HR: 1330h
AN: NB33A-13    [Abstracts]
TI: A Preliminary Digital Reference Collection of Panamanian Freshwater Aquatic Macroinvertebrates.
AU: * Pickard, D P
EM: dpickard@csuchico.edu
AF: California Department of Fish and Game, Aquatic Bioassessment Laboratory - Chico CSU Chico, Chico, CA 95929-0555 United States
AU: Harrington, J M
EM: jharring@ospr.dfg.ca.gov
AF: California Department of Fish and Game, Water Pollution Control Laboratory 2005 Nimbus Rd., Rancho Cordova, CA 95670 United States
AB: Most treatments of aquatic insect taxonomy in Central America have focused on the adult stages of a few taxonomic groups (e.g. Trichoptera, Baetidae). There is a general paucity of knowledge regarding immature stages of aquatic macroinvertebrates in Central America and a large proportion of species for which only the adult stages have been described. This work is an attempt to digitally document immature forms of aquatic insects from a wide range of lotic sites throughout the Republic of Panamá and to make these images available in a web-page format. Images will be available for all aquatic groups at the lowest possible taxonomic resolution, and will include images designed to highlight key taxonomic characters (e.g. tarsal claws of Camelobaetidius sp.). Along with these diagnostic images, information about life history, pollution tolerance, and collection site characteristics will be included with the images. To date, collections for reference material have been made at 23 forested sites representing a wide range of geographic and altitudinal diversity of Panamá. We hope that this work will help to stimulate further research on immature aquatic macroinvertebrates in Central America by identifying taxonomic gaps, and be used as a template for other digital reference collections.
DE: 0845 Instructional tools
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly