Cave Collembola from Southwestern Germany

Abstract

Collembola are among the most abundant arthropod and hexapod taxa in cave ecosystems. The springtail fauna of different natural caves and artificially built underground mines and passages from southwest Germany was surveyed using pitfall traps. Altogether, 54 species were determined, of which almost 50 % were classified as eutroglophile to eutroglobiont. These species are strictly bound to a hypogean habitat or, in the case of epigean species, at least able to maintain a permanent subterranean population. Two noteworthy species were found in the artificial gallery ‘Bastion Drusus’ in Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate): Lepidocyrtus violaceus (Geoffroy, 1762) with morphological adaptations and Disparrhopalites patrizii (Cassagnau & Delamare Debouteville, 1953) with a possible anthropogenically driven distribution.

Keywords

• springtails
• subterranean habitats
• troglomorphy
• anthropogenic distribution