The cave‐adapted arthropod fauna from Madeira archipelago

• Author(s): Serrano, Artur R. M. ; Borges, Paulo A. V.
• Date: 2010
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.3/665
• Origin: Repositório da Universidade dos Açores
• Subject(s): Cavalum; Coleoptera; Lava Tubes; Machico (Ilha da Madeira); Troglobiont Species
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

This work provides an overview of the hypogean fauna from the Madeira archipelago, presenting a list of obligated cave-dwelling species. A total of 6 troglobiont species in 5 orders have been described to date. The cave fauna in Madeira can be considered poor when compared with either the local epigean fauna or the cave fauna of other Macaronesian archipelagos. Curious is the occurrence of one wood-louse cave species (Trichoniscus bassoti), which apparently is the only troglobite living in more than one Macaronesian archipelago (Canaries and Madeira). Major problems related to the conservation of cave fauna are discussed, but it is clear that the protection of this specialized fauna requires the adequate management of surface habitats.