Identifying and Understanding the Freshwater Invertebrates of North America: A Comprehensive Guide

Martin Underwood: Great guide, when will it be available again. Coworkers want a copy but used is ridiculously priced. I got fortunate to buy from a fair seller.

United States on Nov 09, 2023

ZachZach: I bought this book for my freshwater biology class and it came a day before it was estimated to, which is great. I bought a used copy to save money, it has barcodes and markings from being used at a public library, and some pages are dog-eared, but overall decent condition. This book is really nice because it has pictures in color, and gives concise information!

United States on Apr 25, 2023

Amazon Customer: I bought this book for my son who is in University and he says he loves it! Very helpful with his studies!

Canada on Oct 14, 2021

Mrs. Shari Lockyer: Book for college course arrived very quickly, which was a nice surprise as we thought it would be delayed.

The book itself is a great reference guide.

Canada on Nov 05, 2020

galvin hoyer: Marine biology loved it

Canada on Mar 06, 2020

Amazon Customer: A great fish food reality check!!

Canada on Jul 18, 2019

Brendan Martin: Great reference book for those starting out with Benthic identification. Picture quality and descriptions are great. For more advanced study, however, the book is a bit lacking especially if identifying benthics down to the family level. Good book to have on hand for more in depth education of the public.

Canada on Nov 16, 2018

S. M. Sharp: An excellent intro to freshwater invertebrates. A good dose of science and terminology for people who want to know how things work. It starts with a conceptual approach of what affects biological life in fresh water But it doesn't go too far off topic; it stays focused on invertebrate life.

The illustrations are superb. You don't need a college level understanding of chemistry or biology to read this, but the biology would help. This book stays on topics specific to limnology addressing substrate, water chemistry and other topics. You'll learn about lotic and lentic and other words to confuse your friends and spell checker, and impress the biologists within hearing distance. The only thing it runs short on is variety of bugs. But at 400+ pages adding the somewhat less common would create quite a tome.

The first section is the only part that needs to be read from beginning to end the rest is written for reference starting with illustrations, then going into detail first on the order, then on specific (common) families. You wouldn't want them all, this part takes up more than half the book.

A great book for a hobbyist that isn't afraid to put plants in an...

United States on Nov 04, 2008

Robert Hamilton IV: This book is an excellent guide to family-level invertebrate identification. It has wonderful pictures and excellent background information on the organisms.

Section I has the fundamentals of freshwater invertebrate biology. It discusses basic ecology of invertebrates and provides generalized information about habitat, feeding, movement, breathing, and stress tolerance. This section also discusses common methods of studying freshwater

invertebrates and provides references for further study.

Section II has an identification mechanism for identifying the invertebrates. The authors call it Quick Guide. The guide uses line drawings with written distinguishing features. It functions in a similar manner to a dichotomous key, but is not as complex.

Section III has natural history and ecological information for each group in the book. This section presents distinguishing features, explanation of names, habitat, movement, feeding, breathing, life history, significance, and stress tolerance for each specific group.

I have only two minor criticisms of this book. One criticism is that the book shows only adult beetles, when many times the larval forms are...

United States on Sep 09, 2004

David J. Wilson: If I could recommend only one book to someone interested in getting started to learn about benthic macroinvertebrates, Voshell and Wright's Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America would be it. The colored pictures are superb, and the text is clearly written and very informative. The introductory section of the book provides information to get the novice started: what are freshwater invertebrates and why are they of interest; how are they classified; a quick look at freshwater ecology; basics of freshwater invertebrate biology; and how to study these fascinating little critters.
The second section, which includes Amy Wright's beautiful pictures, provides very clearly written material on the distinguishing features of the various families. The third section, which is keyed to the second, provides information about the ecology, habitat, movement, feeding, breathing, life history, and significance (including pollution tolerance) for each of the families discussed.
This book is an excellent introduction. True, it is not as complete as Peckarsky, et al, Thorp and Covich, or McCafferty and Provonsha. On the other hand, it is nowhere nearly as intimidating as these...

United States on Jan 19, 2004