Recent molecular analyses of transcriptome data from 94 species across 92 genera of North American Plecoptera identified the genus Kathroperla Banks, 1920 as sister group to Chloroperlidae + Perlodidae. Given that the genus Kathroperla has historically been included as a member of the family Chloroperlidae, this discovery indicated further investigation of the genus and the subfamily Paraperlinae was needed. Both transcriptome and genome sequencing datasets were generated from 32 species of the infraorder Systellognatha, including all described species of the Paraperlinae, to test the phylogenetic placement of these taxa. From these datasets, a large phylogenomic data matrix of 800 orthologous genes was produced, and multiple analyses were conducted, including both concatenated and coalescent analyses. Morphological comparisons were made among all Paraperlinae using light microscopy. All molecular results support a monophyletic Kathroperla, which is supported as sister taxon to the remaining Perloidea by five of six molecular analyses. Postocular head length is determined to be a distinct morphological character of this genus. Combined molecular and morphological evidence support the designation of Kathroperlidae, fam. n., as the seventeenth family of extant Plecoptera.

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Mysis diluviana is an important mid-trophic level omnivore in many lakes, but studies of Mysis in Lake Champlain are rare. We used an unpublished 1975 study as a baseline to test for changes in contemporary Mysis populations in Lake Champlain. Invasive zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) and alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus)were first reported in Lake Champlain in 1993 and 2003, respectively. Based on the negative relationships of these two species with Mysis and Mysis prey in the Great Lakes, we hypothesized a decline in Mysis in Lake Champlain since 1975 and tested this by repeating the 1975 study in 2012. We found a nearly ten-fold decrease in mean density (± SD) between 1975 (712 ± 373 individuals/m 2 ) and 2012 (82 ± 48 individuals/m 2 ; p = 0.002). Despite the decline, Mysis growth rates appeared similar between the two studies, although fecundity significantly increased by 3 embryos/female in 2012 (p = 0.002).Mysis vertical distribution appeared similar in both years, while the horizontal distribution appeared limited to deeper bathymetric strata in 2012 compared to 1975.Data from a long-term monitoring program from 1992 to 2008 indicate the decline occurred abruptly in the mid-1990s, which coincided with zebra mussel establishment although a direct link between the two is not evident. Alewife did not invade Lake Champlain until 2003 and can be ruled out as a contributing factor to the decline. We hypothesize that the combination of predation by alewife and smelt and shifts in the planktonic food web may prevent Mysis from recovering to pre-1995 densities.

Ecosystem recovery following wildfire is heavily dependent upon fire severity and frequency, as well as factors such as regional topography and connectivity to unburned patches. Insects are an often-overlooked group of organisms impacted by fire and play crucial roles in many ecosystem services. Flying insects are particularly capable of avoiding fire, returning to burned patches following the initial disturbance, making them an important group to study when assessing wildfire impacts. Following a wildfire in July of 2018 at the Altona Flat Rock jack pine barrens in northeastern New York, insects were collected from an unburned reference site and a post-fire site using malaise traps. Samples were collected in the 2018, 2019, and 2020 field seasons. Insect groups were found to have three main responses to the disturbance event: increased abundance post-fire, unchanged abundance post-fire, or reduced abundance post-fire. Several dipteran families and some non-dipteran groups were present in greater abundance in the post-fire study site, such as Diptera Polleniidae, which increased in abundance immediately following the disturbance in 2018. Other fire-adapted taxa exhibited a more delayed positive response in 2019 and 2020. Diversity, particularly among Diptera, increased with time since the disturbance at the post-fire site. Many taxa declined in response to fire disturbance, including Lepidoptera and several Diptera families, most likely due to habitat, moisture, and organic matter requirements. Future studies could prove beneficial in understanding the recovery of this community and informing land management practices.