80 years of research on planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from Sardinia, Italy: an annotated checklist
Author
Stocchino, Giacinta Angela
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-12-20
4532
4
539
552
journal article
27733
10.11646/zootaxa.4532.4.5
38d5db9a-4c71-408d-84d2-5b98fd8afa0d
1175-5326
2615649
807B317B-D883-439F-97B9-B0C0F09D9666
Subfamily
Microplaninae Pantin, 1953
The first record of an autochthonous land planarian from
Sardinia
was reported by
Stocchino
et al
. (2008)
from the karstic Su Guanu Cave in the northwestern part of the island. Specimens were found during three sampling campaigns in a hydropetric habitat, just after the wet season. Presence of terrestrial planarians in a cave habitat may be considered as accidental, probably being the result of passive dispersion occasioned by water flowing through the limestone cracks from surface ground layers to the interior of the cave. Survival of land planarians in this peculiar habitat is ensured, at least for some time, by presence in the cave of suitable preys such as oligochaetes, insect larvae and gastropods. On the basis of some diagnostic morphological characters specimens were assigned to the subfamily
Microplaninae
. However, absence of fully sexually developed individuals prevented a detailed assessment of their taxonomic status (
Stocchino
et al
., 2008
).