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Rating: 
Summary: Great text for beginning Aquatic Entomlogy enthusiasts!
Review: I have personally taken an upper level Aquatic Entomology course from Dr. McCafferty at Purdue University. McCafferty's text is very well done, and very easy to use. The 'flow-chart' style identification keys are perfect for the non formally-trained entomologist. The illustrations are by Arwin Provonsha (who is also at Purdue Universtity). Arwin is one of the best scientific illustrators I have seen. Definately top-notch work! Some taxa are a bit out of date, notably the Hydrophilidae, but that is hardly a problem. Hopefully a revision will be published in the near future to keep this wonderful text current.
Rating:
Summary: Great text for beginning Aquatic Entomlogy enthusiasts!
Review: I have personally taken an upper level Aquatic Entomology course from Dr. McCafferty at Purdue University. McCafferty's text is very well done, and very easy to use. The 'flow-chart' style identification keys are perfect for the non formally-trained entomologist. The illustrations are by Arwin Provonsha (who is also at Purdue Universtity). Arwin is one of the best scientific illustrators I have seen. Definately top-notch work! Some taxa are a bit out of date, notably the Hydrophilidae, but that is hardly a problem. Hopefully a revision will be published in the near future to keep this wonderful text current.
Rating: 
Summary: Lacking general information too Technical, good graphics.
Review: I ordered from mail service and wish I hadn't. This book should be viewed first. Classification outdated. This book was too technical and incomplete. A very small portion was intended for fly fishers. The cost of this book would be better applied to many more up to date books designed for fly fishers interested in identification.
Rating:
Summary: Good First Textbook
Review: I've had my copy of Aquatic Entomology for almost 15 years now. I still refer to it quite often. It's a great first text for someone wanting to learn the craft of identification of aquatic insects. This IS a technical book, but not as technical as some (Merrit and Cummings for example). If your a fisherman who only wants to know what a Mayfly, Caddisfly or Stonefly looks like, then this book is not for you. This book also assumes some basic knowledge of aquatic insects. If you want to be able to recognize the major families of these (and other) orders than this is a great book to start with. There is a lot of information for the fisherman who is willing to "read between the lines". Know the basic natural history of certain insect groups will help one to be a better fisherman. This text also gives the basics of aquatic insect collection and storage. There is a tremendous world of diversity in our streams, rivers and lakes. This is a great book to help one unlock the key to this world.
Rating:
Summary: Good First Textbook
Review: I've had my copy of Aquatic Entomology for almost 15 years now. I still refer to it quite often. It's a great first text for someone wanting to learn the craft of identification of aquatic insects. This IS a technical book, but not as technical as some (Merrit and Cummings for example). If your a fisherman who only wants to know what a Mayfly, Caddisfly or Stonefly looks like, then this book is not for you. This book also assumes some basic knowledge of aquatic insects. If you want to be able to recognize the major families of these (and other) orders than this is a great book to start with. There is a lot of information for the fisherman who is willing to "read between the lines". Know the basic natural history of certain insect groups will help one to be a better fisherman. This text also gives the basics of aquatic insect collection and storage. There is a tremendous world of diversity in our streams, rivers and lakes. This is a great book to help one unlock the key to this world.
Rating:
Summary: A superb review of aquatic entomology in North America
Review: McCafferty's authoritative work is directed at the nonspecialist, particularly anglers with a scientific bent and ecologists who are not entomologists. It is widely used as a basic text for aquatic entomology in universities, as well. It provides keys for insect families, detailed descriptions of orders, extensive information on life histories and habitats, and is sumptuously illustrated with line drawings, many in color, by A. V. Provonsha. It is the most complete and accessible work on the aquatic entomology of North America north of Mexico. It belongs on the shelf of every serious angler-entomologist.A few of the taxa have changed names since the publication of the book in 1981, but this shouldn't prove to be problem for the intended audience.
Rating: 
Summary: An oldie, but goodie...
Review: The book is now quite old. There have been several regroupings at the family level since this book has been published so even if you use it correctly, you can incorrectly identify insects. Also, if you are serious about identifying aquatic insects, the family-level keys of this book are insufficient to give your work credibility. Those are the two problems with this book... 1- it is a little out of date AND 2- it is a limited tool for identifying organisms.
All that aside, it is a very good book to teach the CONCEPTS of taxonomy to students. The keys have nice flow charts that teach students to make the kinds of decisions that they need identify insects.
Does it have legs? Or not?
Does it have wings? Or not?
Does it have one claw? Or two?
The keys use pictures so that the process does not become bogged down in terminology. Thus I highly recommend it to teachers and to parents that are helping there child build their own entomology collection. I keep a copy for work shops.
The color plates in the back are beautiful and help convey the appearance of specimens in life. Most of the book has nice grey-scale illustrations.
The Author is a mayfly specialist... one of THE mayfly specialists in the world...
If you are interested in this book there are other titles you may find interesting. Try Reese Voshell's book if you are interested in teaching insects to older kids, or for watershed monitoring groups. [2002: A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America]; it also contains lots of interesting ecologic information.
If you are interested general taxonomy of aquatic insects, try Merritt and Cummins 1996 [An Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North America]. It provides the best keys to genus-level for most insects. But be aware that a new edition should be out in 2 years or so... this book is not real friendly if you have not had a college-level entomology... but i heard a rumor that that there will be a nice glossary in the new edition that should make it more accessible...
of course not all aquatic invertebrates are insects... if you are interested in these critters (amphipods, snails, etc) try Thrope and Covich 2002 [Ecology and Classification of Freshwater Invertebrates]
Note that, for genus-level-taxonomy, the last two books will require access to a medium to High-quality dissecting microscope and may require a compound microscope. The Books by McCafferty and by Voshell do not require as much magnification...
If you would like further information you can email me and I will be glad to help. brett@thebugguy.org
Rating: 
Summary: Not designed for the Flyfisher.
Review: Very little information is inserted that is of benefit to the flyfisher. Classifications are outdated and most of the text is complicated and useless. Some of the pictures (drawings) were great. It helped in identifying some of the basic insects.
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