Ecological Strategies of Aquatic Insects recounts the habits of many interesting and unusual exceptions to the rule that insects are typically terrestrial forms of life. It examines the different ways that groups of species have developed modes of existence in or on the surface of water, and gives reasons why the gross morphology of insects is not favorable for life in or near bodies of water, such as wings that fail to function after coming into contact with water, rendering them useless.
- Insects and water
- Insects on the high seas
- Littoral insects
- Insects of streams, ponds and lakes
- Adults that do not eat
- Insect fauna of insect-eating plants
- Insects inhabiting rainwater pools
- Insects in mosses and lichens
- Insects of bogs and moors
- Insects that fly over snow, ice and frozen ground
- Herbivorous insects on aquatic plants
- Ambushers in streams
- Active hunters in standing waters
- Life on the surface tension
- Hyperparasitic larvae in aquatic insects
- Life in water without oxygen
- Living in hypersaline water
- Wedding gifts from flies
- Aquatic insects that kill people
- Insects which use people for bait
- Insects which construct underwater shelters
- What we still need to discover
- Summary and scope
Charles W. Heckman, retired, is affiliated with the Max-Planck Institute for Limnologie, Plön, Hamburg, Germany.