This important new title on the biology of Caddisflies is divied into three parts:
History of caddisfly research: Beginning with Aristoteles and the descriptive research on natural phenomena of the ancient world, the part further includes late mediaeval representations of Trichoptera, the description of the stock of caddisflies in the Age of Enlightenment - before and after Linnd finally thnng scientific interest in the 19th century. Morphology and anatomy, history of development and reproduction, behaviour and physiology, ecology and nature conservation have been central issues in the 20th century. In this treatment of the caddifly research history, the authors acknowledge, wherever applicable, the scientists with their methologies in text and illustrations.
Biology of caddisflies: In the post 20th century the biology of caddisflies was productively dealt with in a copious number of valuable in-depth studies. However, by far not all questions were resolved but new problems of central interest were added, and an immecse number of questions concerning the biology of individual species still remain. Yet the summary of the hitherto existing studies provides a solid basis on which some important aspects of caddisfly biology is properly based on: Morphology and Development, Physiology and Behaviour, Ecology and Biodiversity. The wide spectrum of topics discussed all over the world is comprehensively investigated and widely covered as regards contents. Anyhow, the book is written as well as based on the author's experiences and thus it follows to a certain amount examples from mainly the European area It also emphasizes ecological and physiological topics that are the exploratory focuses of the two authors.
Palaeontology and phylogenetic systematics: Another essential subject of the book is the phylogenetic tree of the caddisflies and the intrinsically tied discussion on it. Preliminary studies on morphological taxonomy, methodology of phylogenetic systematics, as well as the approach of molecular phylogeny in the last quarter of the 20th century have contributed several valuable proposals to the solution of this problem. Contributions to this discussion was provided by numerous intensively studied caddisfly fossils. The oldest fossils originate from the Permian and Devonian periods, but caddisfly fossils are known from almost all geological strata to date. Diversity of caddisflies in space and time is the big topic of the final chapter. All of the approximately 50 caddisfly families are presented and their interrelations in the phylogenetic tree of Trichoptera are discussed.
The book is aimed for all with an interest in Trichoptera, students and researchers alike.