A troglobite (or, formally, troglobiont) is an animal species, or population of a species, strictly bound to underground habitats, such as caves. These are separate from species that mainly live in above-ground habitats but are also able to live underground (eutroglophiles), and species that are only cave visitors (subtroglophiles and trogloxenes).[1] Land-dwelling troglobites may be referred to as troglofauna, while aquatic species may be called stygofauna, although for these animals the term stygobite is preferable.
Troglobites typically have evolutionary adaptations to cave life. Examples of such adaptations include slow metabolism, reduced energy consumption, better food usage efficiency, decrease or loss of eyesight (anophthalmia), and depigmentation (absence of pigment in the integument). Conversely, as opposed to lost or reduced functions, many species have evolved elongated antenna and locomotory appendages, in order to better move around and respond to environmental stimuli. These structures are also full of chemical, tactile, and humidity receptors. Troglobites commonly do not survive well outside caves and therefore cannot travel between separate cave systems. As a result, many troglobiotic species are endemic to a single cave or system of caves.[2][3][4][5]
Not all cave dwelling species are considered to be troglobites. An animal found in an underground environment may be a troglophile (a species living both in subterranean and in epigean habitats, e.g. bats and cave swallows) or a trogloxene (a species only occurring sporadically in a hypogean habitat and unable to establish a subterranean population).[1]
Flatworms
editMollusca
editBivalvia
editGastropoda
edit- Foushee Cavesnail (Amnicola cora)
- Angustopila psammion
- Tumbling Creek cavesnail (Antrobia culveri)
- Manitou cavesnail (Antrorbis breweri)
- Cecilioides
- Phantom cave snail (Cochliopa texana)
- Peck's cave snail (Glyphyalinia pecki)
- Maitai Cave snail (Hadopyrgus ngataana)
- Laoennea renouardi
- Neritilia mimotoi
- Mimic cavesnail (Phreatodrobia imitata)
- Cave physa (Physella spelunca)
- Pisulina maxima
- Tashan cave snail (Trogloiranica tashanica)
- Zospeum tholussum
Velvet worms
edit- White cave velvet worm (Peripatopsis alba)
- Speleoperipatus spelaeus
Arthropoda
editArachnida
edit- Kauaʻi cave wolf spider (Adelocosa anops)[7]
- Nelson cave spider (Spelungula cavernicola)
- Agraecina cristiani – Movile Cave spider
- Aops oncodactylus – Barrow Island cave scorpion
- Apochthonius mysterius – Mystery Cave pseudoscorpion
- Apochthonius typhlus – Stone County cave pseudoscorpion
- Calicina cloughensis
- Charinus spelaeus – cave amblypygi
- Chinquipellobunus madlae – cave harvestman
- Chthonius (various spp.)
- Cicurina madla – Madla Cave meshweaver
- Hesperochernes occidentalis – guano pseudoscorpion
- Hormurus polisorum – Christmas Island cave scorpion
- Mesostalita nocturna
- Mundochthonius cavernicolus – cavernicolous pseudoscorpion
- Neobisium maritimum
- Parobisium yosemite – Yosemite cave pseudoscorpion
- Phanetta subterranea – cave spider
- Porrhomma cavernicola – cavernicolous Porrhomma spider
- Porrhomma rosenhaueri – A blind cave Spider (very rare)[8]
- Sinopoda scurion – eyeless huntsman spider
- Stalita taenaria
- Texella reddelli
- Titanobochica magna – cave pseudoscorpion
- Troglokhammouanus steineri – Xe Bang Fai cave scorpion
- Trogloraptor marchingtoni
- Vietbocap lao – Nam Lot cave scorpion
Myriapoda
edit- Millipedes
- Causeyella species
- Chaetaspis aleyorum – Aleys' cave millipede
- Chersoiulus sphinx
- Desmoxytes
- Mammamia profuga
- Polydesmus subterraneus
- Sinocallipus
- Tingupa pallida
- Titanophyllum spiliarum
- Trichopetalum whitei
- Zosteractis interminata
- Centipedes
Crustacea
edit- Crayfish
- Cambarus aculabrum – Benton County cave crayfish
- Cambarus cryptodytes – Dougherty Plain cave crayfish
- Cambarus hamulatus[9] – Prickly cave crayfish
- Cambarus hubrichti – Salem cave crayfish
- Cambarus jonesi[10] – Alabama cave crayfish
- Cambarus laconensis[10] – Lacon Exit cave crayfish
- Cambarus nerterius – Greenbrier cave crayfish
- Cambarus pecki[11] – phantom cave crayfish
- Cambarus setosus – Bristly cave crayfish
- Cambarus speleocoopi[10] – Sweet Home Alabama cave crayfish
- Cambarus subterraneus – Delaware County cave crayfish
- Cambarus tartarus[12] – Oklahoma Cave Crayfish
- Cambarus veitchorum[9] – White Spring cave crayfish
- Cambarus zophonastes – Hell Creek cave crayfish
- Faxonius stygocaneyi – Caney Mountain cave crayfish
- Orconectes australis[13] – Southern cave crayfish
- Orconectes barri[13] – Cumberland Plateau cave crayfish
- Orconectes incomptus[13] – Tennessee cave crayfish
- Orconectes inermis – Northern cave crayfish
- Orconectes inermis inermis – ghost crayfish
- Orconectes inermis testii – unarmed crayfish
- Orconectes packardi[13] – Appalachian cave crayfish
- Orconectes pellucidus – Mammoth Cave crayfish
- Orconectes sheltae[13] – Shelta cave crayfish
- Procambarus acherontis – Orlando cave crayfish
- Procambarus attiguus – Silver Glen Springs cave crayfish
- Procambarus cavernicola – Gabriel cave crayfish
- Procambarus clarkii – Louisiana crayfish (in Portugal and Italy)[14]
- Procambarus delicatus[15] – big-cheeked cave crayfish
- Procambarus erythrops – Santa Fe cave crayfish
- Procambarus franzi – Orange Lake cave crayfish
- Procambarus horsti – Big Blue Spring cave crayfish
- Procambarus leitheuseri – Coastal Lowland cave crayfish
- Procambarus lucifugus – Florida light-fleeing cave crayfish
- Procambarus lucifugus lucifugus – Withlocoochee light-fleeing cave crayfish
- Procambarus lucifugus alachua – Alachua light-fleeing cave crayfish
- Procambarus milleri – Miami cave crayfish
- Procambarus morrisi – Putnam County cave crayfish
- Procambarus niveus – Cuban cave crayfish
- Procambarus orcinus – Woodville Karst cave crayfish
- Troglocambarus maclanei – North Florida Spider Cave Crayfish
- Troglocambarus sp. 1 – Orlando Spider Cave Crayfish
- Others
- Allocrangonyx hubrichti – Hubricht's long-tailed amphipod
- Alpioniscus strasseri
- Andhracoides gebaueri– Belum cave isopod
- Andhracoides shabuddin– Guthikonda cave isopod
- Androniscus dentiger – rosy woodlouse
- Bactrurus brachycaudus – short-tailed groundwater amphipod
- Bactrurus hubrichti – sword-tail cave amphipod
- Bactrurus pseudomucronatus – false sword-tailed cave amphipod
- Barburia yanezi
- Caecidotea antricola – cave isopod
- Caecidotea dimorpha – Missouri cave isopod
- Caecidotea fustis – Fustis cave isopod
- Caecidotea salemensis – Salem cave isopod
- Caecidotea serrata – serrated cave isopod
- Caecidotea stiladactyla – slender-fingered cave isopod
- Caecidotea stygia – stygian cave isopod
- Cancrocaeca
- Cerberusa caeca
- Chaceus caecus
- Cyclops vernalis
- Diacyclops yeatmani – Yeatman's groundwater copepod
- Gammarus acherondytes – Illinois cave amphipod
- Holoped amazonicum
- Lirceus usdagalun – Lee County cave isopod
- Macromaxillocaris[16]
- Munidopsis polymorpha – Blind albino cave crab
- Niphargus species
- Orcovita hickski
- Orcovita orchardorum
- Palaemonias alabamae – Alabama cave shrimp[17]
- Palaemonias ganteri – Kentucky cave shrimp
- Phasmon typhlops
- Samarplax principe
- Spelaeorchestia koloana[7]
- Speocirolana
- Stygiocaris
- Stygobromus barri – Barr's cave amphipod
- Stygobromus clantoni – Clanton's cave amphipod
- Stygobromus heteropodus – Pickle Springs amphipod
- Stygobromus onondagaensis – Onondaga cave amphipod
- Stygobromus ozarkensis – Ozark cave amphipod
- Stygobromus parvus – minute cave amphipod
- Stygobromus subtilis – subtle cave amphipod
- Teretamon spelaeum
- Troglocaris
- Typhlatya
- Typhlocaris[18]
- Typhlocirolana
- Typhlopseudothelphusa
- Villalobosius lopezformenti
- Yucatalana
Insecta
editFish
editAmphibians
editMammals
editNo known mammals live exclusively in caves. Most bats sleep in caves during the day and hunt at night, but they are considered troglophiles or trogloxenes. However some fossorials which spend their whole lives underground might be considered subterranean fauna, although they are not true troglofauna as they do not live in caves.
Echinodermata
edit- Asterinides sp.
- Copidaster cavernicola – Cozumel's cave sea star
- Ophionereis commutabilis
Porifera
editAnnelida
editSee also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Sket, Boris (2008-06-01). "Can we agree on an ecological classification of subterranean animals?". Journal of Natural History. 42 (21–22): 1549–1563. doi:10.1080/00222930801995762. ISSN 0022-2933. S2CID 84499383.
- ^ Vandel, Albert (1965). Biospeleology: the biology of cavernicolous animals. Oxford: Pergamon Press. ISBN 9781483185132. OCLC 893738507.
- ^ Stoch, Fabio (2001). Caves and karstic phenomena. Life in subterranean world (PDF). Italian Habitats. Udine, Italy: Italian Ministry of the Environment and Territory Protection and Friuli Museum of Natural History. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-04. Retrieved 2017-08-07.
- ^ Culver, D.C.; Pipan, Tanja (2009). The biology of caves and other subterranean habitats. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199219933. OCLC 248538645.
- ^ Culver, D.C.; White, W.B. (2012). Encyclopedia of caves (2nd ed.). Waltham, MA: Elsevier/Academic Press. ISBN 9780123838322. OCLC 776633368.
- ^ Subterranean Fauna of the Lukina Jama–Trojama Cave System in Croatia: The Deepest Cave in the Dinaric Karst
- ^ a b United States Fish and Wildlife Service (April 9, 2003). "50 CFR Part 17. RIN 1018–AH01. Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Designation of Critical Habitat for the Kauai Cave Wolf Spider and Kauai Cave Amphipod" (PDF). Federal Register. 68 (68): 17430–17470.
- ^ "Summary for Porrhomma rosenhaueri (Araneae)".
- ^ a b Buhay, J.E.; Moni, G.; Mann, N. & Crandall, K.A. (2007). "Molecular taxonomy in the dark: Evolutionary history, phylogeography, and diversity of cave crayfish in the sugenus Aviticambarus, genus Cambarus". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 42 (2): 435–448. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.07.014. PMID 16971141.
- ^ a b c Buhay, J.E. & Crandall, K.A. (2009). "Taxonomic revision of cave crayfish in the genus Cambarus, subgenus Aviticambarus (Decapoda: Cambaridae) with descriptions of two new species". Journal of Crustacean Biology. 29 (1): 121–134. doi:10.1651/08-3089.1. S2CID 83813422.
- ^ Crandall, K.A. (2010). "Cambarus pecki". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2010: e.T18212A7806310. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T18212A7806310.en.
- ^ Bergey, E.; Cordeiro, J. & Thoma, R.F. (2010). "Cambarus tartarus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2010: e.T3683A10020038. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T3683A10020038.en.
- ^ a b c d e Buhay, J.E. & Crandall, K.A. (2008). "Taxonomic revision of cave crayfishes in the genus "Orconectes", subgenus "Orconectes" (Decapoda: Cambaridae) along the Cumberland Plateau, including a description of a new species, "Orconectes barri"". Journal of Crustacean Biology. 28 (1): 57–67. doi:10.1651/07-2827R.1. S2CID 10326776.
- ^ "A New Threat to Groundwater Ecosystems: First Occurrences of the Invasive Crayfish Procambarus Clarkii (Girard, 1852) in European Caves". Journal of Cave and Karst Studies. 86 (1): 62–65. 2014. doi:10.4311/2013LSC0115.
- ^ Crandall, K.A. & Cordeiro, J. (2010). "Procambarus delicatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2010: e.T18196A7774195. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T18196A7774195.en.
- ^ Alvarez, Fernando; Iliffe, Thomas M. & Villalobos, José Luis (2006). "Macromaxillocarididae, a new family of stenopodidean shrimp from an anchialine cave in the Bahamas, with the description of Macromaxillocaris bahamaensis, n. gen., n. sp" (PDF). Journal of Crustacean Biology. 26 (3): 366–378. doi:10.1651/C-2658.1. S2CID 26634586. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2011-12-07.
- ^ Powell, Jeff (August 29, 2006). "Alabama Cave Shrimp (Palaemonias alabamae). 5-Year Review: Summary and Evaluation" (PDF). United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Retrieved October 10, 2010.
- ^ Tsurnamal, M. (2008). "A new species of the stygobiotic blind prawn Typhlocaris Calman, 1909 (Decapoda, Palaemonidae, Typhlocaridinae) from Israel". Crustaceana. 81 (4): 487–501. doi:10.1163/156854008783797534.