Subterranean Fishes of the World

5302

2006

Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Espeleología

39-57

40

Venezuela´s cave fauna: a review. We present a review of the identified Venezuelan cave fauna, together with a brief description of the ecological characteristics of the karsts and the collection localities. It is presented a general picture of the taxonomic groups of cave fauna (especially troglobites or cave-dwelling organisms). We present some comments about structure, biogeography and evolution of species and communities. Most of the studied species proceed from biospeleological surveys and collections accomplished by members of the Venezuelan Speleological Society during 55 years of explorations in Venezuelan caverns. The cave fauna comprises more than 500 species, most of them troglophiles, but it also includes 46 troglobites and interstitials species with interesting colonies of trogloxen vertebrates, like oilbirds, bats and rodents. The Venezuelan caverns include biocoenosis with the biggest biomass and diversity in the caves around the world, with more than 100 taxa in some individual caves. Species diversity can also be explained by the existence of caves developed in different lithologies and distributed in various geographic regions (limestone caves -in the North of the country-, quartzite caves -in Guayana tablemountains-, anchihaline caves -in Falcon coast-, etcetera), with several climates and environments, however most of Venezuelan karsts are located in the mountainous rain forests. The subterranean Venezuelan environments are ideal scenarios for the study of adaptation, specialization and evolution of cave-dwelling organisms in the tropics and a way to test hypotheses and models proposed in evolutionary ecology. In turn, tropical caves permit the discovery of new species and high levels of endemicity, which increase its contribution to the global biodiversity. It is little what we know about cave fauna in the country. Nevertheless, we already know that there are high levels of endemicity in this environment. This suggests the importance of preserving our karst systems and the caves they contained. Key words: Biospeleology, cave fauna, subterranean ecology, biogeography, evolution, troglobites.

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