Vasile Decu, and Thomas M. Iliffe. 1983. A review of the terrestrial cavernicolous fauna of Romania.
NSS Bulletin, 45:86-97.
Romania is divided into 5 biospeleological provinces based
upon the present distribution of the endemic troglobitic and edaphobitic fauna.
Ancestors of this fauna migrated into Romania primarily from the north Aegean
region probably at various times during the Tertiary Age. Four
paleogeographic barriers - the couloirs of the Danube, Timis-Cerna, Olt, and
Mures Rivers - acted to constrain the migration routes and settlement areas, thus
producing distinct patterns in the distribution of the cave fauna in the
Carpathians. The present day terrestrial troglobitic fauna of Romania
consists of 208 known species and subspecies, including 126 Coleoptera, 23
Araneae, 20 Diplopoda, 12 Collembola, 8 Pseudoscorpiones, and 6 Isopoda.
More than 97 percent of these troglobitic taxa are endemic, and more than 80
percent are paleotroglobitic.
Thomas M. Iliffe, Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at
Galveston, P.O. Box 1675, Galveston, Texas 77553, USA.
E-mail:
iliffet@tamug.edu
Keywords: Romania; cavernicolous fauna; distribution; Carpathians;
troglobitic fauna.
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