EuroSpeleo 2016 Sessions

Poster: Biospeleology of three caves in Lurë Mountain (Albania)

Session code: P5

Poster / Science, Main EuroSpeleo Conference

Ms Heliana Dundarova

Summary

Lurë Mountain is located in the region of Diber, East Albania. The aims of the expedition were exploration, mapping and biospeleogical study of the Sopanik cave, Loshnesh cave and Russit cave.
In Soponik cave three bat species were detected: Myotis blythii Tomes, 1857, Myotis capaccinii Bonaparte, 1837 and Rhinolophus еuryale Blasius, 1853. Moreover, Rhinolophus еuryale use the cave as a summer roost, where females give birth. Invertebrate fauna of Soponik were present by spiders, crickets, snails and centipedes. Three spider species from three genera were identified: Metellina merianae (Scopoli, 1763) – 3 juv., Segestria senoculata (Linnaeus, 1758) – 1 juv. and Nesticus cellulanus (Clerck, 1758) – 1 f. Crickets, centipedes and snails were present with only one genus - Troglophilus Krauss, 1879 – 1 juv., Lithobius (Linnaeus, 1758) – 5 juv. and Vitrea Fitzinger, 1833 respectively.
Invertebrate fauna of Loshnesh cave were present by the spider Metellina merianae – 2 f., the snail Clausilia montenegrina (Pfeiffer, 1848) 1 add., the wasp Diphyus quadripunctorius (Müller, 1776) – 3f and two juvenile millipedes from the genus Acanthopetalum Verhoeff, 1900.
Invertebrate fauna of Russit cave were present by the spider Nesticus cellulanus – 2 f. and new described beetle Albanodirus ivanpetrovii Giachino, Vailati,

Biography

PhD student at the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Cave experience i.e. rope technique and ability for cave survey in different types of caves. Participant of cave expeditions on the Balkan Peninsula, Central Europe and Southwest Asia.

Affiliations

Alexey Zhalov, Christo Deltshev, Ivailo Dedov, Toshko Ljubomirov