This guide covers the macroscopic invertebrate taxa that occur in continental Australia inland waters.  Taxa represented in fresh or saline, running or still, permanent or ephemeral inland waters are included.  Wholly marine forms that may extend into upper estuarine habitats, and terrestrial taxa that may irregularly be found in freshwater, generally are excluded.

The aim has been to key free-living organisms to family level, starting with a Key to Phylum and Class of Australian Aquatic Invertebrates.  However lower-level identification is provided for selected taxa, and higher-level only is provided for some poorly known groups, such as obligate parasites, or those comprising mainly small organisms not retained by a 250µm mesh net.

These keys were originally developed as a CD-ROM product by CSIRO Entomology with funding from National River Health Program and Land and Water Australia. This web-based version of the Australian Aquatic Invertebrate Key Guide uses Lucid software and has been commissioned by the Commonwealth Government's Australian Biological Resources Study and the National River Health Program, which is funded through the Natural Heritage Trust.

The aquatic invertebrate keys are available for you to access across the Internet. Please note you will require a Lucid Player to run the keys. Click here to download a Free Player or click here to purchase a Player Plus (for a small charge of US$15.95). If you are on a modem, please note that it may take over an hour to download the Lucid Player.

If you click here to view the keys, you will be able to view the fact sheets for various taxa as well as launch specific keys (once you have installed a Lucid Player on your hard-drive). You will be given the choice of saving the key(s) to your hard drive or of accessing them from the site. If you are not sure in which group your specimen can be found, start with the key to Phylum and Class and work down through the sub-keys where appropriate.  If you have not used a Lucid Player before - go to the Phylum and Class key and use the interactive tutorial.

Click here to find out more about Lucid.