. Classification and Phylogeny
4. Identification
5. Collecting Methods and Specimen Preparation
6. Key to the Families of Australian Water Bugs
Infraorder Gerromorpha
7. Family Mesoveliidae
8. Family Hebridae
9. Family Hydrometridae
10. Family Hermatobatidae
11. Family Veliidae
12. Family Gerridae
Infraorder Nepomorpha
13. Family Nepidae
14. Family Belostomatidae
15. Family Corixidae
16. Family Aphelocheiridae
17. Family Naucoridae
18. Family Ochteridae.
19. Family Gelastocoridae
20. Family Notonectidae.
21. Family Pleidae
References
Appendix 1: Checklist and Distribution of Australian Water Bugs
Index
Taxonomists, Professional Entomologists, University and Institutional Libraries, Biomonitoring Agencies, Environmental Agencies, Conservation Agencies, Amateur Biologists, Water Quality Scientists.
“This is an excellent book that will enable workers in Australia to expand their knowledge of the biodiversity of this ancient continent.”
I Landsbury, Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford (The Quarterly Review of Biology v.80 no.1 Mar 2005)
“This beautiful publication is a very useful introduction to and summary of what is known on Australian aquatic Heteroptera and will certainly attract many new students of water bugs.”
Peter Zwick (Aquatic Insects v.27 no.1 March 2005)
The authors of Australian Water Bugs are recognised experts in their field. Nils Andersen (late, Copenhagen University) studied aquatic bugs for nearly 40 years, with particular emphasis on the Australian and Pacific faunas, and Tom Weir has collected these insects widely and extensively in Australia's diverse aquatic habitats. The book is the culmination of a 10-year long collaboration between these two, which has also produced ten scientific papers on this fascinating element of Australia's insect fauna.
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