Hypogeal fauna of the military subterranean fortification Forte di Vernante Opera 11 "Tetto Ruinas" (Piedmont, Italy)

The military subterranean fortification Forte di Vernante Opera 11 "Tetto Ruinas" is not mentioned in the extensive specific literature about the underground fortifications of the NW Alps. Only the project in the Military Engineers Corps archives is known, however, the schematic survey recently detected by our research association Biologia Sotterranea Piemonte – Gruppo di Ricerca highlights differences from the original map. On the contrary, biological research and scientific literature about the hypogeal fauna carried out in this artificial cavity are numerous. Two new species of spiders with remarkable adaptations to the underground environment were discovered by Angelo Morisi (1943-2016): the Linyphiidae Troglohyphantes konradi Brignoli, 1975 and the Nesticidae Typhlonesticus morisii (Brignoli, 1975). Subsequently, other spiders adapted to this particular environment were observed too, such as Kryptonesticus eremita (Simon, 1880) and Leptoneta crypticola Simon, 1907. Other spiders with less evident adaptations were observed in this artificial cavity such as Tegenaria silvestris L. Koch, 1872, Pimoa rupicola (Simon, 1884), Meta menardi (Latreille, 1804), Metellina merianae (Scopoli, 1763). Terrestrial Crustacean Isopods adapted to underground environment are present in this fort: Buddelundiella zimmeri Verhoeff, 1930 and Trichoniscus voltai Arcangeli, 1948. Among the Miriapods were observed the Chilopoda Eupolybothrus longicornis (Risso, 1826) and Lithobius microps Meinert, 1868, and the Diplopoda Plectogona vignai draco (Strasser, 1975), very specialized subspecies organism, and the larger and less adapted Callipus foetidissimus (Savi, 1819). The troglophile grasshopper Dolichopoda azami Saulcy, 1893 is very common in the cavity. Of considerable interest are the anophthalmous Trechini Carabidae Duvalius carantii (Sella, 1874), and the very rare insect Staphylinidae Blepharhymenus mirandus Fauvel, 1899. Sometimes at the entrances it is possible to observe the cave salamander Speleomantes strinatii (Aellen, 1958). The association Biologia Sotterranea Piemonte – Gruppo di Ricerca deals mainly the study of subterranean species and environments and their conservations. Our last twenty years research in this subterranean military cavity have allowed to observe and monitor the presence of all the aforementioned organisms and to document the presence of numerous other ones. Our studies in this and other Piedmontese artificial cavities highlights the presence of numerous species extremely adapted to the hypogeal environment, reiterating the importance of the subterranean fauna monitoring in the artificial cavities too, and of the presence of these organisms due to some biotic and abiotic environmental factors, regardless of the natural or artificial origin of the cavity.