Tethysbaena ophelicola

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Tethysbaena ophelicola
Tethysbaena ophelicola

Tethysbaena ophelicola

Systematics
Subclass : Eumalacostraca
Superordinate : Satchel Shrimp (Peracarida)
Order : Thermosbaenacea
Family : Monodellidae
Genre : Tethysbaena
Type : Tethysbaena ophelicola
Scientific name
Tethysbaena ophelicola
Wagner , 2012

Tethysbaena ophelicola is aspecies of satchel shrimp endemic to Israel's Ajalon Cave .

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. Among them, Tethysbaena ophelicola is the most common type and occurs in very large numbers in the cave lake.

description

Tethysbaena ophelicola is a blind cancer of up to 2.4 millimeters in length; the male animals examined were up to 2.1 millimeters in length, in each case without the antennae.

Way of life

The examination of the intestinal contents of individual animals led to the conclusion that Tethysbaena ophelicola only feeds on the bacteria of the genus Beggiatoa, which are abundant in the cave . From Tethysbaena ophelicola and female specimens were always found with brood pouches. This suggests that the cave lake is not just a feeding place for them, but a permanent habitat. In this they differ from the cave shrimp Typhlocaris ayyaloni , from which no reproductive animals could be caught and for which Tethysbaena ophelicola is part of the diet.

Systematics

The genus Tethysbaena is in the family Monodellidae within the order Thermosbaenacea and the subclass of the satchel shrimp . In the genus Tethysbaena ophelicola is placed in the Tethysbaena relicta group because of its great similarity with Tethysbaena relicta from Israel and Tethysbaena somala from Somalia .

The type specimens from collections in May and June 2006 are mainly kept in the collection of the Institute for Invertebrates of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , the holotype has the inventory number HUJ-III-Ther-3. The numerous paratypes there have the inventory numbers HUJ-III-Ther-4 to HUJ-III-Ther-8, four paratypes are in the collection of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden .

The species name ophelicola , "inhabiting the Ophel", is derived from the name "Ophel", which was coined in 2007 by Francis Dov Por for the newly discovered subterranean biome with the Ajalon cave . This in turn got its name from the biblical name for the elevated part of a settlement or town.

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 due to a layer of limestone lying dozens 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, besides Tethysbaena ophelicola, 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 , Tethysbaena ophelicola provides most of the biomass in the cave.

The Ajalon cave is located in the area of ​​the Yarkon Taninim aquifer . The localities of Tethysbaena relicta than the second endemic in Israel kind from the kind Tethysbaena are in the groundwater flow of the Jordan Valley . The water systems of the localities are not interconnected. It is therefore believed that the origin of Tethysbaena ophelicola lies in the Jordan Rift and the species was isolated a long time ago.

literature

  • 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 c H. P. Wagner: Tethysbaena ophelicola n. Sp. (Thermosbaenacea), a new prime consumer in the Ophel biome of the Ayyalon Cave, Israel , p. 1572.
  2. ↑ a b c d e H. P. Wagner: Tethysbaena ophelicola n. Sp. (Thermosbaenacea), a new prime consumer in the Ophel biome of the Ayyalon Cave, Israel , p. 1582.
  3. ↑ a b H. P. Wagner: Tethysbaena ophelicola n. Sp. (Thermosbaenacea), a new prime consumer in the Ophel biome of the Ayyalon Cave, Israel , p. 1575.
  4. ↑ 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 .
  5. ^ 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 .
  6. ↑ 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 .
  7. ↑ HP Wagner: Tethysbaena ophelicola n. Sp. (Thermosbaenacea), a new prime consumer in the Ophel biome of the Ayyalon Cave, Israel , pp. 1584-1586.