A new subterranean gammarid (Crustacea) from Britain.

Abstract

SUMMARY. Niphargus glenniei is a new species discovered in limestone caves near Buckfastleigh, S. Devon, where it was first collected and suspected of being peculiar by Brig. E. A. Glennie of the Cave Research Group. A full description is given. The species is small, and the male sex has not yet been recognized.The nearest possible relatives on the continent are N. arndti, known from four localities in Silesia, and N. nolli, known from two localities in the middle Rhineland, both small species in which the mandibular palp shows an unusual simplification. However, differences between N. glenniei and these two species are considerable, and the resemblances may conceivably be but the effect of convergence. If so, N. glenniei is quite isolated from the rest of the genus.Schellenberg's genus Niphargellus is not to be considered valid, an opinion enhanced by the discovery of N. glenniei.In view of the poverty of the British subterranean arthropod fauna, and the lack of endemic forms, this discovery is of particular interest.