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Issue: Vol. 5740 No. 1: 31 Dec. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-12-31
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5740.1.8
Page range: 80-111
Abstract views: 24
PDF downloaded: 0

Review of Damaeus (Acari: Oribatida: Damaeidae) from Crimea with description of two new cave-dwelling species

Papanin Institute for Biology of Inland Waters; Russian Academy of Sciences; 152742 Borok; Yaroslavl Region; Russia
Papanin Institute for Biology of Inland Waters; Russian Academy of Sciences; 152742 Borok; Yaroslavl Region; Russia; T.I. Vyazemsky Karadag Scientific Station—Nature Reserve of the Russian Academy of Sciences—Branch of A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of RAS; 298188 Theodosia; Russia
University of Tyumen; X-BIO Institute; Tyumen; Russia.
Laboratory of Invertebrate Ecology; Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Novosibirsk; Russia
A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of RAS; 299011 Sevastopol; Russia; V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University; 295007 Simferopol; Russia
Acari morphology taxonomy ontogeny juvenile instar subterranean ecosystems eutroglophile mycophage

Abstract

Two new species of Damaeus (Oribatida: Damaeidae)—D. kovali sp. nov. and D. kizilkobensis sp. nov.—are described from Crimean caves. Both new species are specialized cave-dwelling mites (eutroglophiles), without acquiring any obvious troglomorphic features in their morphology. Damaeus kovali sp. nov. undergoes its entire development cycle in caves, and we describe the morphology of all juvenile stages. If D. kizilkobensis sp. nov. also completes its ontogenetic development in caves is unknown, but according to Lebedinsky (1900), Damaeus nymphs were found in the same cave as the adults. Both species inhabit different caves located far from each other and they have not previously been found in other terrestrial habitats. The type material of two other epigeic (non-cave) species known from Crimea—D. tauricus and D. echinopus—is reexamined.

 

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How to Cite

Kolesnikov, V.B., Turbanov, I.S., Ermilov, S.G., Vladimirova, N.V. & Prokopov, G.A. (2025) Review of Damaeus (Acari: Oribatida: Damaeidae) from Crimea with description of two new cave-dwelling species. Zootaxa, 5740 (1), 80–111. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5740.1.8