The list of the marine insects is definitely not complete. There are two reasons for this situation. One is that references to marine insects are scattered in various entomological publications some of which are old and not readily available. Second, the definition of a marine insect is not commonly agreed. Some authors consider them as insects found in marine habitats while others include those that are sporadically associated with the marine environment. The definition proposed by Chang & Frank (1993) considers as marine species an insect which spends at least one of its developmental stages habitually in a marine habitat. Even in this case there are some who consider the supralittoral zone as terrestrial (Bigot et al., 1984). In this list, the supralittoral zone is excluded as a very large number of species would have to be included. The list was compiled using several sources (Riedl, 1970; Chang & Frank, 1993; Hayward & Ryland, 1995).The majority of juvenile Chironomidae inhabit freshwater but, uncommonly among insects, larvae of some are true halobionts and have been recorded from coasts all over the world (Pinder 1995). The following Chironomidae are known from European coastal waters (Ashe and Cranston, 1990).
References
- Ashe, P. & Cranston, P.S., 1990, Chironomidae. In Soos, A. & Papp, L. (Eds) Catalogue of Palaearctic Diptera: 2 Psychodidae - Chironomidae. 113-499. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest
- Bigot L., Picard J., Roman M.L. 1984.- Signification des peuplements d’invertébrés des plages et dunes du delta du Rhône; délimitation des domaines marin et terrestre. C.R. Acad. Sci. Paris (III)2980(1): 5-7.
- Chang L. & Frank J.H. 1993.- Marine insects and their reproduction. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol. Annu. Rev. 31: 479-506.
- Hayward P.J. & Ryland J.S. 1995.- Handbook of the Marine Fauna of North-West Europe. Oxford Univ. Press, pp. 462-476.
- Pinder, L.C.V., 1995, The habitats of chironomid larvae. In (Eds) Armitage, P.D., Cranston, P.S., & Pinder, L.C.V., The Chironomidae - Biology and ecology of non-biting midges. 107-135. Chapman and Hall, London
- Riedl R. 1970.- Fauna und Flora der Adria. Verlag Paul Parey, pp. 371-380.