Mesoniscus

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Mesoniscus
M. graniger
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Subphylum:
Crustacea
Class:
Malacostraca
Order:
Isopoda
Suborder:
Oniscidea
Section:
Microcheta

Schmalfuss, 1989
Family:
Mesoniscidae

Verhoeff, 1908
Genus:
Mesoniscus

Carl, 1906
Species
  • M. alpicolus (Heller, 1858)
  • M. graniger (Frivaldsky, 1865)

Mesoniscus is a

section
, Microcheta. It contains two species – Mesoniscus alpicolus and Mesoniscus graniger – that live in Central and Eastern Europe, mostly in and around caves.

Distribution

Baradla
cave in north-eastern Hungary is home to a population of Mesoniscus graniger.

Mesoniscus is restricted to Central Europe and the Balkan Peninsula; the ranges of its two species do not overlap.[1]

M. alpicolus is found in

Northern Calcareous Alps.[1] In Austria, its range extends from the Karwendel near Innsbruck to the eastern edge of the Wienerwald, although it is also found in isolated pockets of Triassic and Silurian–Devonian limestone in Styria.[2]

M. graniger has a wider distribution than its congener; it is found in much of the

Carpathians, including the Bihor and Banat mountains, and in the Dinaric Alps and Julian Alps.[1] It is also found in the Caves of Aggtelek Karst in Hungary.[3]

Taxonomy

The first description of a woodlouse now in the genus Mesoniscus was in 1858, when Camill Heller described "Titanethes alpicolus" in 1858.[4] This was followed in 1865 by the description by János Frivaldszky (Ján Frivaldský) of the subspecies "Titanethes alpicolus graniger".[4]

Mesoniscus is the only genus in the family Mesoniscidae,

section, named Microcheta.[5][6]

Ecology

Mesoniscus species lack the pleopodal lungs found in many other woodlice, and are restricted to damp environments.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c Andrei Giurginca (2001). "The spreading of the genus Mesoniscus in the Romanian Carpathians" (PDF). Travaux de l'Institut Spéleologique "Émile Racovitza". 39–40: 11–22.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ Hans Strouhal (1951). "Die österreichischen Landisopoden, ihre Herkunft und ihre Beziehung zu den Nachbarländern" [The terrestrial isopods of Austria, their origins, and their relationship to neighbouring countries] (PDF). Verhandlungen der Zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft Wien (in German). 92: 116–142.
  3. ^ Ferenc Vilisics; Antal Nagy; Péter Sólymos; Roland Farkas; Zita Kemencei; Barna Páll-Gergely; Máté Kisfali; Elisabeth Hornung (2008). "Data on the terrestrial Isopoda fauna of the Alsó-hegy, Aggtelek National Park, Hungary" (PDF). Folia Faunistica Slovaca. 13 (4): 19–22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-06-05.
  4. ^
    JSTOR 20102517
    .
  5. ^ a b Helmut Schmalfuss (2003). "World catalog of terrestrial isopods (Isopoda: Oniscidea) – revised and updated version" (PDF). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie A. 654: 341 pp.
  6. PMID 11072627
    .
  7. doi:10.1046/j.1463-6395.2001.00092.x
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mesoniscus&oldid=1190841622"