Mountain stream fauna, with special reference to Mollusca

Abstract

Investigations of the aquatic fauna of the running waters in the central mountains of Sri Lanka initially were conducted by the Fisheries Research Station of the Department of Fisheries in Colombo, with the most intensive effort on the freshwater fishes. Mendis & Fernando (1962) have published a guide to the freshwater fauna, with supplements (Fernando, 1963, 1964, 1969a, 1974). A survey of the freshwater invertebrate fauna was given by Fernando (1980). Numerous references are given in these monographs, including some to stream fauna in the mountains. Silas (1952) published a study on the speciation of freshwater fishes. Fernando & Indrasena (1969) surveyed the freshwater fisheries and mentioned the trout fishery in the uplands. Fernando (1969b) listed some freshwater molluscs and gave notes on their distribution and biology and Costa (1974) gave an account on the limnology and fisheries biology of the Horton Plains streams. Costa & Fernando (1967) dealt with the fauna of small mountain streams and Geisler (1967) made some limnological and ichthyological studies in the streams of the Southwest uplands. Descriptions of the mountain stream stations and their fauna are found in the papers by Brinck et al. (1971), Bott (1970), DeLeve (1973a), Enckell (1970) and Kuiper (1979). In 1970, a hydrobiological mission carried out by the Institute of Zoology, University of Vienna, in cooperation with the Department of Zoology, University of Sri Lanka, Vidyalankara Campus, investigated the fauna of the mountain streams of the Southwest region.KeywordsBrackish WaterTotal HardnessStagnant WaterMountain StreamFreshwater MusselThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.