Ariani & Wittmann 1998b
Ariani & Wittmann 1998b
ARIANI, A. P. & K. J. WITTMANN, 1998: Ecological and biogeographical aspects of speciation in Mediterranean Diamysis (Mysidacea). Proceedings and Abstracts of the 4th International Crustacean Congress, Amsterdam 1998 (abstract no. 393): p. 160.
Large scale morpho-ecological data on Mediterranean populations of the genus Diamysis Cz., consistent with the results of hybridization tests (Ariani, 1981 and unpubl.), suggest that the extremely euryhaline speries D. bahirensis (G. O. Sars) actually represents several distinct biological entities. The differentiation of these species (all showing calcareous statoliths) from a probably Paratethyan, brackish water ancestor (Ariani et al., 1993) appears largely based on adaptive radiation towards a broad spectrum of Mediterranean aquatic biota, i.e., typically marine environments, eu- to metahaline lagoons, karst meso- or oligohaline springs, certain rivers and other freshwater biota. The most common Diamysis habitats are meso- to euhaline waters. Freshwater habitats are exclusive of the Adriatic basin; low salin-ity habitats are known from the E-Mediterranean only. Comparable habitats such as lagoons show vicariance phenomena in the E-. SW- and NW-Mediterranean. Certain species are polytypic, which implies an old separation from con-generic entities. Geohistorical events, such as the occurrence of wide brackish areas in the Mediterranean (because of Upper Miocene desiccation and subsequent Paratethys drainage and/or Quaternary regressions) were probably important in drawing the present biogeographical picture.
ecology; speciation; Mediterranean
Diamysis