THE ZINZULUSA CAVE
Castro Marina - Lecce, Italy

The "Zinzulusa", one of the most famous karstic cave of South Italy, shows itself with a large opening in front of the Ionian sea, 2 km north of Castromarina (Lecce, Italy). The cave, which originated by karst erosive processes pending the Pleistocene (Tirrenian), is composed of three distinct parts. The first, which extends from the entrance to the room named "La Cripta", is excavated in compact Eocenic limestone, and it is characterized by numerous and beautiful stalactites and stalagmites, vault ruins and a large brackish pool ("La Conca"); the second part, from "La Cripta" to the large room "Il Duomo", shows a typical erosive morphology going back to the Cretaceous age; in this part there are fewer stalactites and stalagmites and no vault ruins. In the terminal part, about 25 m from the "Il Duomo", excavated as well in cretaceous rocks, the most remarkable hydrological phenomenon of the cave, "Il Cocito", can be observed. In this pond a freshwater, colder lens, about 1 m thick, overlies a layer about 1.5 m deep of brackish water, confirming the anchialine nature of this hydrological system.

The cave was discovered in the year 1793 by Del Duca, and successively it was mentioned or described by Monticelli (1807), Brocchi (1821), De Giorgi (1874) and Botti (1870-1874). Later on, from 1922 to 1958, numerous visitors, viz. Bottazzi, De Lorentiis, Stasi, Lazzari, Stammer, Larini, Müller, Dresco, Anelli, Cardini, Blanc, Pasa, Parenzan and Ruffo described the cave, some of them collecting and analysing the remarkable terrestrial and water animals living inside. Some of these authors supplied the first reliable data on the stygofauna of the cave; particularly, Ruffo furnished comprehensive information on the extraordinary aquatic stygofauna inhabiting the two inside ponds ("La Conca" and "Il Cocito"), pointing out some of the most ancient and important stygobitic species of the South Italy (Apulia) karst.

In more recent years, from 1972 to 1981, researchers of the "Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali" of the University of L'Aquila carried out a project to investigate the Zinzulusa cave, as well as the other cave and phreatic (wells) habitats of the Salentine Peninsula, pointing out further systematic and biogeographical data concerning the subterranean aquatic crustaceans living in the ground waters of the Salentine Peninsula.

At present, a program of intensive research on the same karstic area and particularly on the "Zinzulusa" cave ("Zinzulusa: Speleosub '96") has been promoted by the Castro Commune and the Alderman Nini Ciccarese. To the research collaborate the "Gruppo Speleologico Salentino - P. de Lorentiis", the "Gruppo Speleologico Neretino", the "Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali" of the University of L'Aquila, and the following diving operators of the "Gruppo Speleologico Neretino" and the "Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino Speleologico - C.N.S.A.S.": Antonio Danieli, Raffaele Onorato, Giovanni Contessa, Riccardo Leonardi, Marco Poto and Giancarlo Calsolaro.

In the course of the above research, still in progress, a new way to N-W in the Zinzulusa cave has been discovered: the new cavity extends for more than 110 m from the known "Cocito", it is totally submerged, as well as shows a wide variety of sediments, stalactites, stalagmites and a remarkable stygofauna. In this part of the cave too, a freshwater lens (about 1.5 m) overlies a brackish water layer about 11.5 m deep. The present discovery brings to about 260 m the total length of the cave (before only 150 m were known), and definitively disavows the main, past hypotheses regarding the length and the hydrology of the cave (Parenzan, 1957; Lazzari, 1958; Forti, 1975) which suggested that the "Cocito" pool was completely closed, representing the terminal part of the cave.

From a biological point of view the first pond inside the cave ("La Conca") is characterized by more brackish waters and harbours directly sea-originated species, for the most part copepod crustaceans such as Neocyclops remanei mediterraneus, Schizopera clandestina, Nitocra affinis, Esola spelaea, as well as fresh water taxa, viz. Eucyclops serrulatus, Bryocamptus pygmaeus, Bryocamptus dentatus; in the second pool, "Il Cocito", characterized as oligohaline, lives a typical stygobitic fauna including the copepods Nitocrella stammeri, Metacyclops subdolus, Metacyclops stammeri, Ameira scotti, Psyllocamptus monacus and Halicyclops rotundipes, the ostracods Pseudolymnocythere hypogaea and Mixtacandona stammeri, the amphipod Hadzia minuta, the thermosbaenacean Monodella stygicola, the gastropod mollusc Ovatella myosotis and the remarkable decapod Typhlocaris salentina.
The stygophilic copepods Metacyclops minutus and Nitocra spinipes, the water mite Soldanellonix monardi, and the mysid Spelaeomysis bottazzii, can be found in both the pools, apparently being less affected by temperature and salinity variations. In the deep "Cocito" (new submerged N-W way), still in course of exploration, to our great surprise, beside other known noteworthy stygobitic material (copepods, water mites, decapods), the amphipod Salentinella gracillima, the mysid Stygiomysis hydruntina, polichaete worms, previously unrecorded from this cave, and a new stygobitic sponge, Higginsia ciccaresei, have been collected.

For the most part the stygobitic taxa living in the cave, including the recently discovered sponge, could be considered palaeomediterranean elements belonging to a warm fauna which survived the postpliocenic climatic changes which occurred in the Mediterranean basin; the other taxa, including stygophilic species and subspecies, most probably colonized the groundwater systems of the cave, as well as the remaining groundwater net of the Salentine Peninsula, in a rather recent age. The present subaqueous research and the discoveries in the new way following the "Cocito", actually in course of exploration, seem to strengthen the above hypothesis, as well as they suggest that the extension and the complexity of this cave could be much greater than previously thought.

The terrestrial fauna is also well represented in the cave, with some troglobitic and numerous troglophilic, parasitic or guanophilic taxa belonging to different groups:

ISOPODS [Porcellio scaber, Halophiloscia hirsuta, Trichoniscus ruffoi (= T. fragilis?),
....Trachelipus camerani]
PSEUDOSCORPIONS (Chtonius stammeri)
GASTROPODS (Oxychilus cellarius austriacus)
OLIGOCHAETES (Bucholzia appendiculata)
COLLEMBOLS (Heteromurus nitidus, Neogastrura cavicola)
LEPIDOPTERA (Hypena obsitalis)
COLEOPTERA (Gnathonus pygidialis)
ORTHOPTERA (Troglophilus andreini var. hydruntinus)
DIPTERA (Culex pipiens, Nycteribosca kollari, Nycteribia sp., Dolicopodidae sp.)
MIRIAPODS (Lysiopethalum sicanum, Cryptos hortensis, Lithobius picens peregrinus, Trachidesmus simoni
......granulatus, Glomeris pulchra quarnerona craspeda, Geophilus guanophilus)
SPIDERS (Harpactes strandi, Meta marianae, Meta segmentata segmentata, Pholcus phalangioides,
.....Tegenaria zinzulusensis, Pseudanapsis apuliae)
MITES (Macrocheles penicilliger, Macrocheles minervae, Bdellonyssus arcuatus, Rhizoglyphus echinopus,
......Periglischurus interruptus, Bdellonyssus arenatus, Ornithonyssus arcuatus)
CHIROPTERANS (Myotis capaccini, Rhinolophus euryale, Miniopteris schreibersi)

The cave is home, as well, to fossil remains of birds, bovines, felines, deers, horses, rhinoceros, elephants, bears, hippopotamuses, and Neolithic and Eneolithic earthenware.

As a whole the fauna of the cave, including both terrestrial and aquatic animals, exhibits a remarkable, high biological diversity, with about 60 described species and subspecies which, as Parenzan (1983) and other authors hypothesized, could greatly increase in the next future! Moreover, the peculiar habitats inside the cave, separated from the surrounding coastal ambient by sharp environmental gradients, favored unique edaphic and hydrographic characteristics,as well as the development of an interesting endemic fauna.


GALLERY


[click on images to enlarge]


ESSENTIAL LITERATURE

ANELLI F. 1951. Le attuali conoscenze biospeleologiche nelle aree carsiche pugliesi. Boll. soc. It. Biol. Sper., 27 (3): 211-213.
BOTTAZZI.F. 1924. La grotta Zinzulusa in Terra d'Otranto e il ritrovamento in essa di Typhlocaris. Atti Soc.it. Progr. Sc., 12a Riun. 1923, Catania, II.
BOTTI U. 1871. Le caverne del Capo di Leuca. Tip. salentina, Lecce, 1871.
CAROLI E. 1923. Di una specie italiana di Typhlocaris (T. salentina n.sp.) con osservazioni morfologiche e biologiche sul genere. Boll. Soc. Nat. Napoli, 35: 265-267.
CAROLI E. 1924. Su di un misidaceo cavernicolo (Spelaeomysis bottazzii n.gen. n.sp.) di Terra d'Otranto. Rend. Acc. Naz. Lincei, 33, ser.5:512-513.
CAROLI E. 1937. Stygiomysis hydruntina n. gen., n.sp., Misidaceo cavernicolo di terra d'Otranto, rappresentante di una nuova famiglia. Nota preliminare. Boll. Zool., 8: 219-227.
DE LORENTIIS P. 1924. Grotte del Salento: La Zinzulusa. "Le Vie d'Italia", n.7, Milano p.785.
LAZZARI A. 1966. La Grotta Zinzulusa presso Castro prov. di Lecce (Osservazioni geo-morfologiche con notizie storico-bibliografiche e due appendici).Ann. Ist. Sup. Sc. e Lett. S. Chiara, Napoli:1-63
PARENZAN P. 1958. Il mistero della Zinzulusa svelato. Storia e biologia dell'interessante grotta di Castro Marina in terra d'Otranto (Puglie). "Studia Spelaeologica", vol. 3, Napoli.
PARENZAN P. 1981. Puglia Marittima. Aspetti geologici e biologia marina.Congedo Ed., I-II, pp.688
PASA A: 1953. Appunti geologici per la paleogeografia delle Puglie. Mem. Biogeogr. Adriatica, 2: 175-286
PESCE G.L. 1983. Contributo alla conoscenza degli arpacticoidi delle acque sotterranee della regione pugliese (Crustacea:Copepoda). Thalassia Salentina, 12-13:62-82
PESCE G.L. 1997. La grotta Zinzulusa, scrigno di antiche meraviglie. Magazine Caripuglia, Bari: 60-63.
PESCE G.L., G. FUSACCHIA, D. MAGGI & P. TETE'. 1978. Ricerche faunistiche in acque freatiche del Salento (Contributo alla conoscenza della fauna delle acque sotterranee dell'Italia centro-meridionale:V). "Thalassia Salentina", Taranto, 8:51.
PESCE G.L. & D.P. GALASSI. 1987. Discovery of the first representative of the genus Neocyclops Gurney (Copepoda, Halicyclopinae) in groundwater of Italy. Crustaceana, 52 (2):209-212.
PESCE G.L., D. MAGGI & P. TETE. 1985. Stato attuale delle conoscenze sui Ciclopidi delle acque sotterranee della Puglia (Crustacea: Copepoda):. Carsia Apula, 1: 71-92.
RUFFO S: 1949. Monodella stygicola n.gen. n. sp. nuovo crostaceo Termosbenaceo delle acque sotterranee della Penisola Salentina. Arch. Zool. It., 34:31-48.
RUFFO S. 1949. Sur Monodella stygicola Ruffo des eaux souterraines de l'Italie méridionale, deuxieme espéce connue de l'ordre des Thermosbénacés. Hydrobiologia. II: 56-63.
RUFFO S. 1958. Le attuali conoscenze sulla fauna cavernicola della regione pugliese. Mem.Biogeogr. Adriatica, 3: 1-143.


TOURIST INFORMATION

The cave is situated 2 km north of Castro, along the Main Road Otranto-Leuca (register number: 107 Pu; geographical coordinates: 40° 00' 40"N - 5° 58' 44"E). Length of the tourist itinerary about 150 m; remaining part of the cave, including the little pool "Il Cocito", and the new discovered N-W submerged way following the "Cocito", is a protected biological area.
Only guided visiting tours from 9.30 a.m to 6,30 p.m. (July 15 - September 15) and from 10.30 a.m to 4.30 p.m. (September 16 -July 14). Itinerary.


I° Incontro di Studi su:

IL CARSISMO NELL' AREA MEDITERRANEA
(Geologia-Paleogeografia-Biologia)
L'Italia Meridionale con particolare riferimento alla Penisola Salentina

Castro Marina (Lecce) 1-2 Settembre 1997

Thanks are due to N. Ciccarese, M.M. Camassa and V. Fersini
for their assistance and collaboration.

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