ECOLOGICAL LIFE HISTORY OF BAETISCA BERNERI 
TARTER AND KIRCHNER 
FROM A WEST VIRGINIA STREAM 
(EPHEMEROPTERA: BAETISCIDAE) 
By William R. Morris, Dwight L. Chaffee 
and Donald C. Tarter 1 
The primary objective of this investigation was to study the 
ecological life history of the mayfly Baetisca berneri Tarter and 
Kirchner in Laurel Fork, Mingo Co., West Virginia. Many authors, 
including Say (1839), Traver (1931), Needham et al. (1935), Berner 
(1940, 1955), Edmunds (1960), Schneider and Berner (1963), Pescador 
and Peters (1971, 1974), Lehmkuhl (1972), Tarter and Kirchner 
(1978) and Chaffee and Tarter (1979), have reported studies on the 
taxonomy and ecology of the genus Baetisca. 
Taxonomy and Distribution 
The genus Baetisca, established by Walsh (1862), is the only 
member of the family Baetiscidae. Presently, there are 12 species of 
Baetisca known from the United States (Edmunds et al., 1976; Tarter 
and Kirchner, 1978). Tarter and Kirchner (1978) described the new 
species B. berneri and reported its distribution from West Virginia 
and Virginia. 
Materials and Methods 
The study site is Laurel Fork of Pigeon Creek of Tug Fork of the 
Big Sandy River in Mingo County, West Virginia. It lies 2.4 km 
southeast of Dingess and 3.2 km northeast of Laurel Lake. The 
stream width averages 4.6 m and the water depth ranged from 2.5 to 
74 cm. The substrate is sand, gravel and rocks. The more dominant 
species of the riparian forest are Red Maple, Acer rubrum L.; 
Smooth Alder, Alnus serrulata (Ait.) Willd.: Black Birch, Betula 
lenta L.; Rhododendron, Rhododendron maimum L.; and Eastern 
Hemlock, Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr. 
'Dept, of Biological Sciences, Marshall Univ., Huntington, W. Va. 25701 
Manuscript received by the editor August 13, 1980. 
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