LIFE HISTORY AND ECOLOGY OF DIPLOPERLA 
ROBUSTA STARK AND GAUFIN 
(PLECOPTERA: PERLODIDAE) 
By Diana L. Ashley, 1 Donald C. Tarter 1 
and William D. Watkins 2 
The purpose of this study was to describe the life history and 
ecology of the perlodid stonefly Diploperla robusta Stark and 
Gaufin in a small, woodland stream in Cabell County, West 
Virginia. No papers have been published on the life history and 
ecology of D. robusta. Ashley (1977) reported that the naiads 
of D. robusta have a TL m 96 P H value of 4.6. Several investigators, 
including Smith (1913), Needham and Claassen (1925), Claassen 
(1931), Frison (1935, 1942), Ricker ( 1949), Minshall and Min- 
shall (1966), Tarter and Krumholz (1971), Harper (1973), and 
Vaught and Stewart (1974), have reported studies on the ecology 
of North American stoneflies. 
Taxonomy and Distribution 
Diploperla was originally listed as a subgenus of Perla by 
Needham and Claassen (1925). Ricker (1952) considered it a 
monotypic subgenus of Isogenus. lilies (1966) gave it generic 
status and listed the only species as Diploperla duplicata (Banks). 
In 1974, Stark and Gaufin described D. robusta to replace what 
had been named D. duplieata. According to Stark and Gaufin 
(1974), D. duplieata and D. robusta are two distinct species. 
The known range of D. robusta is in the eastern portion of 
the United States, including Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio (Stark 
and Gaufin, 1974), and West Virginia. According to Hissom 
and Tarter (1976), D. robusta is recorded from 20 counties in 
West Virginia. 
Materials and Methods 
The study area is an unnamed tributary of Fourpole Creek, 
Cabell County, West Virginia. The county is located at 82°24'43"W 
'Dept, of Biol. Sci., Mashall Univ., Huntington, W. Va. 25701 
2 Ashland Oil Inc., Res. and Dev. Dept., Catlettsburg, Ky. 
Manuscript received by the editor May 3, 1977 
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