Freshwater macroinvertebrates of the Piora Valley (Canton Ticino, Switzerland)

The Piora Valley is particularly rich in water. The presence of 21 lakes, 28 ponds, 14 bogs, and 58 streams has been recorded. This work presents the results of a field survey that took place in July 2010, during the "48h of biodiversity" event. Samples were taken with a kicknet in seven streams and one spring to survey their macroinvertebrate fauna and add new species to the already existing faunistic lists. This campaign took also in consideration, for the first time, Chironomids and Oligochaetes. The eight sampling locations included a wide spectrum of aquatic environments: a spring, first and second degree brooks, the main river of the valley, as well as the in- and outlet of Lake of Cadagno. These samples resulted in 23 different EPT taxa (4 Ephemeroptera, 6 Plecoptera, and 12 Trichoptera), as well as 12 taxa of Chironomids - with the subfamily Orthocladiinae being the best represented- and 5 taxa of Oligochaetes. EPT were well represented, with 9 new taxa added to the previous lists (2 Ephemeroptera, 2 Plecoptera, 5 Trichoptera). The Chironomidae wera also well represented, while Oligochaeta were scarce.