Ayyalonia dimentmani
| Ayyalonia dimentmani | ||||||||||||
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Ayyalonia dimentmani , body length approx. 1.7 mm, photographed at the site in the Ajalon cave |
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| Scientific name of the tribe | ||||||||||||
| Ayyaloniini | ||||||||||||
| Ćurčić, 2008 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Ayyalonia | ||||||||||||
| Ćurčić, 2008 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Ayyalonia dimentmani | ||||||||||||
| Ćurčić , 2008 |
Ayyalonia dimentmani is a species of pseudoscorpions endemic to the Israeli Ajalon Cave .
discovery
The Ajalon Cave is located in a limestone quarry about four kilometers southeast of the city of Ramla , about 24 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea in the central Israeli district . In March 2006, while working with a bulldozer, an entrance to the cave was exposed. In the cave, consulted scientists found eight new species of invertebrates, including Ayyalonia dimentmani .
features
Ayyalonia dimentmani is an eyeless pseudoscorpion of light brown to yellowish-white color and about 2.6 to 2.8 millimeters total length, of which about 1.6 to 1.7 millimeters are on the body. The species lacks the epistome , a small process of the cephalothorax above the mouth. There are no chemosensory setae on the chela .
Systematics and taxonomy
Due to the established morphological differences to the previously described pseudoscorpions of the family Chthoniidae , Ayyalonia dimentmani was placed in the also new tribe Ayyaloniini . The other two tribes of the Chthoniidae are the Chthoniini and the Tyrannochthoniini .
For the scientific identification of the species, eight animals collected and preserved by Israel Na'aman in the Ajalon Cave in June 2006, four male and four female specimens each. The animals examined came from the collections of the Institute of Zoology at the University of Belgrade and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem . The holotype is a female animal, a male animal was used as the allotype for describing the tribe, the remaining six specimens are paratypes.
With the name of the genus , reference was made to the Ajalon cave as a type locality , which in turn is located in the valley of Ajalon, already mentioned in the Old Testament ( Jos 10,12 EU ). The species name honors the Israeli naturalist Chanan Dimentman .
ecology
Until it was uncovered, the Ajalon Cave formed an ecosystem that was closed off from the outside world , into which neither water nor organic material could penetrate from the surface because of a layer of limestone above it that was tens of meters thick. In addition to a number of passages, the cave consists of a large chamber with a lake in which there is salty groundwater with a high concentration of hydrogen sulfide . The Ajalon Cave's ecosystem is based on the biomass produced by large quantities of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria . In addition to Ayyalonia dimentmani, living populations of crustaceans , fish and springtails as well as about thirty empty shells of the scorpion Akrav israchanani were found in cave animals .
literature
- Božidar PM Ćurčić: Ayyalonia dimentmani ng, n. Sp. (Ayyaloniini n. Trib., Chthoniidae, Pseudoscorpiones) from a cave in Israel . In: Archives of Biological Sciences , Volume 60, Number 3, pp. 331-339, doi : 10.2298 / ABS0803331C .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Božidar PM Ćurčić: Ayyalonia dimentmani ng, n. Sp. from a cave in Israel , p. 332.
- ↑ Moshe Tsurnamal: A new species of the stygobiotic blind prawn Typhlocaris Calman, 1909 (Decapoda, Palaemonidae, Typhlocaridinae) from Israel . In: Crustaceana , Volume 81, Number 4, pp. 487-501, here p. 488, doi : 10.1163 / 156854008783797534 .
- ↑ Božidar PM Ćurčić: Ayyalonia dimentmani ng, n. Sp. from a cave in Israel , p. 335.
- ↑ Božidar PM Ćurčić: Ayyalonia dimentmani ng, n. Sp. from a cave in Israel , pp. 333–338.
- ↑ a b c Božidar PM Ćurčić: Ayyalonia dimentmani ng, n. Sp. from a cave in Israel , p. 334.
- ↑ Božidar PM Ćurčić: Ayyalonia dimentmani ng, n. Sp. from a cave in Israel , p. 333.
- ^ Gershom Levy: The first troglobite scorpion from Israel and a new chactoid family (Arachnida: Scorpiones) . In: Zoology in the Middle East , Volume 40, Number 1, 2007, pp. 91-96, here p. 91, doi : 10.1080 / 09397140.2007.10638209 .