Biodiversity of subterranean amphipod crustaceans: global patterns and zoogeographic implications

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Abstract
Gammaridean amphipod crustaceans are important components of subterranean groundwater communities in many parts of the world. Most subterranean species are stygobionts, which are defined by loss or reduction of eyes and pigment and restriction to hypogean waters. The global subterranean amphipod fauna is composed of about 740 species that are distributed among 36 families and 138 genera; however, 12 families contain about 94% of all hypogean amphipods recorded to date. With respect to number of stygobionts, the four most important families are the Niphargidae, Crangonyctidae, Hadziidae s. lat. (complex), and Bogidiellidae. Many regions of the world contain significant diversities of subterranean amphipods, but the central and southern European-Mediterranean and eastern and southern North American-West Indian regions are clearly superior in taxonomic diversity and species richness. Together these two regions contain about 77% of the world's subterranean amphipod fauna, and their high diversities are attributed in part to geographical heterogeneity and a unique combination of geological and ecological phenomena that include extensive karst terrains, absence of glaciation, and exposure to marine transgressions in the south. Other regions with significant diversities of subterranean amphipods include southern Africa, Australia-New Zealand, eastern Asia, central South America, central Asia, northeastern Africa, and islands of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. The subterranean fauna of southeastern Asia remains very poorly known to date.

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