ARPHA Conference Abstracts

Yazarlar: Vera D'Urso, Antonino Puglisi

Konular:-

DOI:10.3897/aca.2.e39688

Anahtar Kelimeler:Troglobitic species,Cixiidae,Limestone caves,Lava tubes,Sicily

Özet: Up to now, troglobitic Auchenorrhyncha identified for Europe outside of the Macaronesian region include two species belonging to the Cixiidae family. In this context, Sicily is a very interesting island because there are both limestone caves an lava tubes that allow the presence of at least two obligately cave dwelling species belonging to Ibleocixius D'Urso & Grasso 2009 and Cixius Latreilles 1804 genera. Ibleocixius is a troglobitic genus, endemic from Sicily with a unique species, Ibleocixius dunae D’Urso & Grasso 2009, living in a limestone cave of South-estern Sicily. Recently, a new troglobitic taxon (under description) has been found in some lava tubes on the Etna volcano; it belongs to the genus Cixius, to the C. pallipes-wagneri group. Both species live on the roots that penetrate the caves. They have a different palaeogeographic history. Ibleocixius dunae is a paleoendemic taxon showing a strong degree of troglomorphy, and the genus differs from Cixius and related taxa in the different arrangement of several characters which are also present in other taxa. Cixius n.sp. is a neoendemic taxon showing morphological characters close to those of the epigean species Cixius wagneri  (Holzinger et al. 2003).

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