In this study, the mitochondrial genome of the stonefly, Oyamia nigribasis Banks, 1920 (Plecoptera: Perlidae), was sequenced and compared with the mtDNA genomes of 38 other stoneflies and two Ephemerae. The O. nigribasis mitogenome is a circular 15,923 bp molecule that encodes a large, noncoding control region (CR) and 37 typical mtDNA genes; these include 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), and two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs), respectively. Most of the PCGs initiated with ATN and terminated with TAN. The dihydrouridine (DHU) arm of tRNASer (AGN) was missing, whereas the other 21 tRNAs all exhibited the typical cloverleaf secondary structure. Stem-loop (SL) structures and tandem repeats were identified in the CR. Phylogenetic analyses using Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood were undertaken to determine relationships between stoneflies. Results indicated that the Antarctoperlaria, which contains Gripopterygidae, was absolutely separated from Arctoperlaria; this finding agrees with morphology. Finally, the overall relationships could be summarized as follows ((((Notonemouridae + Nemouridae) + Leuctridae) + (Scopuridae + (Capniidae + Taeniopterygidae))) + (((Perlodidae + Chloroperlidae) + Perlidae) + (Pteronarcyidae + (Peltoperlidae + Styloperlidae))) + ((Diamphipnoidae + Eustheniidae) + Gripopterygidae)).

Deterministic and stochastic forces both drive microbiota assembly in animals, yet their relative contribution remains elusive, especially in wild aquatic-insect-associated fungal communities. Here, we applied amplicon sequencing to survey the assembly mechanisms of the fungal community in 155 wild stonefly individuals involving 44 species of 20 genera within eight families collected from multiple locations in China. Analysis showed that fungal diversity and network complexity differed significantly among the eight stonefly families, and that the fungal communities in stoneflies exhibited a significant distance-decay pattern across large spatial scales. Both a structural equation model and variance partitioning analysis revealed that environmental factors (e.g., geographical, climatic) outweigh host attributes in shaping the fungal community of stoneflies. Using neutral and null model analyses, we also find that deterministic processes play a larger role than stochasticity in driving the fungal community assembly. However, the relative contribution of ecological processes including dispersal, drift, and selection, varied strongly with host taxonomy. Furthermore, environmental conditions also significantly affect the strength of these ecological processes. Overall, our findings illustrate that variations in host attributes and environment factors may moderate the relative influence of deterministic and stochastic processes to fungal community composition in wild stoneflies, which provides new insights into mechanisms of microbial community assembly in aquatic arthropods.

A new genus of family Perlodidae, Tibetisoperla Huo & Du, gen. nov. is described with one new species from Tibet, China. Male of the new genus is characterized by the divided tergum 10 with several large apical erect setae, highly reduced vesicle on sternum 8, and the sclerotized paraprocts with separate apical sclerite.

Two species of the peltoperlid genus Cryptoperla Needham, C. dactylina Du, sp. nov. and C. nangongshana Huo Du, sp. nov. are described as new to science from Yunnan and Shaanxi provinces of China. Cryptoperla dactylina is characterized by a finger-like sclerotized projection with small-rounded processes on the first cercal segment and C. nangongshana is characterized by clusters of long bristles on the first six cercal segments. Additionally, a description of the nymph of C. dui Sivec is provided.

Three species of the family Perlodidae are newly reported or confirmed for China, Isoperla asiatica Raušer from Arxan, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Isoperla eximia Zapekina-Dulkeit from Changbai Mountain, Jilin Province, and Mesoperlina capnoptera (McLachlan, 1886) from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Based on new material, additional taxonomic notes and images of another perlodid stonefly, Rauserodes epiproctalis (Zwick, 1997) is provided.