Temporal distribution of larval Chironomidae (Diptera) in experimental rice fields in Penang, Malaysia

Temporal distribution of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera (EPT) adults at a tropical forest stream: response to seasonal variations

“…Although interest in investigating the biodiversity of aquatic insects in both tropical and temperate aquatic ecosystems (lentic and lotic) is growing (Murphy and Davy-Bowker 2005;Clarke et al 2008;Al-Shami et al 2010a, b, 2011Hoang et al 2010;Jackson et al 2010;Magbanua et al 2010), there is still a knowledge gap regarding the ecology and biology of tropical aquatic insects in Asian regions and their role in ecosystem stability (Morse et al 2007;Dudgeon 2008;Al-Shami et al 2010b, 2011.…”

Intra- and inter-annual variations in Chironomidae (Insecta: Diptera) communities in subtropical streams

“…Climate affects ecological processes such as competition, predation and recruitment (GRESENS et al 2007). In addition to climatic factors, temporal variations in the structure and composition of chironomid communities may reflect the biological characteristics of the species that compose these communities (HEINIS & DAVIDS 1993, SIQUEIRA et al 2008 or temporal changes in physical and chemical characteristics (AL-SHAMI et al 2010b). Natural disturbances, such as spates caused by increased rainfall in human-impacted areas may carry chemicals from adjacent areas to the streams, thus affecting chironomid communities (GRESENS et al 2007).…”

Nutrient conditions and chironomid productivity in Kolkata, India: assessment for biomonitoring and ecological management

“…In view of this proposition and the observations of the present study, it would be pertinent to assess the effectiveness of individual chironomid species abundance as indicator of environmental condition of water bodies. The observed diversity of chironomid midges is comparatively low in contrast to the rice fields and wetlands in Southeast Asian countries (Guha et al, 1980;Al-Shami et al, 2010), primarily because of higher nutrient conditions. At a proximate level, the pond conditions show eutrophic state with positive correlations of nitrate against phosphate, organic carbon and potassium.…”

“…Low species richness of chironomid in artificial water bodies of urban areas have been recorded from South America than in rural areas (Hamerlík et al, 2011). Chironomid species such as C. striatipennis and C. circumdatus are common in both urban and rural areas (Guha et al, 1980;Chaudhuri et al, 1988;Al-Shami et al, 2010;Nandi et al, 2011). Their presence in those ecosystems provides a basis to consider these two species as indicator of the environmental states in both urban and rural context.…”

“…and Polypedilum spp. exhibit high abundance in lakes (Stevens et al, 2006) and rice fields (Al-Shami et al 2010) contaminated with fertilizers and organic waste materials. The diversity of Chironomus spp.…”