Aituaria pontica (Spassky, 1932)

Fig. 2 A

Aituaria pontica (Spassky, 1932): Nadolny and Turbanov 2014: 569; Kovblyuk and Kastrygina 2015: 42; Turbanov et al. 2016 b: 1284; Esyunin 2017: 243; Turbanov and Nadolny 2017: 114–115.

Material examined.

• 2 ♂♂, 1 ♀, 5 juv. (TNU), Crimea, nr Sevastopol, Khomutovaya Gorge, Maksimova Datsha, abandoned aqueduct carved into an unnamed cave-spring, 11. III. 2014, I. S. Turbanov leg.

Distribution.

It is found in natural habitats in Krasnodar Territory, Russia. Also, reported from Ukraine and Russia (the Urals) as a synanthropic species (Nadolny and Turbanov 2014; Esyunin 2017).

Records from the Crimean caves.

Map (Fig. 17 B – grey circle). Abandoned aqueduct carved into an unnamed cave-spring of Maksimova Datsha nr Sevastopol (Nadolny and Turbanov 2014).

Ecology.

A troglophile and synanthropic species (Esyunin 2017). In Crimea, the species has been found only in an abandoned aqueduct in Sevastopol, which was made by enlarging a cave spring (Nadolny and Turbanov 2014). Maksimova Datsha was the site with intensive agricultural and other economic activities carried out in the second half of the 19 th and early 20 th centuries, where ornamental / cultivated plants were introduced mainly from the west Caucasus (Chikin 2005). In our opinion, this was a pathway for spreading alien species to Crimea, including A. pontica . Therefore, in Crimea this species is an accidentally introduced facultative synanthrope, locally established in suitable subterranean biotope as a subtroglophile.