This event is preceded by the first meeting organized in 2009, in the Natural History Museum of Valencia (Spain) and the second, organized in 2011 in the University of Aveiro (Portugal). All under the auspice of the International Society for Subterranean Biology.
"Background of the event in the MCNB
Arthropod collections of the MCNB have more than 1.500.000 specimens, with almost 4.000 type specimens, from which a considerable proportion are cave-dwelling fauna. In this sense, the collection of cave-dwelling fauna play an essential role in the collections, because of its historical and scientific value, representing more than one century of research in caves. Although other research lines and by extension collections have suffered fluctuations, the research line of cave-dwelling fauna has remained quite stable on time. This collection was initially started by Zariquiey family (1930s), Dr. Francesc Español curator and head of the Museum, kept on working on that research line, which was followed by Oleguer Escolà (Curator of Arthropod Collections until 2009) and the current technician team. For all of these reasons, the MCNB has decided to take it a further step and organizing the next 3rdSubterranean Biology Iberian meeting “III Encuentro Ibérico de Biología Subterránea”, which will take place in Barcelona (Blue Museum, MCNB). This meeting is specially addressed to Subterranean Biology in the Mediterranean context and hopefully will offer a space of collaboration in order to share experiences and learn a lot about other colleagues projects." * Information provided by the organizers.
Official website of the congress: http://3eibs.museuciencies.cat, Blog of the Museum