The Waterbug Book - A guide to the freshwater macroinvertebrates of temperate Australia.

Gooderham and Tsyrlin have produced an attractive book that will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in freshwaters, their ecology and life. The superb photographs of invertebrates will delight non-professionals and professionals alike. Many of the more than 400 photos are taken of live animals, showing their natural posture while capturing the delicate, translucent beauty of these tiny creatures. To the water watcher this highly aesthetic aspect of freshwater life often remains hidden (as animals are usually sorted from preserved samples or, when picked alive, this is done without magnification) and the brilliant photos are an achievement to which the authors are to be congratulated.

The book is addressed to amateur naturalists interested in water monitoring. The text is very condensed and at the same time laced with witty anecdotes (e.g. about dining on waterbugs, or a cartoon-sprinkled identification key) showing the authors' intention to produce a slim and entertaining field guide. I am not sure, though, whether they did succeed in producing a guide because facts are often trivialised and genetic interrelationships of animal groups ignored ¾ and this leaves me rather puzzled than guided.

The 30 chapters of the book can be grouped into seven parts. The first part, the Introduction, contains information about distinct freshwater ecosystems (streams, standing waters, wetlands, estuaries), how to sample macroinvertebrates, and two ecological aspects (food webs, life cycles). Unfortunately many facts are simplified to a point that the inexpert reader will easily get things wrong. The following stories about macroinvertebrates and humans include the funny 'dining on bugs' and 'lures and flies' juxtaposing fishing flies with the actual insects mimicked. After then briefly recounting the history of studying freshwater invertebrates, the attempt is made to introduce the reader to the technical language used in taxonomy, to phylogenetic systematics and to the scientific naming of species - all this on two pages. This is perhaps the most unfortunate chapter of the introduction, because the authors venture on complex topics while allowing no space to convey them to the beginner (to whom this book is intended). Because the subjects touched are not essential for using the book it would have better done without: The term 'prothorax', for example, the authors elaborate on (p.17) is later constantly avoided and described as 'the first segment after the head'; or detailing on why scientific species names can change (p.18) does not only confuse the reader completely, but is pointless as the book aims at family level - and family names change next to never. However, the systematic hierarchy shown in Table 1 helps to understand the systematic level an animal group is treated on in the book's main part. The introduction concludes with explaining the SIGNAL index.

The second part is a Key to macroinvertebrate groups. Its use does not require any skills and employs amusing drawings to depict the alternative morphological feature in question (e.g. animal with wings vs without wings, or animal with all legs similar vs legs varied).

The third part, the centre-piece of the book (pp. 32-212), presents the major invertebrate groups in 22 concise chapters. Each chapter nicely starts with a peculiarity of the group, arousing interest to learn more about these animals. The group is presented with its distinguishing characteristics, possible misidentifications, classification and distribution in Australia. This is followed by information on habitat and ecology and natural history. (Under the heading 'ecology' the reader finds remarks on feeding habits but also on locomotion, and the distinction made here between 'ecology' and 'natural history' seems somewhat artificial to me.) All chapters contain many colour photos, and some chapters include line drawings on the general anatomy and keys to the families of the respective group.

The ancestral, lower animals (sponges, hydras, worms and mollusks) are discussed in the first six chapters, followed by 16 chapters about the four closer related, more advanced animal classes with joint legs (arthropods), namely arachnids, crustaceans, springtails and insects. Arachnida are presented in one chapter, with focus on spiders (living on the edge of waters) rather than on the truly aquatic mites. The following three chapters discuss Crustacea, followed by a brief presentation of springtails that occur in Australian freshwaters with a single family only. Almost the entire rest of the book deals with insects (pp.86-212), the class that comprises the majority of all macroinvertebrate families and species in our freshwaters.

The arrangement of the insect orders will puzzle many readers, I expect, because it ignores the natural genetic relationships: Orders are not sorted according to more ancestral insects (direct development from immature to adult, i.e. no pupal stage) and more advanced insects, leading to bizarre descriptions such as 'beetle larvae lack wing pads' (p.93). Certainly they do, because beetles develop from larva to adult via a pupa. Such didactically inept presentation creates confusion because basic underlying biological principles are not clarified (although their importance is mentioned elsewhere). Also annoying is the fact that closely related orders are presented widely separated from each other (moths is the first order discussed (pp. 86-87) and caddis flies the last one (pp.187 -212)) while at the same time only distantly related families are lumped together in one group (e.g. march flies plus crane flies, or moth flies plus soldier flies). Inconsistency is also found in the Crustacea chapters, but here it is less annoying because this class is presented in a more summarised fashion. The beginner might not be irritated by such illogical arrangement, but it will unsettle any reader somewhat familiar with freshwater animals, also because no explanation is offered by the authors. Within each chapter, the families of an order are presented alphabetically. Parts four to seven of the book contain a Listing of SIGNAL grades, a Glossary, References usefully arranged according to animal groups, and an Index.

The book would have benefited from a peer review and a thorough editing process. The authors acknowledge the support of a string of taxonomists who clearly helped with individual chapters, but the manuscript as a whole was evidently not reviewed, so the oddities outlined above were not eliminated. Some minor slips include incorrect figure captions (the damselfly shown on page 167 is Ischnura aurora, not I. heterosticta, and the male midge shown on page 113 belongs to the family Chaoboridae, not Chironomidae), or an erroneous 'fly spotting' hint (resting mosquitoes raise the hind legs and not the middle ones, p.113). A text editor would have readily helped to streamline the book's concept in targeting either absolute beginners or advanced naturalists and professionals. Doing the splits to cover either end of the scale did not work well: The main key, for example, is designed to tell snails from insects (I wonder what beginner would need a key for doing so) or attention is drawn to not mistake black fly larvae for leeches (which is far-fetched) while niceties of, for instance, chironomid morphology go clearly beyond the scope of this book (the superficial similarity between the two genera Harrisius and Stenochironomus and tanyderids). Many infelicities in style and misspellings went unnoticed in print. Graphically the book is well edited and its attractive appearance has much to do with the consistent, clear layout.

All in all, the beautiful photographs that 'provided the original motivation for this book' are clearly the strength of this publication. And the photos are published rightly. Only that in many cases the small size is regrettable, because in tiny photos (down to 27 x 20 mm) the aesthetic effect cannot be enjoyed to the full. Now, this might be the right point to emphasize that however brilliant a live photo might be, it rarely suits the needs for identification because many structures are hidden or simply too small to be seen properly without (dissecting the specimen and) further magnification.

So, the question arises whether the authors were well advised to construct a field guide around the photos to get them published. Probably aware of the shortcomings, and despite providing several identification keys, the authors wisely called their book a 'guide' rather than an identification guide. Paradoxically, the advertising blurb on the back cover claims the book to be the first ever 'comprehensive and accurate identification guide'. To me it looks like a chance frittered away to produce an appealing coffee table book based on a selection of photographs.

In conclusion, I can recommend the book when used along with an identification guide; then it will be a helpful information source for amateur naturalists and professionals alike. Most animal groups presented, inhabit freshwaters throughout Australia (although the subtitle refers to 'temperate Australia'), thus the book will well be of use to the water watcher in Queensland.

Dr Ulrike Nolte is freshwater ecologist, specialised in macroinvertebrates and bio-monitoring. She is consultant and scientist with Applied Freshwater Science ((07) 5497 0074; afs@mail.cth.com.au).

The Waterbug Book - A guide to the freshwater macroinvertebrates of temperate Australia. John Gooderham and Edward Tsyrlin. ISBN 0 643 06668 3, CSIRO Publishing, PO Box 1139, Collingwood VIC 3066. 2002. 232 pp. AUS $ 39.95