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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 6208

Ralph O. Brinkhurst; Introductory studies on the Britisch Tubificidae (Oligochaeta). Arch.Hydrobiol. 56(4):395-412, 1960

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The Tubificidae have received remarkably little attention in this country despite their obvious importance in river and lake biology and in pollution stuides. Very few species are known to occur in Britain, and there is as yet no key available for their identification. This situation is probably attributable to the insistance of earlier workers that only living material may be named, or that serial sections must be used when preserved material is being studied. This attitude stems from the requirements of taxonomists concerned with the relationships between species and genera, which depend on a detailed knowledge of the entire reproductive system. The present work is intended to be first of a series, recording the species occurring in Britain, and containing a more complete study of the chitinous structures than is usual. This, it is hoped, will culminate in a key to this and other families of Oligochaetes occurring in fresh and brackish water; followed by a series of ecological studies.