Styloperlidae is a family of

stoneflies Plecoptera is an order of insects, commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the mo ...

in the order

Plecoptera Plecoptera is an order of insects, commonly known as stoneflies. Some 3,500 species are described worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica. Stoneflies are believed to be one of the mo ...

. There are at least 2 genera and 9 described species in Styloperlidae. The species etymology is based on the type locality near Sapa.

History

The Styloperlidae family was originally proposed as a subfamily of the Peltoperlidae (Illies 1966), but later given family status (Uchida & Isobe 1989). Several of the species have little information associated with them, and most descriptions are based on relatively few specimens. Several types of Chinese species have also been lost.

Habitat

There are three known '' Cerconychia'' species (Klapálek, 1913) and six '' Styloperla'' Wu species known from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...

, and the mainland (

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

) (Uchida & Isobe 1989; Yang & Yang 1990, 1995). The ''Cerconychia brunnea'' (Klapálek) and ''C. livida'' (Klapálek) are known from Taiwan (Uchida & Isobe, 1989), the ''C. sinensis'' (Yang & Yang) are known from Hainan (Yang & Yang, 1995), and the ''C. sapa'' are known from the mainland in Vietnam.

Description

Egg

The eggs have are ovoid with the collar absent, and chorion smooth. This is typical for the Styloperlidae genus.

Nymph

The

Nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

is currently unknown.

Adult

The adult males have numerous small spines scattered over the dorsum and margin of the basal cercal segment. This feature makes the males distinct from all other known Styloperlidae. The adult females have a slightly produced,

emarginate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

subgenital plate similar to other known Cerconychia (Uchida & Isobe 1989). The

forewing Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwin ...

length measures 16.5‐18mm, making it greater than the 9‐16mm composite range given for the Taiwanese species.

Genera

These two genera belong to the family Styloperlidae: * '' Cerconychia'' Klapálek, 1913 * '' Styloperla'' Wu, 1935