Sulfuric acid speleogenesis in the North Caucasus: Sharo-Argun valley Caves (Chechen Republic, Russia)

An unexpected new cave-dwelling species of the genus Leucogeorgia Verhoeff, 1930 (Diplopoda: Julida: Julidae) from the Chechen Republic, Caucasus, Russia

“…Some of them are worthy of mention: Typhloligidium kovali Gongalsky et Taiti 2014 (Isopoda: Ligiidae), described from the Omega-15 Cave, Kabardino-Balkaria [Gongalsky, Taiti, 2014]; Proasellus uallagirus Palatov et Sokolova, 2021 and Proasellus irystonicus Palatov et Sokolova, 2021 (Isopoda: Asellidae), both described from ground waters of the Alagyr Gorge, North Ossetia-Alania [Palatov, Sokolova, 2021]; Niphargus alanicus Marin et Palatov, 2021 (Amphipoda: Niphargidae), described from abandoned mines in the valleys of Sardidon and Dargonkom rivers, North Ossetia-Alania [Marin, Palatov, 2021]; Nemaspela kovali Chemeris, 2009 (Opiliones: Nemastomatidae), described from the Fontanka, Omega-12, Omega-15 and Otte-Shik caves, al., 2020], and this is the first invertebrate species described from SAS caves in the Caucasus. The SAS cave cluster of the lower reaches of Sharo-Agrun River valley is characterized by a wide range of sulfur-gypsum aggregates [Dzhabrailov et al, 2019;Chervyatsova et al, 2020], as well as the development of microbial mats of acidophilic bacteria and fungi [Kuzmina et al, 2019[Kuzmina et al, , 2022. These caves are laid out on the northern macro slope of the Caucasus in the Upper Cretaceous thick-layered limestones of the Turonian and Danish stages (K 2 t-d) [Golubova, 2013].…”