干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Biweekly field trips were conducted from April to December 2012 to collect aquatic insects from four sites at Wadi Ar Rumman (WR), one site at King Talal Dam (KTD), and one site at Az Zarqa'a River (ZR). Water temperature, pH, total dissolved solids (TDS) and conductivity were measured for each site. A total of 12932 insect specimens were collected belonging to 52 morphological species in 27 families and six insect orders. The highest number of species was found in a lotic shaded site of WR (33 species) while the lowest number of species was found in ZR (14 species). The highest number of individuals was collected from KTD (4115) while the lowest number was found in the lentic sunny site in WR. The most diverse insect order was Diptera which contained 34 species in 13 families, followed by Odonata with 9 species in 6 families. Other orders had 1-2 species in 1-2 families. The most diverse insect family was Chironomidae with 6 species. The Ceratopogonidae and Psychodidae had 5 species, Libellulidae and Tabanidae had 3 species while the rest of the families contained 1-2 species. The Chironomidae had the highest number of individuals collected in KTD. The Corixidae was next which almost was restricted to KTD. The Trichoptera was found only in WR which may be used as a good bio-indicator for the good water quality of WR compared to other study sites. Only three larvae were collected from the damselfly Calopteryx syriaca, which is considered an endangered species in the Levant. The average water temperatures were 25, 24, 25 C degrees; pH 9.7, 7.6, 7.5; the TDS 1370, 1193, 1557 ppm and the EC 1960, 1705, 2261 mu S/cm in KTD, WR and ZR, respectively. The tolerance values for the collected insects ranged from 1-10. There is a need for the construction of identification keys for the different aquatic insect groups which necessitates rearing the immatures or the use of molecular techniques to associate them with the adults. More intensive and comprehensive surveys for other aquatic habitats in Jordan are needed and may reveal important data about the diversity of aquatic insects in Jordan.