Historia naturalis bulgarica, 22: 3, 2015 Настоящото издание е посветено на 60-годишнината от рождението на видния български орнитолог и палеоорнитолог Професор д.б.н. ЗЛАТОЗАР БОЕВ This issue is dedicated to the prominent Bulgarian Ornithologist and Palaeo-ornithologist Prof. ZLATOZAR BOEV, D. Sc. on the occasion of his 60th Birthday Син на видния български орнитолог и природозащитник Николай Боев, проф. д. б. н Златозар Боев работи в Националния природонаучен музей при БАН (НПМ-БАН) вече в продължение на 37 години. в момента в музея той е ръководител на отдел „Гръбначни животни“. Роден е на 20 октомв- ри 1955 г. в София. Завършил е Биологическия факултет на СУ „Св. Климент охридски“. Стажувал е в Москва, Тбилиси и Лион при водещи световни специалисти. На него българската наука дължи едно ново направление – той полага основите на палеоорнитологията у нас. Благодарение на него- вите усилия НПМ-БАН притежава днес най-богатата в Югоизточна Европа колекция от фосилни и субфосилни птици, сравнителна остеологична колекция от рецентни птици и научна библиотека по палеонтология и еволюция на птиците. Приносите на проф. Боев в палеоорнитологията са све- товно признати и той се нарежда между маститите европейски специалисти в тази област. член е на 9 международни и чуждестранни научни организации. Неговата научна плодовитост е впечатля- ваща. открил и описал е 4 рода, 31 вида и 1 подвид нови за науката изкопаеми птици от България и Гърция. Има отпечатани 317 публикации в научни издания и 309 – в научно-популярни. Автор е на 18 научно-популярни книги и учебници. З. Боев вложи и много усилия в уреждането на богатата експозиция от птици в НПМ. Нека му пожелаем и занапред здраве и същата енергичност и вдъхновена работа в любимата му професия, на която е посветил живота си! От колегите му Historia naturalis bulgarica, 22: 5-30, 2015 The Arachnogeography and the “lines” (of Wallace, Lydekker, Weber) Petar Beron Abstract: The paper is an attempt to use the orders of Arachnida for checking the importance of the lines of Wallace, Lydekker and Weber for the distribution of these animals. From the orders of Arachnida some (Ricinulei and Solifugae almost) are missing from the analyzed area (Indomalayan and Australian regions). The distribution of the other orders rela- tively to the “lines” has been analysed. None of the orders of Acari (Opilioacarida, Prostigmata, Acaridida, Oribatida, Mesostigmata, Ixodida and Holothyrida) is limited by the “lines”. There is no order of Arachnida living only on one side of the “lines”. Only the spider suborder Mesothelae seems to be limited to the Western side. It is to notice the Vachon’s opinion (1953) (“linesOn peut cependant affirmer que la ligne Wallace pour certaines formes de Scorpions – est une frontière réellement existante”) – it could be confirmed what concerns the scorpions. There are families and genera known only on one side, but it is a relatively low level of endemism. Nothing similar to the endemic orders and even subclasses in the vertebrates which are the base of the construction of the lines exists what concerns the Arachnida. Key words: lines, Arachnozoogeography, Wallacea, Indomalayan Region, Australian Region Evaluation of Wallace’s Line and the other lines in géologiques... On peut cependant affirmer que la South East Asia according to the Arachnida ligne Wallace – pour certaines formes de Ref.: Audley-Charles (1981), Audley- Scorpions – est une frontière réellement existante”. Charles, Hurley & Smith (1982), Audley- Max Vachon (1953) Charles, Carter & Milson (1972), Clouse & Wallace’s Line Giribet (2007), Darlington (1957), George In result of his studies of the nature of Australasia, (1981), Gressitt (1956, 1959, 1967, 1982), Wallace (1860) concluded that “We may consider it Hachisuka (1936), Hall (1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, established that the Strait of Lombok [between Bali 2009), Hall & Holloway (eds)(1998), Hooijer and Lombok] (only 15 miles wide) marks the limit (1975), Karig (1974), Katili (1971, 1975, 1978), and abruptly separates two of the great zoological re- Kayashima (1955), Krizhanovskij (1980, 2002), gions of the globe”. This famous line, called by Huxley Lopatin (1980, 1989), Lydekker (1896, 1911), (1868) “Wallace’s line”, runs through Makassar Strait Mayr (1939, 1944, 1945), Mertens (1950), Simpson between Borneo and Sulawesi and than … The line (1977), Stoddart (1992), Szymkowiak, Górski & was based mostly on mammals, but Mayr (1944) Bajerlein (2007), Tikader & Bastawade (1983), made the remark that “An equally pronounced fau- Udvardy (1975), Voris (2000), Wallace (1860, nal difference exists among birds, insects, and other 1869, 1876), Whitmore, ed. (1981, 1987). groups of animals in the two regions”. When crossing the famous line in 1994 and “La frontière, en biogéographie, n’est pas, en 1995, I asked myself: “Is this statement true also général, une ligne, mais une zone complexe dont for such zoogeographically interesting animals as l’emplacement et la topographie ont subi de Arachnida?”. Meanwhile, a lot of new information multiples variations au cours des temps was accumulated on the taxonomy of such groups 6 Petar Beron as Schizomida, Opiliones, Scorpiones and others separated by deep straights and this was important to and time has come to check how this zoogeographi- explain the high endemism. cal “rift” (the term belongs to Prof. Vachon) reflects According to Conservation International, the past and present distribution of the various Wallacea has more than 10 000 species of plants, Arachnida. Some orders (the Ricinulei, almost the including ca. 1500 (15%) endemic. Among the ter- Solifugae) are not known in this area. restrial vertebrates the endemism is even higher: Lydekker’s Line from 1142 species almost half (529) are endemics. The line proposed in 1895 by the British natural- In Wallacea live 223 species of native mammals, 126 ist Richard Lydekker (1849-1915) separates Wallacea of them endemics. Only bats count 124 species – al- from the shelf of Australia – New Guinea. most one tenth of the world’s bats. The birds of Wallacea are extremely diverse Weber’s Line (650 species, including 265 еndemic). More than Max Weber (1852-1937) proposed a line pass- half of them live on Sulawesi alone (356 species, 96 ing between Sulawesi and Halmahera and marks endemic). the balance of the Indomalayan and Australian ele- In Wallace’s time the area has been covered by ments in the fauna. It is a line based on mammals lush tropical forests. Only small fraction of them re- and should be tested what concerns the invertebrates mains – 45% of the surface is covered by some sort (Arachnida and others). of forest, but only on 52,017 km², or 15%, the for- Wallacea est is in its pristine state. From the total surface of Observing for a long time the strange transi- Wallacea (347,000 km²) ca. 20,000 km² are protected tion in the animal world of the islands of Malay (at least legally). The remaining forest is most often Archipelago, Wallace presumed, “such facts could be under concessions of powerful western or Japanese explained only by major changes in the Earth’s sur- companies, which destroy not only the irreplaceable face”. Now we know that in the Pleistocene the major rainforest, but also hundreds of its described, semi- continental islands Borneo, Java, Sumatra and Bali described and undescribed inhabitants. have been connected with the Asian mainland. The Simpson (1977) critically reviewed the rainforest existed by this time and the sea level was seven biogeographical lines assigned in the Malay lower by 180 m. That is why on these islands we find Archipelago to mark the boundary of Indomalayan the same animals like in Malaya (sometimes other and Australian zoogeographic regions. In his subspecies) – elephants, rhinos, tapirs, tigers, leop- conclusion, he suggested to (1) keep Huxley’s line ards, primates. Some of them meanwhile have disap- and Lydekker’s line as they were clear-cut boundaries peared on the continent, but still live on the islands of Oriental, or Indomalayan (Sunda shelf) region (the orangutans). and Australian (Sahul shelf) region respectively, and Crossing the narrow (only 25 km) Lombok (2) not assign the intervening islands to any region Chanel between Bali and Lombok all these animals or transitional zone. disappear. Cockatoo parrots appear, as well as some For the invertebrates the importance of the marsupials, different reptiles. “lines” seems less explored. One of the recent stud- During his research between 1854 and 1862 ies (Boudouresque, 2011) shows that “patterns of Wallace found that the birds on Bali and Java are species diversity and diversity measured at higher almost the same (97%), as soon as we cross the 25 taxonomic levels are not concordant”. km straight the picture changes abruptly – Bali and Development of Wallacea and the surrounding lands of Lombok have only 50% of their bird species in com- Southeast Asia and the Malayan archipelago mon, one may think that the others were not capable Principal geological events important to Wallace’s line (partly after Audley-Charles, 1981) to fly over this distance. Starts Wallacea, most inter- esting territory of a mix of fauna. years Million Period The ancestors of the present day animals and 10 Pleistocene plants of Wallacea as a whole originate either from 20 Pliocene Asia or from Australia – New Guinea, but on the 30 Miocene bigger islands occurred an active autochthonous spe- 40 Oligocene ciation and there are many endemics. Some of the 50 Eocene emblematic Indonesian endemics are actually inhab- 60 Palaeocene iting Wallacea (anoa, babirusa, “Komodo dragon”). 70 Most islands have not been interconnected, they are Q – Quaternary The Arachnogeography and the “lines” (of Wallace, Lydekker, Weber) 7 1. Australia/New Guinea splits from Antarctica 20 Ma (Early Miocene) Continent including (c. 53 Ma). most of Borneo. Only small parts of Sumatra, Java 2. Formation of Philippines by collision of Asian and Sulawesi were dry land as islands.