Stream insects use in different ways the stream habitats which affect patterns of species occurrence on stream. The nestedness is one these being an ecological mechanism that generates beta diversity. In this study, we verify effects temporal environmental variations Chironomidae assemblages subtropical streams. We collected chironomid larvae during winter and summer three years (2010, 2011 201...

For the implementation of the Water Framework Directive we need to develop an informative and cost-effective set of biological monitoring and assessment methods, especially for remote areas. Chironomids are known to be an abundant and speciesrich group that dominate the aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages in the north and therefore should be an integral part of monitoring and assessment plans...

The spatial and temporal structure of non-biting midge (Diptera: Chironomidae) larvae assemblages and some environmental factors that affect their distribution were analyzed in a montane river and its tributaries in a temperate climate region of southernmost Brazil. In total, 69 taxa were recorded after four seasonal samplings (winter, spring, summer, and autumn). The dominant taxa were Rheotan...

The acute toxicities of waterborne Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, and Zn were determined in the first-instar larvae (generally considered to be the most sensitive) of Chironomus riparius, under standardized conditions. Toxicity tests were conducted in soft water (hardness, 8 mg/L as CaCO(3) equivalents) in the absence of food and were limited to 24 h to avoid control mortality associated with food deprivation...

Chironomids (Diptera: Chironomidae) are the most widely distributed and often the most abundant insect in freshwater. They undergo a complete metamorphosis of four life stages, of which the egg, larva, and pupae are aquatic and the adult is terrestrial. Chironomid egg masses were found to be natural reservoirs of Vibrio cholerae and Aeromonas species. To expand the knowledge of the endogenous b...

Aggregations of the Ponto-Caspian invasive zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) constitute a suitable habitat for macroinvertebrates, considerably increasing their abundance and providing effective antipredator protection. Thus, the overall effect of a mussel bed on particular predator species may vary from positive to negative, depending on both prey density increase and predator ability to pre...

Abstract We combined paleolimnological reconstructions and space-for-time substitutions to unravel chironomid biodiversity responses climate change in subarctic mountains across temporal spatial scales. Using sediment records, we found that long-term changes taxonomic diversity were mainly induced by the temperature tolerance/optimum of species, while little functional due replacement similar f...

The roles of larval chironomids in the food chain both lotic and lentic ecosystems are very important. On one hand, chironomid larvae feeding on algae, diatoms, rotting organic matter, plant, animal residues also play an important role these systems as a source for other carnivores omnivorous organisms. In this study, gut contents Cryptochironomus defectus (Kieffer, 1913), Cladotanytarsus mancu...