The NSS Bulletin - ISSN 1090-6924
Volume 45 Number 4: 86-97 - October 1983
A publication of the National Speleological Society

A Review of the Terrestrial Cavernicolous Fauna of Romania
Vasile G. Decu and Thomas M. Iliffe

Abstract

Romania is divided into 5 biospeleological provinces based upon the present distribution of the endemic troglobitic and edaphobitic fauna. Ancestors of this fauna migrated into Romania primarily from the northern Aegean region probably at various times during the Tertiary Age. Four paleogeographic barriers-the couloirs of the Danube, Timis-Cerna, Olt, and Mures Rivers-acted to constrain the migraiton routes and settlement areas, thus producing distinct patterns in the distribution of the cave fauna in the Carpathians. The present day terrestrial torglobitic fauna of Romania consits of 208 known species and subspecies, including 126 Coleoptera, 23 Araneae, 20 Diplopoda, 12 Collembola, 8 Pseudoscorpions, and 6 Isopoda. More than 97 percent of these torglobitic taxas are endemic, and more than 80 percent are paleotroglobitic.

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