Beron P. (ed.). Biodiversity of Bulgaria 4. Biodiversity of Western Rhodopes (Bulgaria and Greece) II. Pensoft & Nat. Mus. Natur. Hist., Sofia The invertebrate cave fauna of the Western Rhodopes (Bulgaria and Greece) Petar BERON, Boyan PETROV, Pavel STOEV Beron P., B. Petrov & P. Stoev. 2011. The invertebrate cave fauna of the Western Rhodopes (Bulgaria and Greece). – In: Beron P. (ed.) Biodiversity of Bulgaria. 4. Biodiversity of West- ern Rhodopes (Bulgaria and Greece) II. Pensoft & Nat. Mus. Natur. Hist. Sofia, 583-662. Abstract. The biospeleological studies in the Rhodopes started in 1924 and until 1959 concerned only the western part of the mountain. Altogether over 600 caves and potholes are hitherto known from the Bulgarian part of the Western Rhodopes. We report 276 species of invertebrates collected from 120 caves (Bulgaria – 109, Greece – 5, unknown location – 6). In addition, 44 species of parasites on cave-dwelling bats were recorded from different caves in the studied region. Among all cave-dwellers, 30 species (ca. 11%) from the genera Bulgaronethes, Cordioniscus, Trichoniscus, Rhodopioniscus (Isopoda), Lithobius (Chi- lopoda), Rhodoposoma, Troglodicus, Stygiosoma and Anamastigona (Diplopoda), Troglohyphantes, Palliduphantes, Porrhomma and Centromerus (Araneae), Plusiocampa (Diplura), Plutomurus (Col- lembola), Duvalius, Bathyscia, Bureschiana, Rhodopiola, Gueorguievella and Paralovricia (Coleop- tera) are troglobites. There are only nine stygobites (3% of all cave species) belonging to the genera Eucyclops, Speocyclops, Maraenobiotus (Copepoda), Niphargus (Amphipoda) and Bythinella (Gastropoda). The genera Bulgaronethes, Rhodopioniscus, Rhodoposoma, Stygiosoma, Gueorguievella, Rhodopiola and Paralovricia are endemic to the Western Rhodopes. There are also interesting endemic troglophiles such as the species of the genus Balkanopetalum, Anamastigona and others. The longest cave in the area, Imamova dupka, has the richest invertebrate fauna – 43 species. Six caves are inhabited by more than 20 species. The conservation of caves is discussed in terms of the current nature protection legislation. The speleological and biospeleological studies in the caves of the Greek part of the Western Rhodopes are rather limited. Fourteen trogloxenes and troglophiles and no troglobites have been so far found from five caves. Key words: troglobites, endemics, invertebrates, conservation Introduction The biospeleological studies in the Rhodopes started in June 1924, when Dr. I. Buresch sent a team of zoologists from the Royal Museum of Natural History (Sofia), including D. Ilchev, P. Drenski and N. Radev, to visit the caves Haramiyskata dupka near Trigrad, Lednitsata near Gela, a cave near Progled, Suhata peshtera near Orehovo and Dupkite near Chepelare. All studies on the fauna of Rhodopean caves until 1959 con- Обработено от Хинко www.hinko.org 584 P. BERON, B. PETROV, P. STOEV cern only the Western Rhodopes (in the scope of the present volume). The materials col- lected before 1960 were published by ČERNOSVITOV (1937), DRENSKI (1931), SILVESTRI (1931), FAGE (1926), ST. & G. KARAMAN (1959), SCHULZE (1927), STROUHAL (1939), KRATOCHVIL (1958), JEANNEL (1928), CZERNY (1930), HANDSCHIN (1928) and others. They include only three troglobites (Litho- bius lakatnicensis, Plusiocampa bulgarica and Duvalius bureschi) and two stygobites (Niphargus cepelarensis and N. bureschi). RADEV (1928) and ATANASSOV (1933a, 1933b, 1939) described several caves in the region (e.g., Novata peshtera near Peshtera Town). The new stage in the biospeleological study of the Rhodopes started with the first visits in the caves of the Eastern (1960) and the Western (1959) Rhodopes by P. Beron. The interesting new genus and species of troglobite Diplopoda (Stygiosoma beroni) was collected in 1960 from Manailovata dupka (Bl. 1), a cave which was later explored and described in detail by STEFANOV (1982). P. Beron collected in 1960 also a new genus and species of Leptodirinae (Rhodopiola cavicola) and in 1962 the new genus and species of Isopoda Bulgaronethes haplophthalmoides. A considerable material has been collected during the Second International Speleo- logical Expedition organized by the Republican Caving Commission in 1962. Ch. Delt- shev, P. Beron, S. Andreev, G. Bachvarov have visited the caves Ivanova voda, Тоpchika, Hralupa, Yamata, Ledenitsata, Kaunitsa, Cheleveshnitsa and others, and collected many new species of cave animals (including the troglobites Rhodopioniscus beroni and Trog- lodicus tridentifer) that were subsequently studied by STRASSER (1966, 1973, 1975), GULIČKA (1967), GUÉORGUIEV (1960), VANDEL (1965, 1967) and others. In 1966 the Romanian zoologists Prof. Trayan Orghidan and Anka Decu assisted by cavers from Chepelare led by D. Raychev explored the longest Rhodopean cave Imamova dupka (Yagodinskata peshtera) and some other caves near the village of Yagodina. The results of this expedition appeared in several publications (BURGHELE-BALACESCO, 1966; TABACARU, 1967; ANDREEV & TABACARU, 1972). One of the most inter- esting newly described taxa was the millipede Bulgarosoma [now Troglodicus] meridionale described by I. Tabacaru. The visit of British cavers in caves near Dobrostan in 1969 is also worth noticing (TURK, 1970; HAZELTON, 1970). For some of the mites published by Turk the data still remain the only available in Bulgaria. Polish (W. Skuratowicz, K. Bartkowska, A. Novosad) and Bulgarian (G. Bach- varov) parasitologists collected in 1974-78 parasitic flies (Nycteribiidae) and fleas (Ischn- opsyllidae) on bats from Rhodopean caves and published two important papers on them (NOVOSAD, BATCHVAROV & PETROV, 1987; SKURATOWICZ, BART- KOWSKA & BATCHVAROV, 1982). In general, there has not been much activity in the region from 1966 to 1989, with the exception of some occasional visits (P. Beron, V. Beshkov, Ch. Deltshev). New information on the Rhodopean cave fauna was published for Araneae (DELTSHEV, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1982; DUMITRESCU, 1971), Isopoda (ANDREEV, 1972a), Opiliones (STAREGA, 1976), Diplopoda (GULIČKA, 1967a, 1967b; STRASSER, 1966, 1969, 1973), Chilopoda (MATIC, 1973; MATIC & DARABANTZU, 1974), Acari (BERON, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1974), Diplura (BARETH, 1974), Amphipoda Обработено от Хинко www.hinko.org The invertebrate cave fauna of the Western Rhodopes (Bulgaria and Greece) 585 (ANDREEV, 1972b), Trichoptera (KUMANSKI, 1972, 1983), Copepoda, incl. Harpacticoida (BASSAMAKOV, 1988; MICHAILOVA-NEIKOVA, 1969; BASSAMAKOV & APOSTOLOV, 1989), Siphonaptera (HůRKA, 1965, 1976), Diptera (BESHOVSKY, 1972; HůRKA, 1984). The active role of the school teacher Dimitar Raychev, founder of the Museum of Speleology and the Rhodopean karst in Chepelare, for the exploration of the Rhodopean caves and the development of the biospeleological studies in that area worth special men- tion. Under his guidance hundreds of new caves have been explored and from some of them cave animals were collected (mostly by Maria Barzakova). Some prominent foreign biospeleologists also took advantage from the existence of the Chepelare Museum. The French specialist Ch. Juberthie undertook (together with D. Raychev) the first attempts to find animals from the Mesocavernous Shallow Stratum (MSS) in Bulgaria. Meanwhile, several general papers dealing with the caves of Western Rhodopes have been published (PANDEV, 1993, 1994 and the comprehensive list of RAYCHEV, 2002). The data on the cave fauna of Western Rhodopes (and of Bulgaria as a whole) until 1994 have been put together in the catalogues of GUÉORGUIEV & BERON (1962), BERON & GUÉORGUIEV (1967) and BERON (1972, 1994). With the active participation of a new generation biospeleologists (Boyan Petrov, Pavel Stoev, Teodora Ivanova, Ivan Pandurski, Dilyan Georgiev and others) many more caves in Western Rhodopes have been visited and the collections of animals from them increased rapidly after 1990. The speleological and biospeleological studies in the caves of the Greek part of the Western Rhodopes are rather limited. At present, only nine cave species (trogloxenes and troglophiles) are known from the region (LINDBERG, 1955; ROEWER, 1959; STOEV, 2004; STOEV & ENGHOFF, 2003). Geography, geological history, karst and caves in the Western Rhodopes (after STEFANOV, 2006, with amendments) The Rhodopes Mts. massive is divided artificially by a political boundary between Bulgaria and Greece, but should be considered as an integral natural region. The West- ern Rhodopes are situated between the parallels of 42°13’ and 41°06’ of northern lati- tude, and the 23°35’ and 25°15’ meridians of eastern longitude. Their western bound- ary is the river of Mesta (Nestos in Greece). To the southeast the mountain is flanked by the White Sea (Aegean) plain and is only 13 km away from the sea coast. The belonging of some detached mountains like Ori Lekanis and Momchil, or Kara Oglan, to the Western Rhodopes is open to dispute. Generally, the area of the Western Rhodopes is considered to be 11 220 km2, out of which 8732 km2 (77.8%) belong to Bulgaria. Western Rhodopes form a large part of the Rila-Rhodopean massive, third in av- erage altitude in Bulgaria (1098 m). Its complex system of mountain ridges and river valleys is distributed as follows: 51.9% for the mid-mountain zone (1000–1600 m) and 81.6% for the zone above 600 m. Several summits reach 2000 m: Golyam Perelik (2190 m), Golyama Syutkya (2186 m), Persenk (2091 m), Batashki Snezhnik (2082 m), and others. The complicated geological structure of the mountain includes crystalline