Do terrestrial isopods from Vâlsan River protected area reflect the region’s peculiarities? Zoogeographic and conservative implications of a possible answer

Abstract

Vâlsan River valley has proved to be a refuge for different animal groups. As a consequence of its importance, we investigated the terrestrial isopods from the area, using the direct collecting method, in the years 2010-2015 and encountered 21 species. Three of them, Hyloniscus motasi, Trachelipus ater and Cylisticus transsilvanicus, are endemic in Romania, underlining the region's zoogeographical peculiarities. We divided the region into three sections (upper, middle and lower), which differ as a result of their different human disturbance. The upper section, which is less affected and without villages, conserves the native isopod fauna better. It has the highest diversity and species richness, the endemic ones being present here. In the middle and lower sections, with settlements, the native terrestrial isopod species' habitats are more limited, the anthropic changes facilitating the advance of some anthropophilous species, even introduced ones. The presence of endemic species for Romania increases the conservative value of the region. The endemic species occupy restricted, natural, humid and forested habitats, underlining their conservative importance.

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“…While studying terrestrial isopods in the CNP with direct method, which implies their identification under different shelters (e.g. Vilisics & Hornung, 2009;Ferenţi & Covaciu-Marcov, 2016, 2017, we encountered scorpions too. In other cases, scorpions were also recorded with the same method (e.g.…”