Abstract
A new eyeless troglobitic pseudoscorpion, Ayyalonia dimentmani n. g., n. sp., is described from inside karstic voids in Israel that form a completely isolated, old underground ecosystem with living populations of blind pseudoscorpions, crustaceans, collembolans, thysanurans and mites. The scorpions, of which only empty carcasses have been found may represent extinct derives or recently dead specimens belonging to an unknown population existing somewhere in the Ayyalon underground spaces. The pseudoscorpions analyzed prove to differ from all other pseudoscorpions and are placed in a new tribe, new genus, and a new species. The possibility is suggested that the subterranean false scorpions are relicts of an old circum-tropical pattern of distribution (either of early Miocene or late Mesozoic age and origin) that differs from the present Mediterranean location of Israel.
Highlights
The most heavily populated part of Israel is the narrow coastal belt, which runs for some 117 miles from north to south, bordering the Mediterranean
Running from the Sea of Galilee through the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba, it forms an abrupt and spectacular termination of the high ground previously described, which lies to its west
The pseudoscorpion specimens studied were mounted in gum chloral medium (Swan’s fluid); they are deposited in the collection of the Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia, and in that of the Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, the Hebrew University, 91905 Jerusalem, Israel
Summary
The most heavily populated part of Israel is the narrow coastal belt, which runs for some 117 miles from north to south, bordering the Mediterranean. Beyond the plain and running parallel with the coast is an area of higher ground with mountains averaging 2000 feet in altitude They stretch 200 miles north to south from Lebanon to the Sinai. The completely isolated subterranean space is located in a quarry deep below the surface that precludes the permeability of water or organic matter from the outside This space comprises galleries of winding passages and a large chamber with warm brackish groundwater having high H2S levels (Frumkin and Gvirtzman , 2006). Named the Ayyalon Cave, this landform is an accidental opening in a deep limestone quarry near Ramla in the inland plain of Israel, 24 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast. A new "living fossil" from a cave in israel the Mesozoic, though the presence of dissolved oxygen in the continental groundwater was mandatory for the existence of this metazoan fauna. Some taxonomic, biogeographical, and evolutionary traits of this new form are briefly discussed
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