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S.POLAK.
Importance of discovery of the first cave beetle Leptodirus hochenwartii Schmidt, 1832.
ENDINS, num. 28. 2005. Mallorca.
Abstract
Caves were not seriously considered as a habitat for the animals until 1831 when the
first cave (troglobite) beetle was discovered in the Postojna cave. The 7 mm long troglomorphic
beetle was firstly described by Ferdinand Schmidt under the name Leptodirus hochenwartii
in the article "Contribution to the fauna of Carniola" which appeared in the Carniolian
paper Illyrisches Blatt, on 21st January 1832. During his systematic search for additional specimens,
Schmidt discovered a whole range of other cave animals but with exception of beetles
he didn't scientifically described them. Schmidt was in correspondences with quite some
European scientists and later many visited the Postojna and surrounding caves in the search
for recently discovered reach subterranean fauna. In the years to follow, the new species of
cave beetles, spiders, pseudoscorpions, millipedes, centipedes, crustaceans and snails were
described by various naturalists, giving the Postojna cave the name a biospeleological Mecca
and the birth place or cradle of a new biological science, the biospeleology or speleobiology.
The reach subterranean fauna was later discovered in the other parts of Europe and other
Continents too, but the Postojna cave is absolute record-holder respecting the number of
known troglobite species even today. The Leptodirus hochenwartii synonymy, recent taxonomy
and the conservation issues are discussed in the paper.