A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America

Additional A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America Information

Section I 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 II describes nearly 100 of the most common groups of invertebrates, and for each group a whole-body color illustration is provided along with brief text pointing out the most important features that identify members of the group. Section III contains in-depth descriptions of the life history, behavior, 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 color illustrations by the well-known scientific illustrator Amy Bartlett Wright that will greatly facilitate the easy and rapid identification of specimens.

What Customers Say About A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America:

You don't need a college level understanding of chemistry or biology to read this, but the biology would help. You wouldn't want them all, this part takes up more than half the book.A great book for a hobbyist that isn't afraid to put plants in an aquarium and find out what else nature keeps in its limnos. A good dose of science and terminology for people who want to know how things work.

The only thing it runs short on is variety of bugs. Best of all you won't have to feed your fishes after reading this book. But at 400+ pages adding the somewhat less common would create quite a tome.The first section is the only part that needs to be read from beginning to end the rest is written for reference starting with illustrations, then going into detail first on the order, then on specific (common) families.

An excellent intro to freshwater invertebrates. You'll learn about lotic and lentic and other words to confuse your friends and spell checker, and impress the biologists within hearing distance. They'll feed themselves after you've collected a few invertebrates to fill out the food chain.

It starts with a conceptual approach of what affects biological life in fresh water But it doesn't go too far off topic; it stays focused on invertebrate life.The illustrations are superb. This book stays on topics specific to limnology addressing substrate, water chemistry and other topics.

The color drawings are detailed enough to help determine the differences in various species. Be clear - the focus of this book is not specifically on fly-fishing, but more of a biological guide to aquatic invertebrates. For a beginner, this book is a great place to start, but is also a nice reference for those with a little more experience. As others have already reviewed, I am a fly fisherman who purchased this book to get a better understanding of freshwater invertebrates other than mayfly and caddis species. All in all - Excellent Book. This guide is well-written and not too difficult to follow, even for the beginner. (For a highly detailed description of mayflies and caddis for the fly-fisherman, I would recommend the titles "Nymphs, volumes I and II"). There is a focus on stream ecology and some tips on how to collect and identify various species.

Extremely useful for ID'ing aquatic creatures. This books is easy to comprehend, and the plates are well defined.

Excellent for the money. My teaching partner and I will use this in our Freshwater Ecology class at the secondary level. It is a great basic guide that will be used as a reference tool and identification resource at an introductory level.

class offered at the collegiate level.A definate must have for nymph fishermen as well.Well done for a price that doesn't take a bite out of the pocketbook. This book contains easy to understand pictographs for beginners, plus distinguishing characteristics for experienced entomologists. A major plus to any and every watershed association out there, and every limnology, water pollution biology, fisheries, etc.