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A rheophile is an animal that prefers to live in fast-moving water.
Examples of rheophilic animals
 | This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (February 2013) |
Insects
- Many aquatic insects living in riffles require current to survive.
- Epeorus sylvicola, a rheophilic mayfly species (Ephemeroptera)
- Some African (Elattoneura) and Asian threadtail (Prodasineura) species
Birds
A white-throated dipper and grey wagtail, two avian rheophiles that forage at fast-running streams
- Dippers (Cinclus)
- Grey wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) and mountain wagtail (Motacilla clara)
- A few swifts often nest behind waterfalls, including American black swift (Cypseloides niger), giant swiftlet (Hydrochous gigas), great dusky swift (Cypseloides senex) and white-collared swift (Streptoprocne zonaris)
- Some waterfowl, including African black duck (Anas sparsa), blue duck (Hymenolaimus malacorhynchos), Brazilian merganser (Mergus octosetaceus), bronze-winged duck (Speculanas specularis), harlequin duck (Histrionicus histrionicus), Salvadori's teal (Salvadorina waigiuensis) and torrent duck (Merganetta armata)
Fish
A very large number of rheophilic fish species are known and include members of at least 419 genera in 60 families. Examples include:
- Many species in the family Balitoridae, also known as the hill stream loaches.
- Many species in the family Loricariidae from South and Central America
- Many Chiloglanis species, which are freshwater catfish from Africa
- The family Gyrinocheilidae.
- Rheophilic cichlid genera/species:
- The Lamena group in the genus Paretroplus from Madagascar.
- Oxylapia polli from Madagascar.
- Retroculus species from the Amazon Basin and rivers in the Guianas in South America.
- Steatocranus species from the Congo River Basin in Africa.
- Teleocichla species from the Amazon Basin in South America.
- Teleogramma species from the Congo River Basin in Africa.
- Mylesinus, Myleus, Ossubtus, Tometes and Utiaritichthys, which are serrasalmids from tropical South America
- The Danube streber (Zingel streber), family Percidae.
Molluscs
Amphibians
- Neurergus strauchii, a newt from Turkey
- Pachytriton labiatus, a newt from China
See also
References
- Hynes, H. B. N. (1970). Ecology of Running Waters. Originally published in Toronto by University of Toronto Press, 555p.
- Dijkstra, K.-D.B. "Genus Elattoneura Cowley, 1935 - African threadtails". addo.adu.org.za. frican Dragonflies and Damselflies Online. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
- Nathan K. Lujan and Kevin W. Conway (2015). "Life in the Fast Lane: A Review of Rheophily in Freshwater Fishes". Pp. 107–307 in: R. Riesch et al. (eds.). Extremophile Fishes. Springer International Publishing, Switzerland. ISBN 978-3-319-13361-4.
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