The "Buco dei Diavoli", also known as "Cunicolo dei Diavoli", together
with the two other salentine anchialine caves "La Zinzulusa" and
"L'Abisso" (Castromarina, Otranto, Lecce), is one of the most remarkable display
of the South Italy karst.
The cave is located at Porto Badisco (Otranto, Lecce); its small entrance is situated at
sea level, about 3 m from the sea coast.
Cave Mouth (photo by P.Negro)
Pool inside the Cave (photo by P.Negro)
The environmental conditions of the cave water are about the same of the two nominate
caves, the biodiversity being not much high as compared to these caves. In fact, with the
above cavities, the aquatic fauna of the "Grotta dei Diavoli" shares only the
presence of the two mysids Spelaomysis bottazzii and Stygiomysis hydruntina,
the remarkable decapod Typhlocaris salentina, the amphipodSalentinella
gracillima, the ostracodPseudolimnocythere hypogaea and the copepods Metacyclops
stammeri, Metacyclops subdolus and Esola spelaea. Other copepods living in the
cave are the stygophilic Halicyclops rotundipes and Nitokra reducta which
colonized the cave in more recent age directly from the sea.
The few terrestrial elements are represented by the isopods Porcellio
laevis, Labyrinthasius graevei, Chaetophiloscia cellaria,
the spiders Pholcus
phalangioides, Tegenaria cfr. nemerosa, Tegenaria pagana, Steatoda grossa,
the orthopter Troglophilus
andreinii and the miriapods Lithobius piceus peregrinus and Scutigera
coleopterata.
MAP OF THE CAVE
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