MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES:AN UNDERGROUND CAVE ECOSYSTEM NEAR DOBROGEA, ROMANIA PART TWO

Folks, today I am concluding my look at the underground cave ecosystem near Dobrogea, Romania with a look at its fauna:

This is a continuation of the article by S. M. Sarbu and T. C. Kane, of the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Ohio. – “These peculiar physicochemical conditions produce a unique ecosystem. Forty-six species of terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates have been discovered in the cave so far, of which 31 are previously undescribed. Twenty-two new species of terrestrial invertebrates …collected only in the lower level of the cave in the vicinity of the H2S-rich waters are included in this group. They are all endemic to the subterranean ecosystem associated with the thermal waters at Mangalia. The vast majority are arthropods belonging to four classes: Arachnida, Crustacea, Myriapoda, and Insecta. These species are obligate cave dwellers (i.e. troglobites), well adapted to the peculiar environment in which they live. They lack eyes and pigment, and their appendages (legs and antennae) are elongated, traits that are important in an environment in which light is absent and tactile and chemical sensory systems are important in perceiving the environment. …We are interested in understanding the trophic structure of the community. A detailed examination of the region appears to preclude the possibility of significant input of organic matter from the surface (there are no lakes,rivers,or swamps in the region to provide organic matter that could infiltrate the system). …What is the source of the food base for this system? The answer appears to lie in the microbiota inhabiting the lower level of Movile Cave…Some of the species discovered in Movile Cave also inhabit some of the old wells dug by peasants in the town of Mangalia and in villages nearby. Thus, this fauna is not limited to Movile Cave,but is distributed throughout an extensive network of fissures and cave passages located in Mangalia region…

…Some of the species of spiders and beetles have their closest relatives in tropical climates as shown by M. Georgescu (1989) (1) and by R. Poggi (1994) (2). The spider Agraecina cristiani is related to spiders living in the Canary Islands and in northern Africa (Weiss and Sarbu, 1994) (3). Nearly 75% of the terrestrial species discovered in Movile Cave are endemic to the subterranean environment associated with the thermal H2S-rich waters at Mangalia...The aquatic species living at the surface could have continuously invaded the aquifer through its points of discharge at springs located along the shore of the Black Sea and on the bottom of the H2S-rich lakes present in the region. Besides the very old species that inhabit Movile Cave such as the amphipod Pontoniphargus racovitzai there are also species that invaded the aquifer very recently, during the Würm glaciation and even later. The aquatic isopod Asellus aquaticus has a very recent presence in Europe in general…Several of the ciliate protistans are probably also more recent colonists along with the nematodes,the leech,and copepods…Studies performed by R. Popa (unpublished) show that some of the species living in Movile Cave are highly resistant to poisoning by hydrogen sulphide. The body of the waterscorpion Nepa anophthalma, for example, is covered by a thick layer of filamentous sulphur-bacteria that may be an important means of protection against the poisonous gas. (4)

1. M.Georgescu 1989 Sur trios taxa nouveaux d`Araneides troglobies de Dobrogea (Roumanie).Miscellanea speologica Romanica 1:85-102
2. R.Poggi 1994 Descrizione di un nuovo pselafide rumeno,primo rappresentante cavernicolo della tribu Tyrini. Boll.Soc.ent.ital 125:221-228
3. Weiss I and S.M.Sarbu 1994 Die Höhlenspinne Agraecina cristiani (Georgescu 1989) n.comb. (Arachnida,Araneae,Liocranidae) Verh.naturwiss Ver.Hamburg.35: 421-428
3. S.M.Sarbu and T.C.Kane 1995 A Subterranean Chemoautotrophically Based Ecosystem The NSS Bulletin December 1995 91-98

Sorry, no time for song lyrics, but I need a translator from English into Japanese and vice-versa for a cryptozoology project.

Please can anyone help?