Niphargus
Cave amphipod ( Niphargus ictus )
The cave amphipods ( Niphargus ) constitute a genus of amphipods ( Amphipoda ), which is widespread in Europe in the freshwater caves or in groundwater. Niphargus is cave animal of the year 2009.
Features
The cave amphipods are like most cave-dwelling animals blind. The big eyes, the appearance of the head shape in other amphipods, have regressed in this genre in the course of evolution. The crabs are colorless and appear white to transparent. They are up to 30 millimeters long.
The largest species belong to the troglobites, the cave dwellers. Can also be observed in the cave amphipods that live in caves species are much larger than their close relatives in other habitats. These types have very long second antennae, easy orientation.
Dissemination
For distribution area of the cave amphipods include the Mediterranean regions of southern Europe, with the exception of the Iberian Peninsula, large parts of central and eastern Europe to the Ukraine and the Caucasus as well as small areas in Northern Europe. Particularly high species are known from the karst regions of Southeast Europe.
It was assumed that Niphargus in groundwater and cave systems in the areas of Europe that were covered by the Pleistocene ice sheets, could not survive and is later migrated there again.
Habitat
Cave amphipods live except in cave waters in the water retention of the mines, in the gravel of the river valleys, in wells and springs. Overflowing and groundwater, the amphipods can also get into the lines of the water utilities. Durable deposits are found in the deep layers of alpine lakes, but here live only about 5 percent of Niphargus species.
The cave amphipods feed on usually prey on the smaller inhabitants of the gap systems of the groundwater body and the caves as hop Lingen. You can also live on detritus and bacteria graze films.
Ecology and life history of the cave amphipods are still insufficiently researched. In sulfide- rich waters of the Frasassi cave system recently a symbiosis of Niphargus ictus was discovered with chemoautotrophic sulfur-oxidizing bacteria of the genus Thiothrix. These bacteria as growth cover the exoskeleton of the cave amphipods and are moved by it through the water. Other Thiothrix phylotypes of the cave system live in slow-growing biofilms on the boundary layers of the waters. The performance of the bacteria inside the symbiotic community is the detoxification of water and the generation of nutrients. Similar symbioses were previously observed only in marine habitats.
System
Since the genus was first described in 1847 by Jørgen Matthias Christian Schiodte, more and more species and subspecies of cave amphipods are known. The biologists at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia has more than 300 species on a dedicated system for processing of this cave animals homepage. The difficulty in creating a species list is to decide which morphological characteristics are crucial for the speciation of a wide range of variable characteristics. By isolating the animals in certain cave systems or bodies of groundwater, the individual populations have diverged. Many subgenera and subspecies have been described. Much of it is rare, limited to a small area or can not be collected regularly by the inaccessibility of the caves. This also makes a revision of the entire system by molecular biological and phylogenetic comparisons of individual species difficult.
Selected species
The selection of species includes those for which there is provision literature or pictures of systematically relevant features.
- Niphargus Aquilex
- Niphargus auerbachi
- Niphargus bajuvaricus
- Niphargus balcanicus
- Niphargus brachytelson
- Niphargus costozzae
- Niphargus croaticus
- Niphargus dalmatinus
- Niphargus Dolichopus
- Niphargus fontanus
- Niphargus foreli
- Niphargus hadzii
- Niphargus hercegovinensis
- Niphargus hrabei
- Niphargus hvarensis
- Niphargus ictus
- Niphargus inopinatus
- Niphargus jovanovici
- Niphargus Karamani
- Niphargus Kenki
- Niphargus kieferi
- Niphargus kochianus
- Niphargus Laisi
- Niphargus liburnicus
- Niphargus likanus
- Niphargus longicaudatus
- Niphargus lunaris
- Niphargus miljeticus
- Niphargus novomestanus
- Niphargus orcinus
- Niphargus podgoricensis
- Niphargus podpecanus
- Niphargus polymorphus
- Niphargus puteanus
- Niphargus redenseki
- Niphargus rhenorhodanensis
- Niphargus schellenbergi
- Niphargus slovenicus
- Niphargus sphagnicolus
- Niphargus spoeckeri
- Niphargus strouhali
- Niphargus stygius
- Niphargus tatrensis
- Niphargus thienemanni
- Niphargus timavi
- Niphargus trullipes
- Niphargus valachicus
- Niphargus vejdovskyi
- Niphargus vinodolensis
- Niphargus vjeternicensis
- Niphargus zagrebensis