Recent advances in the study of chironomidae: An overview

This special issue provides an overview of recent advances in the study of chironomids (Diptera Chironomidae), as an outcome of the 20^th International Symposium on Chironomidae held in Trento (Italy), in July 2017. It includes 27 selected papers, representative of the six topics of the symposium: genetics and cytogenetics, taxonomy and systematics, autecology and physiology, toxicology and adaptive biology, ecology and biomonitoring, palaeolimnology. Most papers emphasise the value of chironomids in the monitoring programmes, mainly on Europe and case histories from South America and Africa. However, as our title indicates, the reported contemporary studies represent a range from the genetic through the autecological to the ecosystem scale. The aim of the volume is to give new insights on ecology and biology of non-biting midges, the freshwater insect family that comprises the highest number of species in the world, in both lentic and lotic habitats.