72
The Suez Canal
The first faunallist-a list of molluscs by Fuchs (1878)-is based on collections made in 1876. It was only in the winter of 1881-1882 that the first more
intensive general collecting was done by Keller. At this date Lake Timsah was
listed with already 23 species of animals, and there is no doubt that this list of
Keller is incomplete.
The colonization of the newly dug canal was very rapid. Therefore we can
barely hope to reconstruct the process: by 1880 the colonization had already
advanced a long way from its beginning.
It can be assumed that the water bodies in the Isthmus of Suez were never
devoid oflife: some ofthese species, called "Isthmus fauna" or "third fauna" (por,
1971 a, b) were immediately incorporated into the fauna of the new canal. Brachidontes variabilis (=Mytilus variabilis, =M. pharaonis), a typical Red Sea species,
was already reported by Fuchs in 1876 at Port Said. In the same year M actra
olorina has been found far to the north beyond EI Qantara (Kantara). These
shells, together with Cerastoderma glaucum (= Cardium edule), the cerith Pirenella conica, Balanus amphitrite, possibly some of the sphaeromid isopods and a
whole list of benthic copepods (see Por, 1971 b) and also Aphanius dispar might
have been part of an autochthonous euryhaline isthmus fauna existing before the
new waterway.
The euryhaline-estuarine type offish were quick to follow. Sciaena aquila was
accompanied by the closely related Umbrina cirrosa (Keller, 1882). From the list
offishes given by this author several other estuarine species can be listed: Mugil
cephalus (=Mugil oeur), Dicentrarchus lupus (=Labrax lupus) and Crenidens
crenidens (= C.forskalii). Keller was not an ichthyologist and his collecting was
not at all intensive. However, his list gives some further information. First, the
above-listed macroscopic species of the Isthmus fauna were a~l found by Keller.
To the list must also be added an unidentified nereid polychaete which Keller
found "everywhere under stones". Among the molluscs a few other species were in
full advance at Keller's time: Solen vagina, Pholas candida, Pinctada radiata
( = M eleagrina margaritifera), Anatina subrostrata and Cerithium scabridum.
It is interesting to note that the third wave of settlers was still confined in
Keller's time to the southern sector of the Canal, barely reaching the Little Bitter
Lake. Examples are Circe pectinata, Murex tribulus (=M. crassispina), Fusinus
marmoratus, Diodora rüppelli (=Fissurella), and Clanculus pharaonis (= Trochus). Algal vegetation was scarce in 1882. Ascherson, who visited the Canal
sometime around 1875 reports only a "Cladophora"-like alga. Keller mentions
however the massive advance of Sargassum into the southern sector of the Canal.
Keller foresaw that the litt oral fauna would start its main advance only after the
successful deve10pment of an algal vegetation in the Canal. Nevertheless in Keller's time the relatively few species were present in huge amounts: in Lake Timsah
the stone slabs were "black with countless Mytilus" and harbored "thousands of
Sphaeroma". Balanus settled the whole length of the Canal in "unbe1ievable"
numbers. Pholas is found north of EI Guisr by the thousands, and punctures the
banks "like a sieve". In the litt oral zone ofLake Timsah "billions of molluscs" live
and form whole shell banks.
Krukenberg (1888a) who was in the Canal area in 1886 does not add much to
our knowledge. He mentions the presence of the medusa Cassiopea andromeda in
The Suez Canal
The first faunallist-a list of molluscs by Fuchs (1878)-is based on collections made in 1876. It was only in the winter of 1881-1882 that the first more
intensive general collecting was done by Keller. At this date Lake Timsah was
listed with already 23 species of animals, and there is no doubt that this list of
Keller is incomplete.
The colonization of the newly dug canal was very rapid. Therefore we can
barely hope to reconstruct the process: by 1880 the colonization had already
advanced a long way from its beginning.
It can be assumed that the water bodies in the Isthmus of Suez were never
devoid oflife: some ofthese species, called "Isthmus fauna" or "third fauna" (por,
1971 a, b) were immediately incorporated into the fauna of the new canal. Brachidontes variabilis (=Mytilus variabilis, =M. pharaonis), a typical Red Sea species,
was already reported by Fuchs in 1876 at Port Said. In the same year M actra
olorina has been found far to the north beyond EI Qantara (Kantara). These
shells, together with Cerastoderma glaucum (= Cardium edule), the cerith Pirenella conica, Balanus amphitrite, possibly some of the sphaeromid isopods and a
whole list of benthic copepods (see Por, 1971 b) and also Aphanius dispar might
have been part of an autochthonous euryhaline isthmus fauna existing before the
new waterway.
The euryhaline-estuarine type offish were quick to follow. Sciaena aquila was
accompanied by the closely related Umbrina cirrosa (Keller, 1882). From the list
offishes given by this author several other estuarine species can be listed: Mugil
cephalus (=Mugil oeur), Dicentrarchus lupus (=Labrax lupus) and Crenidens
crenidens (= C.forskalii). Keller was not an ichthyologist and his collecting was
not at all intensive. However, his list gives some further information. First, the
above-listed macroscopic species of the Isthmus fauna were a~l found by Keller.
To the list must also be added an unidentified nereid polychaete which Keller
found "everywhere under stones". Among the molluscs a few other species were in
full advance at Keller's time: Solen vagina, Pholas candida, Pinctada radiata
( = M eleagrina margaritifera), Anatina subrostrata and Cerithium scabridum.
It is interesting to note that the third wave of settlers was still confined in
Keller's time to the southern sector of the Canal, barely reaching the Little Bitter
Lake. Examples are Circe pectinata, Murex tribulus (=M. crassispina), Fusinus
marmoratus, Diodora rüppelli (=Fissurella), and Clanculus pharaonis (= Trochus). Algal vegetation was scarce in 1882. Ascherson, who visited the Canal
sometime around 1875 reports only a "Cladophora"-like alga. Keller mentions
however the massive advance of Sargassum into the southern sector of the Canal.
Keller foresaw that the litt oral fauna would start its main advance only after the
successful deve10pment of an algal vegetation in the Canal. Nevertheless in Keller's time the relatively few species were present in huge amounts: in Lake Timsah
the stone slabs were "black with countless Mytilus" and harbored "thousands of
Sphaeroma". Balanus settled the whole length of the Canal in "unbe1ievable"
numbers. Pholas is found north of EI Guisr by the thousands, and punctures the
banks "like a sieve". In the litt oral zone ofLake Timsah "billions of molluscs" live
and form whole shell banks.
Krukenberg (1888a) who was in the Canal area in 1886 does not add much to
our knowledge. He mentions the presence of the medusa Cassiopea andromeda in