A SUMMARY OF DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE OBLIGATE CAVE-INHABITING FAUNAS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
A SUMMARY OF DIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE OBLIGATE CAVE-INHABITING FAUNAS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
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美国和加拿大天然洞穴动物群多样性和分布概要
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发表时间:
1998
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通讯作者:
S. Peck
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作者:
S. Peck
A summary is given of families, genera, species numbers, and state distributions of the obligate subterranean (cave and groundwater) faunas of the contiguous United States and Canada. A total of 425 aquatic and 928 terrestrial species (1353 species in all) is now known. Total genus level diversity is greatest (in descending order) in the states of Texas, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. This genus and species richness is vulnerable to a variety of land use and pollution problems. Nicholas (1960) provided the last complete list of the obligate subterranean fauna (troglobites and stygobites) of the United States. A total of 334 species and subspecies were then known. Since then, there has been much additional field work and taxonomic study on the U.S. cave fauna. Many taxonomic papers and state lists have been published, but they are too numerous to list here. No nationwide species-level list has been compiled since that of Nicholas. As a step towards this goal, I have compiled a summary list. This gives the taxonomic classification of obligate subterranean faunas to the genus level, and a numerical total of such species known in the genus, and the states or provinces in which they are known to occur. I believe this summary list to be a useful indicator of richness of subterranean faunas and their general areas of distribution. Reviews about the origin and ecology of this fauna are in Barr (1967, 1968), Barr, Culver and Kane (1995), Barr and Holsinger (1985), Culver (1982), Holsinger (1988) and Howarth (1983). In this paper I do not attempt to analyze the causes of the different state diversities. METHODS I started with the incomplete list in Barr et al. (1995) and worked to improve it. I then asked various taxonomic specialists to correct my preliminary summary lists. An attempt was made to exclude obvious troglophiles (species which may be known only from caves, but which show no morphological specializations for cave life). Troglobites (in terrestrial habitats) and stygobites (in aquatic habitats) are ecologically restricted to caves and subterranean groundwaters, and have usually had a long history of evolutionary specialization to these underground habitats. These animals usually have visibly distinctive cave-related body features (troglomorphies) and less evident physiological or behavioral specializations which restrict them to living only in pre-existing subterranean spaces and caves. These troglobites and stygobites are ecologically and evolutionarily the most interesting animals in caves and groundwaters. The faunas are here separated as terrestrial or aquatic in habitat because these two environments have entirely different faunas and environmental characteristics. RESULTS