Plecoptera (Stoneflies)

The order Plecoptera, or stoneflies, is ancient. It is comprised of some 2000. species and 16 families split into two suborders, the Arctoperlaria and the Antarctoperlaria. Stoneflies are hemimetabolous, having eggs, nymphs, and adults as life stages. Nymphs feed at two trophic levels, as detritivores and as predators. The Arctoperlaria employ a vibrational communication system, drumming, that aids in mate recognition and location. Stoneflies are the most environmentally sensitive of aquatic insects and are lost from streams and cool lakes as a result of relatively minor disturbance. Important research in the future relates to the description of new species in the Oriental, Palaearctic, and Neotropical biogeographic realms, the phylogeny of higher taxa in the order, questions of large scale biogeographic interest, the role of stoneflies in food webs, and the conservation ecology and genetics of the order.