Marko Lukić

Croatian Natural History Museum

While extensive research on traditional model species has significantly advanced the biological sciences, the ongoing search for new model organisms is essential to tackle contemporary challenges such as human diseases or climate change, and fundamental phenomena including adaptation or speciation. Recent methodological advances such as next-genera...

The southern part of the Mekong Delta Limestones of Vietnam (MDL-HC or Hon Chong karst) comprises numerous small limestone hills. It is a hotspot of biodiversity for soil and cave invertebrates. Here, we synthesize the results of biological surveys carried out in Hang Mo So, the richest MDL-HC cave for troglobionts, and in surrounding karsts. Metho...

Cave animals are an excellent model system for studying adaptive evolution. At present, however, little is known about the mechanisms that enable surface colonizers to survive in the challenging environment of caves. One possibility is that these species have the necessary genetic background to respond with plastic changes to the pressures of under...

The Dinaric Karst is a global hotspot for subterranean diversity, with two distinct peaks of species richness in the northwest and southeast, and an area of a lower species richness in the central part. In this article, we present a species list and describe the ecological conditions of the Lukina jama–Trojama cave system, located in the central pa...

Objective obstacles such as high water levels that prevent access to caves at certain times of the year or the need to use complex tools and skills such as cave diving make biological research in caves extremely complex and occasionally dangerous. Moreover, to study physiological and behavioral adaptations of cave animals, they must be kept under c...

Many aspects of cave animal biology cannot be understood through field observations alone. Access to some subterranean habitats is often technically challenging, rendering long-term monitoring of cave-dwelling species or investigating some aspects of their biology difficult. Also, contemporary research questions and methods require sampling individ...

Many aspects of the biology of cave animals cannot be understood simply by in situ observations. This is especially true for comparative evolutionary and developmental studies. For example, for studying physiological and behavioral adaptations or the role of phenotypic plasticity in the evolution of adaptations, animals must be kept under controlle...

As karst phenomena, caves represent the most secluded, but also the most fascinating natural values of the Island of Mljet. Many of them contain a diverse rare and endemic subterranean fauna; impressive cave formations (speleothems), and archaeological artifacts which bear witness to the first inhabitants of the Island of Mljet who frequented the u...

Five new species are described, Plusiocampa (Didymocampa) cvijici Sendra & Antić, sp. nov., Plusiocampa (Plusiocampa) atom Sendra & Antić, sp. nov., Plusiocampa (Stygiocampa) barethae Sendra & Rađa, sp. nov., Plusiocampa (Stygiocampa) dulcici Sendra & Rađa, sp. nov. and Plusiocampa (Venetocampa) pirnati Sendra & Borko, sp. nov. This brings the numb...

Phylogenetic assessments of functional traits are important for mechanistically understanding the interactions between organisms and environments, but such practices are strongly limited by the availability of phylogenetic frameworks. The tomocerin springtails are an ancient, widespread and ecologically important group of terrestrial arthropods, wh...

Projektom Biospeleološka istraživanja i inventarizacija faune u speleološkim objektima Nacionalnog parka Sjeverni Velebit u suradnji Javne ustanove "Nacionalni park Sjeverni Velebit" i Hrvatskog biospeleološkog društva, biospeleološki je istraženo 5 speleoloških objekata: Jama pod Budinom kosicom, Jama u kuku, Sniježnica u Medvjeđoj dolini, Špilja...

Diplura is a group of entognathous hexapods, often considered a sister group to insects. They play an important role in recycling organic matter in soil and subterranean terrestrial ecosystems. The Campodeidae is the most diverse family, divided into four subfamilies. The subfamily Plusiocampinae has a subterranean life-style with many species dist...

One of the most striking features of obligate subterranean species is their narrow distribution ranges. These prevail not only at specific, but often also at generic level. However, some subterranean genera have continental scale and disjunct distribution , which challenges their monophyly and questions the scenarios of their origin and colonizatio...

The paper presents information on the spider collection (Araneae) housed in the Natural History Museum in Zagreb, Croatia. The collection was founded in 1931 and now includes the material assembled in 1884-1964; it consists of 2,461 lots and numbers 8,478 specimens belonging to 464 species, mainly collected by the Croatian arachnologist Narcis Dami...

The study of a springtail population from Krka National Park (Croatia) has allowed us to describe the new species Lepi-docyrtus chorus sp. nov. and its dance-like behaviour. This study represents the first record of peculiar dancing behaviour related to search for food and feeding among Collembola. The new species is molecularly and morphologically...

Collembola are small, six-legged terrestrial arthropods that are highly diversified in subterranean habitats. They dominate in abundance and are one of the most successful colonizers of cave habitats with 583 troglobiotic and cave restricted guanobiotic species from 61 genera and 14 families. Some genera, like Pseudosinella, underwent one of the gr...

The book has been published in two editions, Croatian and English. It is divided into two parts and an appendix which contains the latest research conducted on Proteus. The first part includes knowledge about the phenomenon of the Dinaric Karst and speleological, biospeleological and cave diving research, with the aim of introducing the reader to t...

The Hon Chong‒Kâmpôt hills form a group of tiny karstic outcrops scattered in the alluvial plain across the southwestern border between Vietnam and Cambodia. This group hosts an exceptional concentration of endemic taxa that have been progressively discovered during the past two decades. Remarkable endemic genera of millipedes, mites, woodlice and...

Recent research of cave Collembola in Dinaric karst resulted in discovery of high regional diversification of the genus Verhoeffiella Absolon, 1900. The most striking feature of Verhoeffiella species is the high number of troglomorphic traits, which makes this genus a good model for studying morphological diversification and adaptation in subterran...

Lampenflora is an invasive community of photosynthetic organisms that is developing near electrical lamps in show caves in form of visible green layers. It is composed of cyanobacteria, algae, and mosses, and in extreme cases ferns and flowering plants. Goal of this research was to determine spreading speed of macroscopic appearance of lampenflora...

Two new species of the genus Neelus Folsom, 1896, N. cvitanovici sp. nov. and N. lackovici sp. nov., are described from caves of Croatia. N. lackovici sp. nov. exhibit marked troglomorphic features such as extremely elongated ungua and antennae, larger body among others. Descriptions are completed with comparative tables for chaetotaxy of antennae...

The species Heteromurus (Verhoeffiella) absoloni Kseneman, 1938 is redescribed in detail and characterized by its barcode, based on specimens from its type locality in Montenegro. A neotype is designated. Dorsal S-chaetotaxy is given for the first time in the subgenus Verhoeffiella. Chaeta morphology and distribution are thoroughly analyzed, in par...

Tritomurus velessp. n. (Tomoceridae) is described from a Croatian cave. It is characterized by troglomorphic features (absence of eyes, reduced pigmentation, slender claw, pointed tibiotarsal tenent hairs) that only compare, among Tomoceridae, to the microendemic species Tritomurus falcifer from the Pyrénées. Tritomurus veles also shares with Trito...