Troglocaris (Troglocaris) anophthalmus subsp. intermedia, BABIC, 1922

Sket, Boris & Zakšek, Valerija, 2009, European cave shrimp species (Decapoda: Caridea: Atyidae), redefined after a phylogenetic study; redefinition of some taxa, a new genus and four new Troglocaris species, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 155 (4), pp. 786-818 : 798

TROGLOCARIS (TROGLOCARIS) ANOPHTHALMUS INTERMEDIA BABIĆ, 1922

Synonymy: Troglocaris schmidti var. intermedia Babic´, 1922; Troglocaris intermedia d’Udekem d’Acoz, 1999 ; see also Holthuis (1956); nec Troglocaris anophthalmus intermedia Gottstein Matočec, 2003 and Franjevic´, 2006 from Kukuruzovića špilja.

Type locality: Croatia, Ogulin , Tounj , Mikašinovići, Mikašinovića pećina cave (= Pećina Zala) .

Material examined: Croatia, type locality, sequenced ‘Mikasinovica_V-78’, and morphologically examined a number of specimens from the same locality .

Diagnosis: Cave shrimp population of Mikašinovića pećina, with short rostrum. Molecularly established sister lineage of T. ( T.) a. anophthalmus + ocellated lineage. Morphologically not reliably diagnosable. Eye rudiments without pigmentation.

Remark: The author described this form as a variety ‘ Troglocaris schmidti Dorm. , var. intermedia n. var. ’ and said that his specimens ‘are smaller and their rostrum is half as long’ (kleiner sind und ihr Rostrum halb so lang ist), as in the ‘ type species’.

Some populations of T. a. anophthalmus and T. planinensis from southern and south-eastern Slovenia, and from neighbouring Croatia, show morphological similarity with the Mikašinovića population, but there is a lack of molecular data. A shorter rostrum is a character distinguishing a number of populations of the subgenus, and is not related to T. a. intermedia .

Distribution: This taxon could be reliably recognized only from the type locality, none of the other sequenced samples appeared to be very closely related to it.