Environmental and Seasonal Effects on Gerridae Assemblages (Heteroptera: Gerromorpha) from a Stream in Brazilian Savannah.

Our aim here was to assess the seasonal (dry, ebb, and rainy seasons), spatial (upstream, intermediate, and downstream), and environmental effects on the dynamics of Gerridae assemblages (Heteroptera: Gerromorpha) in a Cerrado stream, in central-western Brazil. We sampled the insects on the water line between May 2011 and April 2014 with an 18 cm diameter sieve. We used the scanning method in 100 m of stream in each sampled locality.

Sampling efficiency of a protocol to measure Odonata diversity in tropical streams.

Odonata can be sampled following different types of protocols. In Brazil, the most used protocol is the scanning in fixed areas method, where a 100-meter transect is delimited in one of the stream margins, subdivided into 20 segments measuring 5 meters. Despite being universally used, the methodological efficiency or limitations of this protocol for Odonata has never been tested.

Community assembly of adult odonates in tropical streams: an ecophysiological hypothesis.

Community assembly theory is founded on the premise that the relative importance of local environmental processes and dispersal shapes the compositional structure of metacommunities. The species sorting model predicts that assemblages are dominated by the environmental filtering of species that are readily able to disperse to suitable sites. We propose an ecophysiological hypothesis (EH) for the mechanism underlying the organization of species-sorting odonate metacommunities based on the interplay of thermoregulation, body size and the degree of sunlight availability in small-to-medium tropical streams.

Taxonomic and numerical resolutions of nepomorpha (insecta: heteroptera) in cerrado streams.

Transformations of natural landscapes and their biodiversity have become increasingly dramatic and intense, creating a demand for rapid and inexpensive methods to assess and monitor ecosystems, especially the most vulnerable ones, such as aquatic systems. The speed with which surveys can collect, identify, and describe ecological patterns is much slower than that of the loss of biodiversity. Thus, there is a tendency for higher-level taxonomic identification to be used, a practice that is justified by factors such as the cost-benefit ratio, and the lack of taxonomists and reliable information on species distributions and diversity.

Gerromorpha (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) of eastern Mato Grosso State, Brazil: checklist, new records, and species distribution modeling.

The infraorder Gerromorpha comprises semiaquatic bugs, most of which spend much of their lifetime on the water surface, between floating plants, or on the margins of water bodies. Based on literature and collections made on streams and lakes on municipalities of eastern Mato Grosso, Brazil, a list has been elaborated with 52 species, including several new records. Out of the recorded species, 26 belong to the family Veliidae, 20 to Gerridae, three to Hydrometridae, two to Mesoveliidae, and one to Hebridae.