In order to monitor the presence in the Castellana Caves (Ba) of theItalodytes stammeri, designated by the Italian Speleological Society Cave animal of the year, last March 13th the Castellana karst site was the subject of an inspection that involved the branches not open to the public.
The first of a series of planned descents for the resumption of biospeleological investigations in the lateral branches of the Castellana Caves, which allowed for the control of the presence of the insect and the condition of the monitoring sites as well as for the renewal of the organic material baits, were carried out by Dr. Ferdinando Didonna, head of the SSI project on animals in caves, Dr. Giovanni Ragone, speleologist expert in monitoring and biology of the Puglia Grotte Group, and Dr. Salvatore Inguscio, bio-speleologist expert in the behavior and biology of the insect and biological monitoring in caves, accompanied by some speleologists from the Puglia Caves Group.
The important monitoring activity is part of the initiatives of theInternational Year of Caves and Karst promoted from the International Speleological Union, which aims to draw attention to the protection of caves, karst landscapes and their various phenomena, defining a series of action and communication campaigns, including the selection of “Cave animal from the year”, which saw each member country identify a species particularly representative of its territory.
For Italy, the Italian Speleological Society has designated the Cave Beetle Italodytes stammeri, an insect endemic to central-southern Puglia and eastern Basilicata, whose average size is between 4,5 and 4,7 mm, which was discovered by Prof. Hans Jürgen Stammer (1899–1968), zoologist and professor at the University of Breslau, in 1937. In that year Stammer conducted a research campaign in Italy which also involved Puglia. His investigations, which can be considered as the first real systematic biospeleological research campaign in this region, led to the discovery of 4 troglophilic species and 10 troglobitic species. Among the latter, precisely, theItalodytes stammeri.
The first descent will be followed by further monitoring phases.
