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Light Control of Aquatic Insect Activity and Drift
Author(s) -
Bishop John E.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.2307/1933885
Subject(s) - aquatic insect , insect , wavelength , ecology , biology , environmental science , chemistry , larva , physics , optics
Investigations on aquatic insect activity, measured as drift in an artificial stream system with rigid light and temperature conditions, demonstrated a light—controlled, labile, exogenously—mediated activity rhythm. A threshold value for light, incident at the water surface, which when decreased led to high drift rates, and when increased suppressed activity, was determined to lie between 10 — 3 and 10 — 4 ft—c (10 — 2 and 10 — 3 lux). Preliminary experiments showed variations in wavelength to have little effect on the activity patterns of the insects.