The Cochliopidae of Texas include both stygobitic species, those that occupy only underground habitats, and epigean species, those living only in aboveground habitats. The devil tryonia, Tryonia diaboli, was described from the Devils River of Texas from river wrack, without additional habitat information. This species has been largely ignored since its description, so details of its habitat and ecology are obscure. In Dolan Springs and Finegan Springs, flowing into the Devils River, we sampled macroinvertebrates at five sites that form a gradient from the aquifer to the mainstem Devils River. We found the highest abundances of T. diaboli in aquifer samples, decreasing sharply downstream from the spring orifice. Our findings indicate that T. diaboli is stygophilic, occupying a transitional area including the aquifer as well as aboveground portions of springs.
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8 April 2020
Mesohabitat Associations of the Devil Tryonia, Tryonia diaboli (Gastropoda: Truncatelloidea: Cochliopidae)
Peter H. Diaz,
Dominique Alvear,
Kathryn E. Perez
aquifer
conservation
Devils River
spring snail
stygophilic