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The littoral macroinvertebrate faunas of 17 dune lakes on the Aupouri Peninsula in northern New Zealand were examined. Land cover of individual catchments was principally sand dunes and scrub, plantation forest, pasture, or a mixture of plantation forest and pasture. Sampling was concentrated in the sedge beds, submerged macrophytes and surface sediment layers of the littoral zone. Sixty-eight invertebrate taxa were recorded, 11–30 per lake. Relative abundance of major faunal groups differed considerably among lakes but a core group of common species was found in three quarters of them. Neither community composition, nor various measures of species richness were related significantly to catchment land cover classes. A feature of the lake fauna was the occurrence of three introduced species of Gastropoda and eight self-introduced insect species, including five dragonflies. One of the latter, Hemicordulia australiae , was found in all lakes and made up 3% of all invertebrates collected.
