Ariani & Wittmann 2002
Ariani & Wittmann 2002
ARIANI, A. P. & K. J. WITTMANN, 2002: The transition from an epigean to a hypogean mode of life: morphological and bionomical characteristics of Diamysis camassai sp. nov. (Mysidacea, Mysidae) from brackish-water dolinas in Apulia, SE-Italy. Crustaceana, 74 (11): 1241-1265.
https://doi.org/10.1163/15685400152885219
A new representative of the mainly Mediterranean and Pontocaspian genus Diamysis Czerniavsky is described from a system of brackish-water dolinas near the lonian coast of southem Italy (eastern Mediterranean). Most life stages mainly dwell in microalgal beds on hard substrata or among macrophytes inside well-illuminated dolinas, whereas incubating females and neonates arc relatively more abundant in dimly-lit or dark dolinas. D. camassai sp. nov. is distinguished from its congeners by a relatively small cornea and short eyestalks with larger scales at their basis, as weil as by a complex of characters affecting the carpopropodus of the thoracic endopods and the exopod of the male fourth pleopod. Relatively small eyes, dense setation on the legs, and large eggs point to a certain degree of adaptation to a subterranean mode of life, albeit that the animals are strongly pigmented and essentially micro-herbivorons. The stygophilic characteristics of this Diamysis may represent an important intermediate stage in the evolution towards stygobionts, which occur in the closely related genera Troglomysis Stammer (Mediterranean) and Antromysis Creaser (Caribbean).
Mediterranean; hypogean; brackish water; new species; feeding; predation; food for fish
Antromysis; Diamysis bacescui; Diamysis bahirensis; Diamysis camassai nov. spec.; Diamysis frontieri; Diamysis hebraica; Diamysis lagunaris; Diamysis mecznikowi; Diamysis mesohalobia gracilipes; Diamysis mesohalobia heterandra; Diamysis mesohalobia mesohalobia; Diamysis pengoi; Diamysis pusilla; Diamysis sirbonica; Gambusia affinis; Gammarus aequicauda; Gammarus pulex; Heteromysoides cotti; Leptomysis mediterranea mediterranea; Limnomysis benedeni; Mysidopsis gibbosa; Paramysis agigensis; Schistomysis assimilis; Spelaeomysis bottazzii; Troglomysis vjetrenicensis; Zostera