Ecology

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The species is known only from the type locality, a small well on the outskirts of the city of Apsheronsk, Krasnodar region, Russia, and the small springs situated south-west of the type locality. The habitat is typical for subterranean representatives of the genus Niphargus, which inhabit various springs and wells, i.e. seeping groundwater. The type specimen was found in a well with technical water, which was constantly closed with metal sheets. Its depth is about 0.5 m, with a silty bottom covered with leaf litter. The other population lives in helocrene springs in primary alder forest in the floodplain of the Neftyanaya River. Perhaps these springs are temporary, disappearing in the summer, with a depth about 0.01–0.1 m, without any current, with the bottom covered with lumps of earth and leaf litter. Well-developed yellow spots on the head and a yellowish or light orange body colouration in large individuals of the new species show that the species is probably epigean, but no other Niphargus specimens were found in adjacent open water resources. This is the only locality on the northern side of the Greater Caucasus where Niphargus was found.

Marin, I.; Palatov, D. (2019). A new species of the genus Niphargus (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Niphargidae) from the south-western part of the North Caucasus. <em>Zoology in the Middle East.</em> 1-11. Available for editors   [request]