J. Reese Voshell, Jr.; illustrator, Amy Bartlett Wright
McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, Blacksburg, Virginia
2002, 442 pp.
PRICE: $29.95 (paperback)
ISBN 0-939923-87-4

This book is an excellent introduction to the diversity of invertebrates found in the lakes and streams of North America. It is well written and easy to follow for novices and more experienced investigators of these animals. It is intended for a wide audience and includes helpful information for middle and high school student sand teachers, as well as local citizens engaged in stream monitoring or other projects investigating their local watersheds. It will also be useful for college-level courses that involve aquatic ecosystems but do not focus specifically on aquatic invertebrates. Additional readers are likely to include anglers and other naturalists interested in learning more about life below the water’s surface.

The Guide is divided into three sections that tackle various aspects of aquatic invertebrate biology and can be used together or as separate resources. The author balances readability and scientific terminology by incorporating technical jargon only when necessary and explaining it clearly in lay  terms.

The first section of the book introduces the study of freshwater invertebrates (primarily insects, but also crustaceans, mollusks, and worms) by explaining what they are and why they should be studied. It also provides a good description of scientific classification. Although this short overview of classification will be basic to scientists, amateur naturalists will find it a good starting point to invertebrate systematics and a necessary aid to gathering additional information from other resources.

Section 1 continues with an general overview of freshwater ecology (physical, chemical, and biological factors) and then continues more specifically by detailing six biological characteristics of fresh-water invertebrates: habitat, movement, feeding, breathing, life history, and stress tolerance. This section ends with a description of the techniques for collecting, observing, and preserving freshwater in-vertebrates (including simple homemade sampling devices and re-sources for more advanced study).

The second section is an identification guide of freshwater invertebrates. It begins with a series of questions and charts (instead of a dichotomous key) that can be used by novices to roughly identify their invertebrates. These charts then refer the reader to a series of100 plates containing color illustrations and descriptions of the distinguishing features for the various taxa. Also included on each plate are bars indicating the size range of the organisms and, for some taxa, more detailed black-and-white diagrams of important characteristics. The taxa are primarily described to order or family (in a few cases, only to class), and they have been chosen so that most people should be able to make accurate identifications with the naked eye or perhaps using a magnifying glass. The author states that, with practice, users should be able to correctly identify 90% of the invertebrates they find, which is amazing considering the diversity of freshwater invertebrates in North America.

The final, and longest, section of the book provides additional information about each of the taxa from Section 2 (each plate contains page references to Section 3 for easy navigation). For each taxon, the author gives details about the number of species and their distribution in North America. Certain taxa also contain additional interesting commentary, such as an explanation of names or the significance of that group in the ecosystem. A specific description follows for each of the six biological characteristics generally described in Section 1. These descriptions are necessarily general and apply to most species in a particular taxon, but readers with more extensive knowledge will, of course, note that there are exceptions to these generalities. For novice readers, however, the information is more than adequate, and the additional resources pro-vided throughout the book will lead them to further study.

In summary, this book is an excellent introduction to the biology and identification of freshwater invertebrates for a variety of readers and will contribute to the growing interest in and investigation of fresh water invertebrates.

Brian E. Keas
Department of Biological Sciences
Ohio Northern University
Ada, OH 45810
E-mail: b-keas@onu.edu
American Entomologist
Vol. 50, No. 2, Summer 2004