Chironomus (Meigen): Key to the larvae of importance to biological water analysis in Germany and adjacent areas

Description:

Text German/English. The key is based largely on macroscopically visible features. It identifies 11 species and species groups of significance to water quality evaluation whose ecological requirements are known sufficiently and whose larvae are reasonably diagnosable in terms of taxonomy. Where the respective configuration of characters does not allow further taxon separation with reliable results, the identification sequence is ended. Collective key terminals are used also, where the ecological valences of the corresponding taxa have not been sorted out. The ecological requirements and indicator properties of the identifiable taxa are summarised in a table.