
Diplurans
Diplurans (Diplura)
Diplurans are land-based, non-winged members of the Hexapods in the Entognatha class. Their main characteristics are a lack of eyes, segmented antennae on their head and a pair of cerci on the last abdominal segmentin the shape of long tails or pins. The size of the body ranges from only 1 mm to an extraordinary size of 6 cm. The diet of the diplurans also varies. Most of the species are omnivorous and feed on plant detritus, roots, mushroom hyphae and mycelium, and the excretion of other arthropods. There are also carnivorous species, whose preys are tiny invertebrates. So far more than 900 species have been described in the world.
There are numerous species adapted to life in cave habitats. On the territory of Croatia, members of Stygiocampa subgenus have developed adaptations that make them highly specialized for cave environments. They have elongated legs, antennae and cerci which can be up to 2.5 times longer than the body. The number of described species in the Croatian underground is not large, primarily because of poor research. Croatian biospeleology society has recently recognized new species, which still need to be scientifically described.
CONTACT:
Kazimir Miculinić – miculinic@hbsd.hr
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
- Condé, B. & Bareth, C. (1996): Une évaluation de Stygiocampa, sous-genre troglomorphe de Plusiocampa (Diplura Campodeidae), avec la description d’une nouvelle espèce de Serbie orientale. Revue suisse Zool., 103, 2: 369-381.
- Condé, B. (1959): Un singulier diploure cavernicole de Dalmatie. Fragmenta Balcanica. Mus. Mac. Sci. Nat., 2, 20, 54: 165-172.
- Sendra, A. M. (2015): Clase Entognatha, Orden Diplura. Revista IDE@ – SEA, Ibero Diversidad Entomológica @ccesible, 35: 1-11.