Article Are the Neglected Tipuloidea Crane Flies (Diptera) an Important Component for Subterranean Environments? Enrico Lunghi 1,2,3,*, Gentile Francesco Ficetola 4,5, Yahui Zhao 1,*, Raoul Manenti 4,6 1 Key Laboratory of the Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 2 Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze, Museo “La Specola”, 50125 Firenze, Italy 3 Associazione Natural Oasis, 59100 Prato, Italy 4 Dipartimento di Scienze e politiche ambientali, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy;
[email protected] (G.F.F.);
[email protected] (R.M.) 5 Laboratoire d’Écologie Alpine (LECA), University Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, F-38000 Grenoble, France 6 Laboratory of Subterranean Biology “Enrico Pezzoli”, Parco Regionale del Monte Barro, 23851 Galbiate, Italy * Correspondence:
[email protected] (E.L.);
[email protected] (Y.Z.) Received: 10 August 2020; Accepted: 21 August 2020; Published: 31 August 2020 Abstract: Usually, biospeleological studies focus on cave-specialist taxa showing strong adaptation to the subterranean environment, as their unusual morphological and ecological features represent intriguing case studies. On the other hand, species occurring in subterranean environments but without marked adaptations have been generally overlooked, probably because they are thought to be accidental and not very important for the ecosystem. Particularly exemplificative is the case of Tipuloidea crane flies (Diptera), which although abundant, are rarely considered in biospeleological studies. Here, by analyzing the crane fly occupancy, we observed that individuals occur within the shallowest areas of subterranean environments throughout the year, with a peak of presence during hot season.