Perlidae is a family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 of stoneflies

Plecoptera

Plecoptera are an order of insects, commonly known as stoneflies. There are some 3,500 described species worldwide, with new species still being discovered. Stoneflies are found worldwide, except Antarctica...

.

There are 15 genera with a total of 72 species (Voshell). The majority of the Perlidae are found in the East. The life cycle length can be between 1 and 3 years. They adults emerge in the summertime. The adults are very active and known to be attracted to light sources. They are usually very sensitive to changes in environment.

Perlidae are usually lotic and lentic erosional. They are found in cool, clear medium to large streams and sometimes in larger, warm rivers that carry silt

Silt

Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...

. They are crawlers and can move quickly. In still water, there is no water moving over their gills so they move their body up and down to keep oxygen flowing over gills.

They are engulfer-predators. They consume all types of invertebrates. Very young larvae

Larvae

In Roman mythology, lemures were shades or spirits of the restless or malignant dead, and are probably cognate with an extended sense of larvae as disturbing or frightening...

are collector-gatherers.