Discovery of a bogidiellid amphipod crustacean in inland waters of the East Indian archipelago: Bogidiella (Medigidiella) sarawacensis n. sp.

During the Royal Geographical Society’s Mulu expedition (1977-78) a number of caves in the Batu Niah and Gunung Mulu National Parks (Sarawak, Borneo) were surveyed. In two caves, Mr. Philip Chapman discovered blind, stygobiont amphipod crustaceans, which proved to be an undescribed species of the subgenus Medigidiella Stock, 1981 of the genus Bogidiella Hertzog, 1933, described below as В. (M.) sarawacensis n. sp. This is the first Bogidiellid that becomes known from the East Indian archipelago. The subgenus Medigidiella to which it belongs, is predominantly distributed around the Mediterranean basin, with one species (В. (M.) arganoi Ruffo & Vigna, 1973) in Mexico. The discovery of a new species in hypogean waters of Borneo supports my opinion (Stock, 1978, 1981) that certain members of the Bogidiellidae are very old inhabitants of inland waters, having reached a world-wide distribution before the break-up of Pangaea.