Metacyclops longimaxillis

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Metacyclops longimaxillis
Systematics
Class : Maxillopoda
Subclass : Copepods (Copepoda)
Order : Cyclopoida
Family : Cyclopidae
Genre : Metacyclops
Type : Metacyclops longimaxillis
Scientific name
Metacyclops longimaxillis
Defaye & Por , 2010

Metacyclops longimaxillis is in Israel's Ayalon Cave endemic type of copepods .

discovery

In March 2006, the Ajalon Cave was discovered in Israel . It is a karst cave and is located in a limestone quarry near the city of Ramla , about 24 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea, which reaches the water table with a depth of more than 100 meters . About 200 meters from the cave entrance there is an underground cave lake in a hall, in which different types of crustaceans live. With Metacyclops longimaxillis and Metacyclops subdolus, which has long been known from the Mediterranean region, they belong to two species of the genus Metacyclops .

description

Metacyclops longimaxillis is a small, colorless copepod, around 0.74 millimeters long in females. Male animals are significantly smaller at around 0.67 millimeters. It differs from other representatives of the genus Metacyclops, among other things, by its particularly long maxillae , which cover the rest of the mouth parts when viewed from the abdomen and side. It is believed that the maxillae and the bristling of the rest of the mouthparts play a special role in filtering the food in this habitat. The special morphology of the maxilla would justify the establishment of a separate genus for Metacyclops longimaxillis , but the authors want to await a revision of the genus Metacyclops, which currently comprises 91 species .

The end links of the outer branches of the swimming legs are thorned according to formula 3.4.4.3. The species is most similar to the related copepod Metacyclops stammeri . With this it has the long thorn and the seta on the 2nd limb of the inner branch of the 4th pereiopods in common, which occur in both females and males.

Way of life

In addition to the bacteria of the genus Beggiatoa, which are abundant in the cave, ciliates and amoebozoa also live in the cave lake . Metacyclops longimaxillis can feed on both bacteria and protozoa, and the pronounced mouthparts could be helpful in catching protozoa.

The two species of the genus Metacyclops that live in the cave lake are represented in very different numbers. From Metacyclops subdolus few adult and young animals were found during Metacyclops longimaxillis present in very large numbers in all age groups. Metacyclops longimaxillis seems to be better adapted to the high temperature and the high salt and sulfur content of the cave lake. Metacyclops subdolus was also found in boreholes in the immediate vicinity of the cave and it is assumed that the species entered the cave with inflowing groundwater without finding a suitable habitat there.

Systematics

The genus Metacyclops is in the family Cyclopidae within the order Cyclopoida and the subclass of copepods . The genus includes more than 60 species. The validity of the genre has been questioned repeatedly since 1961. It is in need of revision, and it is believed that the species must be divided into several genera.

The type specimens collected by Chanan Dimentman in April and May 2006 are mainly kept in the collection of the Institute for Invertebrates of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , the female holotype has the inventory number HUJINVCOP139, the male allotype HUJINVCOP140 and the paratypes HUJINVCOP141 to HUJINVCOP155. In addition, there are paratypes under inventory numbers MNHN-Cp2500 to 2505 in the collection of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris.

The species name longimaxillis , "long maxillae", refers to the long maxillae as a characteristic property of the species.

ecology

The Ajalon cave is located in the area of ​​the Yarkon Taninim aquifer . Until it was uncovered, it formed an ecosystem that was isolated from the outside world , into which neither water nor organic material could penetrate from the surface due to a layer of limestone 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 cave animals, in addition to Metacyclops longimaxillis, populations of other crustaceans , pseudoscorpions , fish and springtails , as well as about thirty empty shells of the scorpion Akrav israchanani were found . Among the arthropods , Metacyclops longimaxillis is the most common type of den and, despite its small size, is important as a primary consumer and prey of other arthropods.

literature

  • Danielle Defaye, Francis Dov Por: Metacyclops (Copepoda, Cyclopidae) from Ayyalon Cave, Israel . In: Crustaceana , Volume 83, Number 4, 2010, pp. 399-423, doi : 10.1163 / 001121610X12627655658320
  • HP Wagner: Tethysbaena ophelicola n. Sp. (Thermosbaenacea), a new prime consumer in the Ophel biome of the Ayyalon Cave, Israel . In: Crustaceana , Volume 85, Number 12-13, 2012, pp. 1571-1587, doi : 10.1163 / 156854012X651646 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b H. P. Wagner: Tethysbaena ophelicola n. Sp. (Thermosbaenacea), a new prime consumer in the Ophel biome of the Ayyalon Cave, Israel , p. 1572.
  2. ↑ Danielle Defaye, Francis Dov Por: Metacyclops (Copepoda, Cyclopidae) from Ayyalon Cave, Israel , p. 405.
  3. ↑ a b Danielle Defaye, Francis Dov Por: Metacyclops (Copepoda, Cyclopidae) from Ayyalon Cave, Israel , p. 409.
  4. ↑ Danielle Defaye, Francis Dov Por: Metacyclops (Copepoda, Cyclopidae) from Ayyalon Cave, Israel , pp. 403-404.
  5. ^ A b Francis Dov Por, Chanan Dimentman, A. Frumkin, I. Naaman: Animal life in the chemoautotrophic ecosystem of the hypogenic groundwater cave of Ayyalon (Israel): A summing up. Natural Science, 5, 4A, 2013
  6. ↑ a b Danielle Defaye, Francis Dov Por: Metacyclops (Copepoda, Cyclopidae) from Ayyalon Cave, Israel , p. 399.
  7. ↑ HP Wagner: Tethysbaena ophelicola n. Sp. (Thermosbaenacea), a new prime consumer in the Ophel biome of the Ayyalon Cave, Israel , p. 1574.
  8. ↑ a b Danielle Defaye, Francis Dov Por: Metacyclops (Copepoda, Cyclopidae) from Ayyalon Cave, Israel , S. 400th
  9. ↑ Danielle Defaye, Francis Dov Por: Metacyclops (Copepoda, Cyclopidae) from Ayyalon Cave, Israel , pp. 420-421.
  10. ↑ a b c Danielle Defaye, Francis Dov Por: Metacyclops (Copepoda, Cyclopidae) from Ayyalon Cave, Israel , p. 420.
  11. ↑ a b Danielle Defaye, Francis Dov Por: Metacyclops (Copepoda, Cyclopidae) from Ayyalon Cave, Israel , p. 410.
  12. ↑ a b Danielle Defaye, Francis Dov Por: Metacyclops (Copepoda, Cyclopidae) from Ayyalon Cave, Israel , p. 401.
  13. ↑ 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. 497, doi : 10.1163 / 156854008783797534 .
  14. ↑ a b 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 .
  15. ^ 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 .