Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 7() 1962
Nicienie (Nematoda) torfowców Doliny Kościeliskiej (Tatry Zachodnie)
[The Nematodes of the peat mosses in the Kościeliska Valley (the Western Tatra)]
Abstract:
In this paper the author offers a faunistic list of the Nematodes of the peat mosses in the Kościeliska Valley in the Western Tatra. The most frequent species in the area examined are: Tripyla tatrica Stefański 1923, Plectus rhizophilus de Man 1880, Eudorylaimus circulifer Loof 1961, E. carteri (Bastian 1865) and Prismatolaimus dolichurus (Bütschli 1873). The author suggests that the species Tripyla tatrica Stefański 1923, known only from the Tatra as yet, is an endemic species, characteristic of the peat moss. Further, he states that the quantity of the Nematode species depends upon the size of the peat moss tuft: the bigger the tuft the smaller the number of species. This principle is valid for the tufts of areas up to 1 sq. m. On comparing the Nematode fauna from the peat mosses in the Kościeliska Valley with that from other mosses watered by Tatra torrents, the author finds great differences and attempts to establish the reasons for this condition. The chief, though not only, reasons are most probably the kind of the substratum and the hydrogen ion concentration (pH). Table I gives the list of the Nematodes occurring in such environments as Sphagnales and Bryales. The letters in the table denote: a — very frequent species, b — frequent species, с — rare (casual) species. The systematic part of the paper presents the data concerning the distribution and occurrence of all the species found and the supplement to the morphological description of Tripyla tatrica Stefański 1923.
