Overview of Niphargidae (Crustacea: Amphipoda) in Belgium: distribution, taxonomic notes and conservation issues
Author
Fišer, Cene
Author
Zagmajster, Maja
Author
Dethier, Michel
text
Zootaxa
2018
2018-02-26
4387
1
47
74
journal article
30654
10.11646/zootaxa.4387.1.2
4958a805-21f8-430b-a1c3-d848dfe5d90e
1175-5326
1186533
C679BD1D-6F0A-4347-B7A7-9C527A8BA675
Niphargus puteanus
(Koch in Panzer, 1836)
Published record: L.162—Fange aux Mochettes
(
Leloup & Jacquemart 1963
).
The species was discovered in a peat-bog, near the Baraque Fraiture,
between Laroche-en-Ardenne and Vielsalm
(
Leloup & Jacquemart 1963;
Fig. 4
; App. 1
). The species is otherwise distributed in
Upper Rhine
and
Upper Danube
valleys (Fišer
et al.
2017). As we could not study the material from
Belgium
, we cannot give any conclusions on species true identity.
In any case, the finding is rather interesting from ecological point of view. The locality is at an elevation of
600 m
, in a forest brook draining a peat bog of type
Vagineto-Sphagnetum
. Specimens were collected in the root net of
Molinia
obstructed by sand and in very acid water. It may inhabit the water sheet between the peat and the bedrock and was washed in the brook by a flood. Only a few
Niphargus
species inhabit such shallow subterranean habitats (
Fišer
et al.
2006
,
2010
;
2015b
; Copilaş-Ciocianu
et al.
2017), and the specimens from Belgium would be the northern most record of this kind of species.