Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Odonata (EPTO) genera of Zimbabwe

Aquatic insects form an important part of the aquatic food chains (Mandima 2013) and they play an important role in secondary production (Voshell 2009). Records of 4 widely distributed aquatic insect orders; Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera, Odonata (EPTO) were collated from Museums around Africa through the African Insect Atlas project, a Biodiversity information for development (BID) project sponsored by GBIF and the EU which focuses on unleashing the potential of insects in conservation and sustainability research. The dataset includes a checklist and an occurrence dataset as an extension. However localities were withheld and data users are encouraged to contact the resource providers or the institution for the full data-set. EPTO taxa are particularly important for freshwater ecological and biomonitoring studies and have gained fame for their role as environmental indicators as they are only found in abundance in clean waters and are very few if not totally absent in polluted water bodies. This checklist will therefore serve as a basis for research in the aforementioned topics and many other research disciplines that can then be useful in policy making and biodiversity conservation in Zimbabwe.