Ariani, Camassa & Wittmann 1999
Ariani, Camassa & Wittmann 1999
ARIANI, A. P., M. CAMASSA & K. J. WITTMANN, 1999: Faunistic and biocenotic aspects of a semi-hypogean water system: the 'Spunnulate' of Torre Castiglione (Apulia, southern Italy). Abstracts of the 14th International Symposium of Biospeleology. Croatian Biospeleological Society, Makarska, p. 31.
The aquatic fauna of the `Spunnulate', a system of brackish water dolinas at Torre Castiglione (lonian coast of Apulia; see Camassa, Ariani & Wittmann in this congress), was studied by monthly inspections from May 1998 to April 1999. Material was collected with hand operated plancton and bottom nets. The obtained faunistic list includes representatives of several phyla from Protozoa to Chordata
- (the fish Gambusia, Anguilla and Blennius), passing through Platyhelminthes Turbellaria, Rotatoria, Nematoda, Mollusca Castropoda, Annelida Polychaeta and Arthropoda, whereby mainly Crustacea appeared as dominant elements. Among the crustaceans, four orders of Peracarida were present in this peculiar environment, where dark and light zones are close or in immediate contact: Tanaidacea (Tanais cavolinii, Isopoda (Jaera italica, Lekanesphaera hookeri), Amphipoda (Gammarus aequicauda, Orchestia gamarella), and notably the Mysidacea represented by two species with different degrees of eye reduction. These two taxa were previously reported only from aquatic subterranean (the stygobiont Spelaeomysis bottazzii or from epigean brackish to marine (Diamysis sp.) environments, and showed here to share, surprisingly, the same habitat.
faunistics; brackish water dolinas; South Italy; Apulia; Mediterranean; surface water fauna; subterranean fauna
Tanais cavolinii; Jaera italica; Lekanesphaera hookeri; Gammarus aequicauda; Orchestia gamarella; Spelaeomysis bottazzii; Diamysis sp