Benthic species are partitioned into functional feeding groups based on food-acquiring mechanisms. Effects of food quality on voltinism, growth rate, and size at maturity are demonstrated for representatives of gougers and shredders, collectors, and scrapers. Food quality for predators is uniformly high, but food quantity (prey density) obviously influences their life histories. A food switch from herbivory to predation, or some ingestion of animal tissues, in the later stages is a feature of the life cycle of many aquatic insects. Temperature interacts with both food quality and quantity in effects on growth as well as having a direct effect on control of metabolism. Thus further elaboration of the role of food in life history phenomena will require controlled field or laboratory studies to partition the effects of temperature and food. Key words: aquatic insects, feeding strategies, functional groups, life histories
Ontogenetic adaptations in the visual systems of deep-sea crustaceans