Lepidospora ayyalonica

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Lepidospora ayyalonica
Systematics
Order : Fish (zygentoma)
Family : Nicoletiidae
Subfamily : Coletiniinae
Genre : Lepidospora
Subgenus : Lepidospora
Type : Lepidospora ayyalonica
Scientific name
Lepidospora ayyalonica
Mendes et al., 2011

Lepidospora ayyalonica is a species of fish knownonly from 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. Scientists called in found eight new species of invertebrates in the cave, including Lepidospora ayyalonica .

features

Lepidospora ayyalonica is a fish about 17 millimeters long, of which about ten millimeters are on the body. It has an elongated, unpigmented body and is characterized by very long, symmetrical antennae that protrude beyond the abdomen. The limbs of the mandibular probe , especially the two apical ones, are long and thin. The head and body have numerous pale or hyaline scales and setae .

Systematics and taxonomy

Lepidospora ayyalonica differs from the other members of the genus Lepidospora by the lack of hooks at the base of the cerci and by the combination of various other anatomical features, especially the long antennae and mandibular feelers. The species was placed in the description with several other representatives of the genus from the eastern Mediterranean and Iraq in the subgenus Lepidospora (Lepidospora) . The other species of the subgenus are characterized by partially missing hooks on the cerci. The second subgenus is Lepidospora (Brinkina) .

A single male animal from the collection of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found by Amos Frumkin in 2006 in the Ajalon Cave, was used for the scientific identification of the species .

The name of the species refers 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 ).

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 Lepidospora ayyalonica, living populations of crustaceans , the pseudoscorpion Ayyalonia dimentmani , springtails and about thirty dead specimens of the scorpion Akrav israchanani were found in cave animals . The strongly elongated antennae and mouthparts of Lepidospora ayyalonica indicate a cave animal. Since only one animal was found, the question of whether it is actually a troglobiont from the Ajalon cave or a bottom inhabitant of the region who accidentally entered the cave after the cave was opened remains unanswered .

literature

  • Luis F. Mendez et al .: New data and new species of Microcoryphia and Zygentoma (Insecta) from Israel . In: Annales de la Société Entomologique de France (ns) , Volume 47, Numbers 3-4, 2011, pp. 384-393, doi : 10.1080 / 00379271.2011.10697732 (free access).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Luis F. Mendez et al .: New data and new species of Microcoryphia and Zygentoma (Insecta) from Israel , pp. 392-393.
  2. ↑ 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 .
  3. ^ AD Chipman: Aquatic Invertebrates, with the Arachnid and the Medical Parasitological Collections . In: Haasiana , number 3, 2006, pp. 56-63, here p. 58, ISSN  0793-5862 , PDF download .
  4. ↑ a b c d e Luis F. Mendez et al .: New data and new species of Microcoryphia and Zygentoma (Insecta) from Israel , p. 390.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Luis F. Mendez et al .: New data and new species of Microcoryphia and Zygentoma (Insecta) from Israel , p. 392.
  6. ↑ a b c 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, here p. 332, doi : 10.2298 / ABS0803331C .
  7. ^ 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 .