In rivers and streams, periods of low flow are integral components of hydrological variation. Low flows can temporarily affect populations of lotic taxa that have established during wetter phases but are not adapted to survive drier periods. However, invertebrate associations with antecedent low-flow events are often inconsistent, possibly because of variations in the severity and duration of flow reduction. We examined the effects of different antecedent periods of low flow on benthic invertebrates in multiple unregulated rivers. Quantitative surveys of benthic invertebrates were conducted every three months at seven sites over ten sampling occasions. We tested whether the proportion of low flow days (< 10% of mean daily flow) in the antecedent window (3, 9 and 24 months) limited the densities of 18 focal taxa. Austrophlebioides spp. and Ulmerochorema spp. showed increasingly negative upper-limiting associations as antecedent low-flow conditions were quantified over longer time windows, whereas several taxa exhibited positive associations or contrasting responses. In contrast, total assemblage abundance and taxon richness showed little relationship with antecedent low-flow conditions. Individual taxa frequently responded more strongly than their broader functional feeding groups, indicating that aggregation masked substantial taxon-specific responses. These findings suggest that low-flow effects accumulate through time, with sensitive taxa responding most strongly to prolonged or repeated exposure to low-flow conditions rather than recent low-flow events.