Underexplored Freshwater Habitats in Ireland: Case Studies Using Riverflies with The Biological Recording Company

Dr Helen Barber-James shares her research into the fascinating but underexplored world of mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies in Ireland.

Ireland’s freshwater landscape encompasses over 12,000 lakes and extensive river networks, primarily shaped by Pleistocene glaciation. Standard aquatic surveys consistently target riffle zones, boulder substrates, and macrophyte beds, systematically overlooking specialised microhabitats such as seeps, temporary streams, turloughs, and those with groundwater sources including springs and the hyporheic zone of rivers that may harbour unique invertebrate communities.

Using Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies), and Trichoptera (caddisflies) as focal taxa, this talk examines distributional gaps and discusses species found in some of Ireland’s specialised aquatic habitats, based on recent surveys carried out at various locations across Ireland.

Dr Helen James joined National Museums NI in January 2022 as Senior Curator of Natural Sciences. Previously, she was Senior Curator in the Department of Freshwater Invertebrates at the Albany Museum in Grahamstown, South Africa, where she was based for many years. Her research interests focus on biodiversity, systematics, biogeography and ecology of freshwater invertebrates, in particular the freshwater insect groups the Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies) and Trichoptera (caddisflies). These insect groups are frequently encountered during ecological studies of freshwater ecosystems, and play an important role as bioindicators of the state of the aquatic environment they inhabit.

For more information and to book your place, visit The Biological Recording Company Eventbrite page.