Mesoniscus Explained

Mesoniscus is a genus of woodlice, placed in its own family, Mesoniscidae, and section, Microcheta. It contains two species – Mesoniscus alpicolus and Mesoniscus graniger – that live in Central and Eastern Europe, mostly in and around caves.

Distribution

Mesoniscus is restricted to Central Europe and the Balkan Peninsula; the ranges of its two species do not overlap.^[1]

M. alpicolus is found in Lombardy and the Northern Calcareous Alps.^[1] In Austria, its range extends from the German: [[Karwendel]] near Innsbruck to the eastern edge of the German: [[Vienna Woods|Wienerwald]], although it is also found in isolated pockets of Triassic and Silurian–Devonian limestone in Styria.^[2]

M. graniger has a wider distribution than its congener; it is found in much of the Carpathians, including the Bihor and Banat mountains, and in the Dinaric Alps and Julian Alps.^[1] It is also found in the Caves of Aggtelek Karst in Hungary.^[3]

Taxonomy

The first description of a woodlouse now in the genus Mesoniscus was in 1858, when Camill Heller described "Titanethes alpicolus" in 1858.^[4] This was followed in 1865 by the description by János Frivaldszky (Ján Frivaldský) of the subspecies "Titanethes alpicolus graniger".^[4]

Mesoniscus is the only genus in the family Mesoniscidae,^[5] and is considered so distinct from other woodlice that the family is placed in a separate section, named Microcheta.^{[5] [6]}

Ecology

Mesoniscus species lack the pleopodal lungs found in many other woodlice, and are restricted to damp environments.^[7]

Notes and References

1. Andrei Giurginca . 2001 . The spreading of the genus Mesoniscus in the Romanian Carpathians . Travaux de l'Institut Spéleologique "Émile Racovitza" . 39–40 . 11–22 .
2. Hans Strouhal . 1951 . Die österreichischen Landisopoden, ihre Herkunft und ihre Beziehung zu den Nachbarländern . de . The terrestrial isopods of Austria, their origins, and their relationship to neighbouring countries . Verhandlungen der Zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft Wien . 92 . 116–142 .
3. Ferenc Vilisics . Antal Nagy . Péter Sólymos . Roland Farkas . Zita Kemencei . Barna Páll-Gergely . Máté Kisfali . Elisabeth Hornung . 2008 . Data on the terrestrial Isopoda fauna of the Alsó-hegy, Aggtelek National Park, Hungary . . 13 . 4 . 19–22 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130605073437/http://zoology.fns.uniba.sk/ffs/pdf/FFS-13-04-Vilisics-et-al-2008.pdf . 2013-06-05 .
4. H.-E. Gruner & I. Tabacaru . 1962 . Revision der Familie Mesoniscidae Verhoeff, 1908 (Isopoda, Oniscoidea) . . 6 . 1 . 15–34 . 20102517 . 10.1163/156854063X00318.
5. World catalog of terrestrial isopods (Isopoda: Oniscidea) – revised and updated version . Helmut Schmalfuss . 2003 . Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie A . 654 . 341 pp.
6. Alice Michel-Salzat . Didier Bouchon . amp . 2000 . Phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial LSU rRNA in oniscids . . 323 . 9 . 827–837 . 11072627 . 10.1016/S0764-4469(00)01221-X.
7. Christian Schmidt . Johann Wolfgang Wägele . amp . 2001 . Morphology and evolution of respiratory structures in the pleopod exopodites of terrestrial Isopoda (Crustacea, Isopoda, Oniscidea) . . 82 . 4 . 315–330 . 10.1046/j.1463-6395.2001.00092.x.