The most diverse and numerous group of animals, the invertebrates, form a biological community more complex in species numbers and relationships than any other terrestrial community. Invertebrate animals are located nearly everywhere and consequently serve very important functions in the ecosystems which they inhabit. Invertebrates are responsible for pollinating many flowering plants. They are the leading consumers of vegetation, initiators of successional trends, the leading consumers of other invertebrates, recyclers of dead organic material, regulators of element cycles, turners of the soil, and food for higher animals. However, they have generally not been fully studied, mainly due to there being so many species, as well as their small size and obscure habitats, particularly those that inhabit the soil or bottom sediments of lakes and ponds. Representatives of most land and freshwater invertebrate groups are known to occur throughout the province. A general review of the collections of the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History and some published lists suggests that there are more than 15,000 species of land and freshwater invertebrates in the province.

This Document Includes:

Diversity
Distribution of Native Species
Introduced Species
Insects and Plants
Soil Invertebrates
Freshwater Invertebrates

Open-water Invertebrates
Edge-vegetation Invertebrates
Benthic Invertebrates
Adaptations

Rare Species

Special Features

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Additional Keywords:
arachnids, Chignecto Isthmus, mites, spiders, molluscs, crustaceans, insects, amphipod, snails, butterfly, dragonfly, damsefly, shipsŐ ballast, slug, Spruce Budworm, White-marked Tussuck, Forest Tent Caterpillar, Dutch Elm disease, Elm Bark Beetle, Beech Scale, beech bark disease, galls, gall flies, gall wasps, Cinnabar Moth, Nematoda, worms, crustaceans, blackfly, caddisfly, stonefly, leeches, zooplankton, phytoplankton, water fleas, copepods, rotifers, calanoids, cyclopoids, harpacticoids, Fish Tapeworm, nauplii, pond snails, Ramshorn snail, mussels, Yellow-lamp Mussel, Bog Horsefly, Short-tailed Swallowtail Butterfly, Sable Island, Common Green Darner, American Dog Tick

Associated Topics:

T4.3 Post-glacial Colonization by Animals
T8.2 Freshwater Environments
T9.1 Soil-Forming Factors
T9.3 Biological Environments
T11.18 Rare and Endangered Animals
T12.11 Animals and Resources

Associated Habitats:

H2.5 Tidal Marsh
H3 Fresh Water
H4 Freshwater Wetland
H5 Terrestrial Unforested
H6 Forests