Trophic ecology of Plecoptera (Insecta): a review

We here review the current knowledge on the trophic ecology of stoneflies, an aquatic insect group of substantial ecological importance in lotic systems. We provide information on the feeding habits of nymphs and adults of the different families and highlight those studies that support particularly...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: J. M. Tierno de Figueroa, M. J. López-Rodríguez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2019-01-01
Series:The European Zoological Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2019.1592251
Description
Summary:We here review the current knowledge on the trophic ecology of stoneflies, an aquatic insect group of substantial ecological importance in lotic systems. We provide information on the feeding habits of nymphs and adults of the different families and highlight those studies that support particularly interesting findings. Regarding nymphs, we discuss the state of the art on aspects such as foraging strategies and behaviours, food acquisition mechanisms, the existence or absence of electivity for certain trophic resources, and enzymatic activity and its relationship with the assimilation efficiency of food. For adults, we highlight the differential importance of feeding among taxa. For both nymphs and adults, we report what is known about their role in aquatic and terrestrial food webs. Finally, we present some of the gaps on the trophic ecology of these insects and provide some research agendas that could be carried out to fill them.
ISSN:2475-0263