Marssoniella elegans Lemmermann, 1900, a parasite of ovarial tissues of the copepod Cyclops vicinus Uljanin, 1875, was studied as a representative of aquatic-clade microsporidia which form "heteroinfectious spores" (spores not infective to the original host as opposed to "homoinfectious spores" which are infective for the original host) and which thus should require an alternate host. Several s...

The Trichoptera fauna was sampled in a first order tributary of Paquequer River, in the district of Teresópolis, Rio de Janerio State. Quantitative samples of litter from pools, litter from riffles, sand, and stones were taken on each season from February 1991 to February 1992. The life cycles of common genera were categorized into three groups of biological strategies. The largest group repres...

Spatio-temporal changes in the diet, niche breadth and niche overlap of two species of Characidium from three different sites along a Neotropical coastal stream were studied during a dry and rainy season. Seasonal changes were restricted to the occurrence of plant items in the stomach contents. The relative importance of food items in the diet of both species varied across sites, but Diptera, E...

Twenty-four new species of the caddisfly genus Polycentropus (Insecta: Trichoptera: Polycentropodidae) occurring in Brazil are diagnosed, described, and the male genitalia of each are illustrated. Eighteen of the new species are placed in the Polycentropus jorgenseni species complex of the Polycentropus gertschi group of New World Polycentropussensu lato. Furthermore, 6 new species within the P...

Macroinvertebrates serve as key indicators in ecological assessments of aquatic ecosystems, where the composition and richness their communities are indicative environmental anthropogenic change. Established monitoring macroinvertebrates is expensive time-consuming, relies on expert taxonomic knowledge. In contrast, biomonitoring based molecular tools can support faster characterization but nee...

Little work has been done on large-scale patterns of stream insect richness in China. We explored the influence of climatic and catchment-scale factors on stream insect (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera; EPT) richness across mid-latitude China. We assessed the predictive ability of climatic, catchment land cover and physical structure variables on genus richness of EPT, both individually ...