Sulfide Shrimp? Observations on the concealed life history of the Thermosbaenacea (Crustacea)

By

Por, Francis

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2014

Original Publication

Subterranean Biology

Volume

14

Pages

63-77

Subjects

Ayyalon , biospeleology , Chemoautotrophy , Ophel , Sulphobacteria , Thermosbaenacea

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/subtbiol.14.7927

 

Abstract

The discovery and subsequent observation over various years of a massive population of the thermosbaenacean Tethysbaena ophelicola Wagner in the subterranean karstic sulfide pool of Ayyalon (Israel) enabled us to reach conclusions about the previously unknown life strategy of this crustacean super-order. These are preferably monophagous sulfur-bacteria-eating pelagic shrimps of stratified subterranean pools, adapted to microaerobic-anaerobic conditions, by among others ovoviviparity and the probable help of sulfide detoxifying bacterial endosymbiosis.