Copepods

Metacyclops stammeri Kiefer, 1938

Described by Kiefer (1938) to accomodate material from anchialine habitats of the caves "Zinzulusa" , "Buco dei Diavoli" and "L'Abisso" (south Italy), Metacyclops stammeri has been successively collected from phreatic habitats (wells) along the Ionian coast (Gallipoli) (Pesce et al., 1978), and in cave waters of Montenegro (Karanovic, 1999). Dussart & Defaye (1985) erroneously report this species from Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica.

Metacyclops stammeri is a Tertiary relict, which survived to the Quaternary ice periods in ground waters. Its present geonemy (right fig.) probably follows the last ice period which led the species to colonize two refuge-habitats in the Salentina (1) and karstic valley of Skadar (Montenegro) (2).

Metacyclops subdolus Kiefer, 1938

Metacyclops subdolus was described by Kiefer (1938) to accomodate material from anchialine habitats in the Salentine Peninsula (south Italy); the species has been later collected from numerous other localities (wells, caves, anchialine habitats) of the Puglia (south Italy) (Pesce et al., 1978), Balearic islands, Corsica (Lindberg, 1956) and Greece (Pesce, 1978, 1983; Pesce & Maggi, 1981, 1983). Recently Por (1993) reported the species form brackish springs of Israel.

From a biogeographical point of view, Metacyclops subdolus is a perimediterranen species, which recently colonized the subterraen environments of this area.

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