Microplaninae Pantin, 1953

Stocchino, Giacinta Angela, 2018, 80 years of research on planarians (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida) from Sardinia, Italy: an annotated checklist, Zootaxa 4532 (4), pp. 539-552 : 547

Subfamily Microplaninae Pantin, 1953

The first record of an autochthonous land planarian from Sardinia was reported by Stocchino et al. (2008) from the karstic Su Guanu Cave in the northwestern part of the island. Specimens were found during three sampling campaigns in a hydropetric habitat, just after the wet season. Presence of terrestrial planarians in a cave habitat may be considered as accidental, probably being the result of passive dispersion occasioned by water flowing through the limestone cracks from surface ground layers to the interior of the cave. Survival of land planarians in this peculiar habitat is ensured, at least for some time, by presence in the cave of suitable preys such as oligochaetes, insect larvae and gastropods. On the basis of some diagnostic morphological characters specimens were assigned to the subfamily Microplaninae . However, absence of fully sexually developed individuals prevented a detailed assessment of their taxonomic status ( Stocchino et al., 2008).