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The Hawaiian islands are recognized as a hotspot of biodiversity, including both surface and subsurface habitats. Recent studies of Hawaiian lava tube fauna have continued to reveal new species. Here, a new species of cave dwelling talitroid amphipod in the genus Spelaeorchestia is described from lava tubes on the island of Hawai i. It is compared with the only other known cave amphipod from the Hawaiian archipelago and with a closely related cave talitroid from Japan in the genus Minamitalitrus.
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From the dark side of paradise: a new natural replication of cave planthopper evolution from Hawaiian lava tubes (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Cixiidae)
Abstract The Hawaiian Islands are known to harbour a rich and diverse fauna of troglobionts (obligate subterranean species). To date, 74 obligate cavernicolous arthropod species have been documented from across the main Hawaiian islands, the majority of which were from Hawaiʻi Island, and mostly from lava tubes of Kilauea volcano, the youngest volcano on the island. A recent bioinventory of the Kipuka Kanohina lava tube system on the south-western side of Mauna Loa volcano revealed the existence of previously unknown cave-adapted species. Among them is the first cave-adapted species of the planthopper genus Iolania, Iolania frankanstonei Hoch & Porter sp. nov. Morphological and molecular data suggest that the species is closely related to the epigean (i.e. surface-dwelling) species Iolania perkinsi, which occurs in surface environments on Hawaiʻi Island. Thus, parapatric speciation is assumed, further corroborating the assumption that adaptive shifts are the major evolutionary patterns underlying the evolution of troglobionts on young oceanic islands.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2204670
- PAR ID:
- 10486687
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
- Volume:
- 202
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0024-4082
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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