Tage der Biodiversität 2027

The Bathynellacea are an ancient and highly specialized group of crustaceans that inhabit exclusively subterranean aquatic environments. As strictly stygobiont organisms, they are characterized by a complete lack of pigmentation and eyes. These adaptations reflect their life in the permanent darkness of groundwater habitats. In fact, their small body size and cryptic nature make identifying and documenting their true species diversity particularly challenging. Integrative taxonomy is a valuable approach to address these challenges, combining traditional morphological methods with molecular techniques, such as DNA barcoding. The Austrian Bathynellacea fauna exemplifies the importance of this integrative approach because molecular data can reveal previously overlooked species and clarify boundaries that may be difficult to discern based on morphology only. Our results reveal the presence of the genus Parabathynella in Austria for the first time. Within the genus Bathynella we identified another species in Austria. These results highlight the importance of further research in this group, as it is likely that there is a higher diversity of Bathynellacea than was previously assumed.