100 | ClimaParks - Climate change and management of protected areas
troglophilic springtail, and these are often found in the cave habitat. Their eyes are reduced in size, but still developed. In the Škocjan Caves, this species is common mainly on sampling stations 1 and 2, although individual specimens can be found along the entire profile of the tourist part of the cave. We observed many subjects feeding on algae and moss of “lampenflora,” and on sampling station 7 also on bat guano. The species is also common in the surrounding caves. Hypogastruridae in det. The springtails in this group are probably troglophiles washed down from the surface by percolation water. We observed them on sampling station 7 near rimstone pools with percolation water and plenty of bat guano. Oncopodura sp. This genus of springtail has not been taxonomically processed yet. Most of the specimens were found on the surface of lakes and rimstone pools in the Silent Cave. Specimens of this genus are troglobites and are known from many other caves. Isotomidae in det. The specimens of this group of springtails were found on the surface of captured water in the Silent Cave. The group has not been taxonomically processed yet. Many species of this family live mostly in forest leaf litter and soil.
Group: Insects/Insecta Beetles/Coleoptera Laemostenus cavicola (Schaum, 1858) Lit: Joseph (1882, p. 84), Cerkvenik (1910, 1911, 1953), Pretner et al. (unpublished). The description of this species of beetle is based on the specimens from the Pivka Valley, it occurs south of Postojna, all over the Karst, and as several subspecies from Istria to Albania (Casale, 1988; Pretner unpublished). The eyes of the species are reduced in size, yet it is not a troglobite, even though it is very often found in most of the caves in the Karst (Pretner, unpublished). The cave guide Cerkvenik captured them in traps with baits in the Tominc Cave in September 1910. Egon Pretner found them in the Marinič Cave (Mariničeva jama) in April 1911, in the Silent Cave on 5 September 1950 and in the Great Hall on 1 June 1953, but every time only a single specimen was found. In our research in the tourist part of the Škocjan Caves we captured them only in the pit-fall traps set near the iron door at the entrance into the Paradise. Specimens were captured in all samplings, that is why we believe that the species has developed a permanent population there. Laemostenus elongatus (Dejean, 1828) Lit: Joseph (1882, p. 58), Müller (1926, pp. 110, 217), Pretner (1949, 1956, 1958, 1969). Lemostenus elongatus is a species similar to the abovementioned one, only much less dependent on the subterranean habitat. It can be found mainly in fairly warm scree slopes in
collapse dolines, and more rarely also in the entrances into caves. In our research, this species was recorded only next to bat guano in the Hall of Rimstone Pools (sampling station 7), in the Schmidl Hall (sampling station 8), and in the Tominc Cave (sampling station 9). The species is not abundant. Pterostichus fasciopunctatus (Creutzer, 1793) Lit: Cognetti (1903, p. 7), Cerkvenik (1910), Müller (1926, pp. 110, 217), Müller (1928). Many entomologists list this species of beetle of the family Carabidae for the Škocjan Caves. The species inhabits deep cracks in surface habitats, especially near water, streams and rivers. In our research the species was recorded in front of the cave entrance in the Schmidl Hall (sampling station 8) and in the matter washed up in the dead-end cave passage under the Okroglica Abyss (sampling station 10). In some places the species occurs in large numbers, and there it has a permanent population. The swollen waters of the Reka River occasionally wash the specimens of this species into the inner part of the Škocjan Caves where the species then might form an isolated cave or troglophilic population. Such a population of the species, and quite a large one, is at the bottom of the Labodnica Cave at Trebče which constitutes part of the underground river system of the Reka River (Timavo). Anophthalmus schmidti trebicianus (Müller, 1915) Lit: Cognetti (1903, p. 9), Müller (1913, 1915, 1930, p. 82), Pretner (1956), Daffner (1998). In our research of the tourist part of the Škocjan Caves, this species of blind cave beetle was not detected, nor was it captured in pit-fall traps, which are otherwise used for studying cave beetles. Isolated specimens of this species and of the local subspecies were captured by Müller in 1913 and Pretner in 1956 in the Martel Hall. The species is a troglobite and can be found exclusively in deep and humid caves. The subspecies is endemic to the underground flow of the Reka River; apart from the Škocjan Caves, it is also known from the Kačna Cave at Divača and the Labodnica Cave at Trebče (Grotta di Trebiciano) which is the type site of this subspecies. Trechus croaticus (Dejean, 1831) Lit: Müller (1926, p. 110), Jeannel (1927, p. 533). The genus Trechus includes many species of the surface members of the subfamily of cave beetles Trechinae. The species Trechus croaticus is common in leaf litter and deep cracks in the wide karst area. Swollen waters occasionally wash specimens away and carry them to organic matter deposits composed of fallen-plant material (branches, tree leaves, sludge) accumulating in the sheltered parts of the lower levels of the Škocjan Caves. The species thrives in humid and dark habitats, that is why it can form troglophilic populations in such environments. Specimens of this species can be found mainly in deposits along the Reka River outside the tourist part of the cave. Trechus cardioderus pilisensis (Csiki, 1917) Lit: Springer (1913), Müller (1930, p. 82).