On the Epineuston or the Superaquatic Fauna

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Abstract
The fauns of the epineuston (particularly the collembolans) is studied in rain pools, lakes and streams in the Bahia Blanca region of Argentina. The collembolans consume the thin organic layer of material that accumulates on water surfaces, but if this accumulation becomes too heavy, and if bacteria and protozoans become too numerous in it, mortality among the collembolans is excessive. A small stream, the Naposta, was partially obstructed during the period of its lowest water flow, in such a manner that all of its superficial water was forced through a small central opening in the obstruction; the escaping superficial water was passed through a plankton net for 5-minute periods. The vast bulk of the epineuston thus captured consisted of Collembola and Acari. It was estimated, at this low water stage, that 7,500 arthropods (4,000 of them collembolans) were carried past a given point of the stream hourly. The epineuston Collembola of temporary rain pools consists mainly of forms forced out of the soil interstices by accumulating water and washed into the pools. They may at times be very numerous. The epineuston of lakes and streams, however, is populated mainly by species adapted to this mode of life. They likewise may at times be extremely abundant.

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