The Ecology of the Simuliidae in a Scottish River

Abstract

The Simuliidae have a world-wide distribution and in many countries are important economically. Much of the research on the Palaearctic members has been carried out in Canada where certain species are serious pests of livestock (Cameron 1922; Rempel & Arnason 1947; Hocking & Pickering 1954; etc.). In Great Britain, few of the indigenous species are serious pests and the family has been rather neglected. In general, the majority of the data available in the literature on the Simuliidae concerns the adult stages. The first important study of the family Simuliidae in Britain was that of Edwards (1915) which dealt with the adults of the British species; later, a study of the larvae appeared (Edwards 1920) to be followed by various other papers (e.g. Edwards 1927, 1932). Puri (1925) gave an account of the larvae of several European species. The biology of Simulium ornatum in a stream near Edinburgh was described by Smart (1934) who subsequently studied the ecology of certain species in Perthshire (Smart 1936), produced a key to the British species (Smart 1944) and gave a classification of the family (Smart 1945). Pentelow (1935) analysed the distribution of the Simuliidae in the River Tees, whilst Steward (1937) worked on an important cattle parasite transmitted by S. ornatum. More recently an ecological study was carried out by Zahar (1951) in south-east Scotland, while several excellent studies (dealing mainly with adults) have been made by Davies (1955, 1957a, b, c), Davies et al. (1962), Davies & Williams (1962) and Williams (1962). There are several casual notes in the literature concerning the British species (e.g. Cloudsley-Thompson 1955; Dunbar 1959). As characteristic members of the invertebrate fauna of streams in this country, Simuliidae are often mentioned generally in studies of running waters (e.g. Jones 1951; Badcock 1949; Maitland 1964; Morgan & Egglishaw 1965; etc.) and of the food of various freshwater fish (e.g. Neill 1938; Allen 1941; Frost 1945; Hartley 1948; McCormack 1962; Mills 1964; Maitland 1965a; etc.).