Dry mass-length relationships for benthic insects: a review with new data from Catamaran Brook, New Brunswick, Canada

1. We summarized previously published mass-length relationships for aquatic insects, and determined the relationship between dry body mass and body length for eight genera and seven families of benthic insects from Catamaran Brook, New Brunswick, Canada. 2. A power function was the most commonly used model in the earlier studies and best described the observed mass-length relationship for taxa from Catamaran Brook. 3. Predicted mass at length was highly variable (coefficient of variation greater than or equal to 25%) among models developed in different studies for the same family group. This variability presumably resulted from both variation in the methods used to construct the models, and in the natural spatio-temporal and taxonomic variation in mass at length, although the relative contributions of these two sources cannot be determined from existing data. 4. Several recommendations are made for the development and application of mass-length equations in future studies.