Animal classes

Beetles (Coleoptera)

The karst of Dinarides is inhabited by a large number of troglobitic and troglophilic species of beetles. The families of beetles (Coleoptera) represented in the Croatian underworld are:

Carabidae
Cholevidae = Leiodidae
Staphylinidae
Curculionidae
Scydmaenidae

The larger number belongs to the subfamily Trechinae (Carabidae) and Leptodirinae (Cholevidae).

However, to the family Cholevidae belongs almost three times as many species as in the family Carabidae (Jalžić, 2002).

Fauna of cholevid beetles of Balkan Peninsula underworld is the richest in the world so Croatia is within the focus of the greatest biodiversity of subterranean beetles in the world. The Cholevidae are living on all continents, Antarctica excluded, and are represented by specied size from 0.8 to 9 mm. They can be saprophagous, necrophagous, guanophilous, and are usually hygrophilous and light - avoiding (Casale et al., 2009).

The family Cholevidae has undergone through many changes in taxonomy and nomenclature since 19th century when it became the object of study. The most significant changes are those introduced by Jeannel, when he named them as a separate family called Catopidae (Jeannel, 1936). Later are renamed in Cholevidae (Zwick, 1979) and this systematics is still held by some authors.

Recently, this taxon is treated as a subfamily Cholevinae of the family Leiodidae, and is divided into several tribes and subtribes (Newton 1998; Perreau 2000, 2008).

Subfamily Leptodirinae (Cholevidae) contains the highest number of species and it's distributed, with few exceptions, in the Western – Palaeartic Region (Casale et al., 2009). It includes the most troglobitic species - subterranean beetles that are the most adapted to cave conditions, species of genera Leptodirus and Anthroherpon, but also higropetric species of genera Radziella, Croatodirus, Velebitodromus that are living in a similar biotope called "cave higropetrik", where continuous thin film of water is flowing over the walls. Last three mentioned genera are characterized by a special mouthparts, which are probably used to filter nutrients from water.

Also, the other species of this subfamily are characterized by high endemic rate in Croatia.

Endemic genera for Croatia: Anisoscapha, Redensekia, Zariquieyella, Hoffmannella, Dalmatiola, Roubaliella, Spelaites, Speoplanes, Radziella, Spelaeobates, Croatodirus and Velebitodromus.

Leptodirus hochenwartii Schmidt, 1832 was the first described troglobitic beetle in the world. There is one species of the genus Leptodirus and six subspecies, four of which live in Croatia. Leptodirus hochenwarii reticulatus Müller, 1904, was described from the cave Grotta Noe near Trieste in Italy. In Croatia it lives in the north of Ćićarija Mountain which is the southern border of the areal of this subspecies. Leptodirus hochenwartii pretneri Müller, 1926 is described from the cave Jama nad Zasten near Mune on Ćićarija. It is widespread on Ćićarija Mountain and partly on Učka Mountain. It is restricted to Croatia. Leptodirus hochenwartii croaticus Pretner, 1955 is described from the Ledena špilja kod Lokava. It lives in caves in Gorski Kotar and Lika part of the northern slopes of Velebit Mountain. It lives only in Croatia. Leptodirus hochenwartii velebiticus Pretner, 1970 is described from Vrtlina jama on the southern Velebit. It is widespread in the southern part of Velebit which is also the southern edge of the areal of the species. It is also a Croatian endemic species.

Leptodirus hochenwartii is a true troglobitic beetle, without eyes nor pigment. It varies from 8 to 11 mm in size. It has a thin chest, inflated abdomen and extremely elongated body pendants. Ecology and ethology of this species are poorly known because studies have never been systematically implemented. It is a detrivor and feeds off a variety of organic remains. It displays a typical "K reproductive strategy", it has a reduced number of developmental stages, deposits a small number of eggs, but of enlarged size. Larvae are hatched large and do not feed but immediately enter the pupa stage and transform to the imago.

The second most represented familie in the underground is Carabidae - ground beetles. Although they are represented with fewer species than the above mentioned family Cholevidae, they are on top of the food web of invertebrates in cave habitats. The largest predators are the species of the genus Laemostenus from subfamily Sphodrinae, in Croatia come 3 species. Laemostenus cavicola is represented with 9 subspecies. Subfamily Trechinae is much more numerous and it includes 10 genera: Anophthalmus, Croatotrechus, Biokovoaphaenopsis, Jalzicaphaenops, Derosiella, Duvalius, Neotrechus, Typhlotrechus, Lovricia Neolovricia.

Endemic genera for Croatia: Croatotrechus, Biokovoaphaenopsis, Jalzicaphaenops, Derosiella, Lovricia, Neolovricia.

Numerous species of subterranean beetles are represented by many subspecies, due to geographical isolation and the large number of underground habitats in Croatia.

Literature:

Jalžić B. (2002) Coleoptera. In: Gottstein Matočec, S (ed): An overview of the cave and interstitial biota of Croatia. Natura Croatica. Vol. 11, Supp. 1, 69 – 74.

Casale A., Grafitti G. & Latella L. (2009) The Cholevidae (Coleoptera) of Sardinia. Zootaxa 2318, 290 -316.

Newton, A.F. (1998) Phylogenetic problems, current classification and generic catalogue of world Leiodidae (including Cholevidae). In: Giachino, P.M. & Peck, S. (Eds), Phylogeny and Evolution of Subterranean and Endogean Cholevidae (= Leiodidae Cholevinae). Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali, Torino, Atti (Proceedings of XXI.C.E., Firenze, 1996), pp. 41–178.

Perreau, M. (2000) Catalogue des Coléoptères Leiodidae Cholevinae et Platypsyllinae. Mémoires de la Société Entomologique de France, 4, 1–460.

Perreau, M. (2008) Leiodidae. In: Löbl, I. & Smetana, A. (Eds), Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera. Volume 2. Hydrophiloidea - Histeroidea - Staphylinoidea. Apollo Books, Stenstrup, pp. 133–203.

Zwick, P. (1979) Contributions to the knowledge of Australian Cholevidae (Catopidae auct. Coleopt.). Australian Journal of Zoology, Suppl. 79, 1–56.

Contact:

B. Jalžić -

Petra Bregović -

Nikolina Raguž -

Roman Ozimec –

H. Bilandžija -