Field guides for freshwater surveys

[bob]

Since this is my current area of work, thought I'd share a quick list of resources I use, in the vague hope it might be of use to someone one day!

I survey plants to species level, but invertebrates only to family level (on the whole - some groups we go on to key out to species)

Plants
The usual floras: Francis Rose http://www.nhbs.com/title.php?tefno=36108 and Blamey, Fitter & Fitter http://www.nhbs.com/title.php?tefno=108194
I supplement these with the FSC key to British Water Plants http://www.nhbs.com/title.php?tefno=5333

Invertebrates
The general FSC key http://www.nhbs.com/a_key_to_the_major_groups_of_british_tefno_20453.html covers most groups to family level at least, and is pretty good and easy to use.

The larvae of stoneflies and caddis flies are covered better by the respective detailed FSC keys http://www.nhbs.com/simple_key_to_caddis_larvae_tefno_151427.html & http://www.nhbs.com/guide_to_the_british_stonefly_plecoptera_families_adults_tefno_154345.html, although if you really want to study caddisfly larvae properly you'll need to spend a lot more money on professional books!

For dragonflies and damselflies (adults and larvae) http://www.nhbs.com/title.php?tefno=64911 is great.
British Dragonfly Soc. also produce useful guides http://www.nhbs.com/title.php?tefno=156177

Older (pre-1986) editions of Collins Freshwater Life (Fitter & Manuel) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freshwater-Britain-North-west-Europe-Collins/dp/0002191431/&qid=1265038194 also have some useful keys, but this edition is OOP and can be unreasonably expensive to get hold of!

The internet also provides some good, free resources such as:
BSBI Plant Crib http://www.bsbi.org.uk/html/plant_crib.html
Interactive key to European freshwater life http://nlbif.eti.uva.nl/bis/limno.php?menuentry=sleutel
BioImages virtual fieldguide http://www.bioimages.org.uk/index.htm
Freshwater Biological Association http://www.fba.org.uk/recorders/publications_resources/keys.html
Conchological Society interactive key to molluscs http://www.conchsoc.org/aids_to_id/help-id.php