Useful species as an index of metal contamination needs a high metal concentration in a contaminated area and low metal concentration in a non-contaminated area. Moreover, it needs a high metal concentration factor. Metal concentrations of moss were high in the Cu mine area (31 to 21,000 and 2 to 200 mg/kg-dry for Cu and Co) and were low in the other areas (2 to 87 and 2 to 33 mg/kg-dry for Cu and Co). Ni concentrations of caddice-worm were high in the serpentinite area (9 to 590 mg/kg-dry) and were low in the other areas (2 to 74 mg/kg-dry). Moss had the highest concentration factor (160,000, 4,600 and 59,000 for Cu, Co and Ni) among river plants. Therefore, it was clarified that moss was useful species for an index of Cu, Co and Ni contamination among river plants based upon its metal concentration and concentration factor. In river insects, metal concentrations of crane fly larva were high in the Cu mine area (50 to 1,400 and 1 to 82 mg/kgdry for Cu and Co) and were low in the other areas (11 to 130 and 0.7 to 10 mg/kg-dry for Cu and Co). Crane fly larva had the highest concentration factor for Cu (46,000) and also kept high concentration factor for Co (2,700) among river insects. Ni concentrations of caddice-worm were high in the serpentinite area (52 to 220 mg/kg-dry) and were low in the other areas (0.3 to 20 mg/kg-dry). Caddice-worm had the highest Ni concentration factor (22,000) among river insects. Therefore, it was clarified that crane fly larva was useful species for an index of Cu and Co contamination and caddice-worm was useful species for an index of Ni contamination based upon their metal concentrations and concentration factors.