This new edition of the Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera gives a taxonomic overview of the most diverse group of all organisms living in the world-largest biogeographical area. The present volume is an updated edition of the first issue in 2003 but restricted to data published before the year 2000. It contains information about 33,914 taxa (together with synonyms), and increases the number of included species and other taxa by almost 5,000. In addition, thousands of species have their distributional data completed, and their ranks, systematic positions and nomenclature corrected. Almost two hundred new acts fix systematics and nomenclature, and numerous problems are discussed. Even such well known genera as Calosoma and Carabus, or tribes as Bembidiini and Panagaeini, are completely reorganized compared to the previously published catalogues. Thus, the work is a scaffold for biotic surveys, ecological studies, and nature conservation. It responds to the urgent need of an assessment of the still remaining forms of life, threatened by the on-going destruction of habitats. Taxonomy provides the basic building blocks of our understanding of the diversity of life. It stems from innate human curiosity: confronted with an unknown species we ask first “what is it”? Taxonomists recognize species and other systematic entities (taxa), define them and place them within the framework of known organisms, providing means for their subsequent identification. Contributors are: Antonio Tomás Tomas Andújar, Carmelo Fernández Andújar, Michael Balkenohl, Igor Belousov, Yves Bousquet, Boleslav Březina, Achille Casale, Hans Fery, Jan Farkač, Pier Mauro Giachino, Henri Goulet, Martin Häckel, Jiří Hájek, Oldřich Hovorka, Fritz Hieke, Jan Hrdlička, Charles Huber, Bernd Jaeger, Ilya Kabak, Boris M. Kataev, Erich Kirschenhofer, Tomáš Kopecký, Ivan Löbl, Werner Marggi, Andrey Matalin, Wendy Moore, Peter Nagel, Paolo Neri, Sergio Pérez González, Alexandr Putchkov, James A. Robertson, Joachim Schmidt, José Serrano, Luca Toledano, Uldis Valainis, Bernhard J. van Vondel, David W. Wrase, Juan M. Pérez Zaballos, Alexandr S. Zamotajlov.

In this age of increased fundamental and applied research on biodiversity, no single volume was as yet devoted to the various temporal and spatial aspects of aquatic biodiversity. The present book is published in honour of Professor Henri Dumont (Ghent, Belgium) at the occasion of his retirement as Editor-in-Chief of Hydrobiologia. The volume presents a selection of contributions on aquatic biodiversity, written by colleagues from the editorial board, fellow editors of aquatic journals and former students and collaborators. Contributions deal with a wide spectrum of topics related to aquatic biodiversity and cover fields such as actual- and palaeolimnology, taxonomy, and fundamental and applied limnology. Even reconnaissance chapters on management and cultural impact of water bodies are included. The book combines state-of-the-art contributions in aquatic sciences.

From single-celled organisms in Black Sea sand to endemic cave crustaceans, from mountain glacial relict insects to the most diverse bird fauna in Europe, the fauna of Bulgaria has been a subject of study for more than a century. This is the first English language survey of all vertebrate and many key invertebrate groups of Bulgaria, their faunistics, origin, geographical and ecological distribution, and conservation issues.

Anisoptera, the first of two volumes on the Odonata, encompasses the large dragonfly species. To help readers understand naming conventions, a brief introductory biological review of the group includes illustrations of the main morphological features as well as explanations of alternative systems for naming the wing veins and other structures. The text introduces keys to facilitate identification of adult dragonflies and the known larvae. Beyond anatomical features, the keys include the known ranges of the species, synonyms, and citations of literature. The book is richly illustrated with pen and ink drawings of thousands of individual morphological structures.

This beautiful volume, with hundreds of fascinating hand-drawn illustrations, completes the two-volume work on the order Odonata in the Encyclopedia of South American Aquatic Insects. The Zygoptera volume encompasses the small dragonflies often called damselflies. The sections on the morphology of the adults and larvae are followed by discussions of factors influencing their distribution and instructions on the methods used to observe, collect, preserve, and examine specimens.

Winner of the Single Volume Reference/Science award of the Professional and Scholarly Publishing Awards given by the Association of American Publishers Dragonfly Genera of the New World is a beautifully illustrated and comprehensive guide to the taxonomy and ecology of dragonflies in North, Middle, and South America. A reference of the highest quality, this book reveals the striking beauty and complexity of this diverse order. Although Odonata—dragonflies and damselflies—are among the most studied groups of insects, until now there has been no reliable means to identify the New World genera of either group. This volume provides fully illustrated and up-to-date keys for all dragonfly genera with descriptive text for each genus, accompanied by distribution maps and 1,595 diagnostic illustrations, including wing patterns and characteristics of the genitalia. For entomologists, limnologists, and ecologists, Dragonfly Genera of the New World is an indispensable resource for field identification and laboratory research.

Phenology is the study of plant and animal life cycle events, which are triggered by environmental changes, especially temperature. Wide ranges of phenomena are included, from first openings of leaf and flower buds, to insect hatchings and return of birds. Each one gives a ready measure of the environment as viewed by the associated organism. Thus, phenological events are ideal indicators of the impact of local and global changes in weather and climate on the earth's biosphere. Assessing our changing world is a complex task that requires close cooperation from experts in biology, climatology, ecology, geography, oceanography, remote sensing and other areas. This book is a synthesis of current phenological knowledge, designed as a primer on the field for global change and general scientists, students and interested members of the public. With contributions from a diverse group of over fifty phenological experts, covering data collection, current research, methods and applications, it demonstrates the accomplishments and potential of phenology as an integrative environmental science.