The Transition from an Epigean to a Hypogean Mode of Life: Morphological and Bionomical Characteristics of Diamysis camassai sp. nov. (Mysidacea, Mysidae) from Brackish-Water Dolinas in Apulia, SE-Italy
Wittmann, K.J.; Ariani, A.P. (2001). The Transition from an Epigean to a Hypogean Mode of Life: Morphological and Bionomical Characteristics of Diamysis camassai sp. nov. (Mysidacea, Mysidae) from Brackish-Water Dolinas in Apulia, SE-Italy. Crustaceana 74(11): 1241-1265. https://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685400152885219 In: Crustaceana. Brill Academic Publishers: Leiden; Köln; New York; Boston. ISSN 0011-216X; e-ISSN 1568-5403, more |  |
| Authors | | Top | - Wittmann, K.J., more
- Ariani, A.P.
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| Abstract | A new representativeof the mainly Mediterraneanand Pontocaspian genus Diamysis Czerniavskyis described from a system of brackish-water dolinas near the Ionian coast of southern Italy(eastern Mediterranean). Most life stages mainly dwell in microalgal beds on hard substrata oramong macrophytes inside well-illuminated dolinas, whereas incubating females and neonates arerelatively more abundant in dimly-lit or dark dolinas. D. camassai sp. nov. is distinguished fromits congeners by a relatively small cornea and short eyestalks with larger scales at their basis, aswell as by a complex of characters affecting the carpopropodus of the thoracic endopods and theexopod of the male fourth pleopod. Relatively small eyes, dense setation on the legs, and largeeggs point to a certain degree of adaptation to a subterranean mode of life, albeit that the animalsare strongly pigmented and essentially micro-herbivorous. The stygophilic characteristics of thisDiamysis may represent an important intermediate stage in the evolution towards stygobionts,whichoccur in the closely related genera Troglomysis Stammer (Mediterranean) and Antromysis Creaser (Caribbean). |
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