Aquatic Oligochaete Biology VIII : Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Aquatic Oligochaeta, held in Bilbao, Spain 18-22 July 2000

This book contains 26 contributions dealing with the biology of aquatic oligochaetes and covers a wide range of topics including taxonomy, morphology, ultrastructure, embryology, reproduction, feeding biology, ecotoxicity, community studies, and species distribution. Descriptions of new taxa in tropical areas, including Amazonian forest soils, as well as overviews on the biodiversity of aquatic oligochaetes in Australia and European groundwaters, are presented. New morphological characteristics in both marine and freshwater species are described and interpreted. Laboratory studies contribute to the knowledge of oligochaete feeding biology and reproduction. The use of aquatic oligochaetes in ecological risk assessment is analysed in detail, and standardised experimental designs for studies on bioaccumulation and pollutant transfer by food are included. Finally, a number of papers present the effects of oliogochaetes on the performance of an activated sludge plant, and multivariate approaches to the spatial and/or temporal distribution and composition of oligochaete communities in many different areas of the world, from the scale of a river to the scale of the microhabitat. The broad scope of this volume is a reflection of recent rends, not only in oligochaete research, but also in general applied biological studies. Front Matter....Pages i-xxiii Descriptions of three Pristina species (Naididae, Clitellata) from Amazonian forest soils, including P. marcusi sp. nov.....Pages 1-11 A new lumbriculid genus and species from North America (Clitellata, Lumbriculidae)....Pages 13-22 Taxonomical survey of some stygobiont oligochaetes from the eastern part of France, including description of a new species....Pages 23-28 A preliminary study of oligochaetes in Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake of China, and its vicinity, with description of a new species of Limnodrilus ....Pages 29-38 New alluroidids (Annelida, Clitellata) from Guyana....Pages 39-47 Notes on the diversity and distribution of Australian Naididae and Phreodrilidae (Oligochaeta: Annelida)....Pages 49-64 Oligochaetes in southern European groundwater: New records and an overview....Pages 65-74 Oligochaete communities in the hyporheic zone of a glacial river, the Roseg River, Switzerland....Pages 75-81 Oligochaetes in Lake Towada, Japan, an oligotrophic caldera....Pages 83-92 Distribution and dispersal capacity of the Ponto-Caspian tubificid oligochaete Potamothrix moldaviensis Vejdovský et Mrázek, 1903 in the Baltic Sea Region....Pages 93-102 Temporal pattern of the double sperm line production in Tubifex tubifex (Annelida, Oligochaeta)....Pages 103-106 External structures used during attachment and sperm transfer in tubificids (Annelida, Oligochaeta)....Pages 107-113 Mysterious ‘crystals’: found attached to the epidermal peritoneum of marine tubificid (Annelida, Clitellata) species....Pages 115-122 Pattern formation in embryos of the oligochaete annelid Tubifex : cellular basis for segmentation and specification of segmental identity....Pages 123-131 Selective feeding by the aquatic oligochaete Tubifex tubifex (Tubificidae, Clitellata)....Pages 133-140 Cocoon deposition of Rhyacodrilus hiemalis Ohtaka (Tubificidae) in Lake Biwa, Japan....Pages 141-148 Utility and relevance of aquatic oligochaetes in Ecological Risk Assessment....Pages 149-169 Tubifex tubifex as a link in food chain transfer of hexachlorobenzene from contaminated sediment to fish....Pages 171-184 Bioaccumulation of lindane and hexachlorobenzene by the oligochaetes Enchytraeus luxuriosus and Enchytraeus albidus (Enchytraeidae, Oligochaeta, Annelida)....Pages 185-196 Spatial and temporal variations of oligochaetes of the Ivinhema River and Patos Lake in the Upper Paraná River Basin, Brazil....Pages 197-205 The distribution and ecology of littoral Oligochaeta and Aphanoneura (Annelida) of the Natural and Historical Reserve of Isla Martín García Río de la Plata River, Argentina....Pages 207-216 Effects of Nais elinguis on the performance of an activated sludge plant....Pages 217-222 Half a century of oligochaete research in Estonian running waters....Pages 223-234 Oligochaeta of the Morava and Odra River basins (Czech Republic): species distribution and community composition....Pages 235-240 Effect of hydraulics, bed load grain size and water factors on habitat and abundance of Narapa bonettoi Righi & Varela, 1983 of the Upper Paraná River, Brazil....Pages 241-248 Hydrology and substrates: determinants of oligochaete distribution in lowland streams (The Netherlands)....Pages 249-262 Back Matter....Pages 263-268