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Aquatic Invertebrates Collection

Аquatic invertebrates collection of IBER-BAS has been established on the basis of the collection of Oligochaeta and the collections of aquatic insects from orders Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Diptera (Chironomidae) and Heteroptera. The collectios are placed in two of the buildings of IBER-BAS, Oligochaeta at Base 1 and the collections of aquatic insects at Base 2.
The collection of Oligochaeta was founded at the beginning of 1970's. It is a wet collection, including 130 species and over 80 000 specimens, no type specimen is presented.
Еphemeroptera collection is created in the 1970's by prof. Boris Russev. Innitially it was divided on genera level but later (after 1990) it was transfered to species level collection. It includes representatives not only from Bulgaria but also from other European countries. Currently Ephemeroptera collection covers approximately 90 species, including some mayflies mentioned in the Red Data Book of Bulgaria. Some materials are also stored as adults. In total, the collection of Ephemeroptera includes over 100 000 specimens (wet collection), with 1 type specimen (durable microslides). The Plecoptera collection contains 45 species and over 20 000 specimens (wet collection), with 2 type specimens.

The collection of Chironomidae is composed by premanent microslides of external morphology of the larvae of chironomids. It is created in 2017 and up to now includes representatives of the bottom fauna of the Bulgarian stretch of the Danube River and the Srebarna Lake. The Chironomidae collection contains representatives of 50 genera and species, and over 700 specimens, preserved on permanent microscopic slides (dry collection).
The collection of aquatic Heteroptera was established in 2017 and it includes specimens collected between 2005 and 2017 from aquatic habitats in Bulgaria, mainly preserved in alcochol. The collection includes also stained permanent slides for cytogenetic analysis, prepared form gonades of aquatic heteroptera. Heteroptera collection includes 39 species, over 10 000 specimens (no type specimens) as wet collection. The dry collection includes 20 stained permanent slides.

The collections can be accessed by contacting and requesting the curators.
 
Address of collections:
(1) Oligochaeta
IBER-BAS (Base 1)
2 Yurii Gagarin Street
1113, Sofia

(2) Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Heteroptera, Diptera (Chironomidae)
IBER-BAS (Base 2)
1 Bul. Tsar Osvoboditel
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria.

Curator:
 

Assistant curators:

- Oligochaeta: Galya Georgieva
 

- Chironomidae: Mila Ihtimanska