Spelaeogriphacea

(invertebrate zoology) A peracaridan order of the Malacostraca comprised of the single species Spelaeogriphus lepidops, a small, blind, transparent, shrimplike crustacean with a short carapace that coalesces dorsally with the first thoracic somite.

(Spelaeogriphaceans)

Phylum: Arthropoda

Subphylum: Crustacea

Class: Malacostraca

Order: Spelaeogriphacea

Number of families: 1

Thumbnail description
Small, cave-dwelling, freshwater crustaceans having a short carapace, eye lobes without eyes, and appendages on all abdominal somites

Evolution and systematics

Spelaeogriphaceans are known from one fossil species, found in New Brunswick, Canada, and three recent species. The first living species was found in a stream at the bottom of Bat Cave in Table Mountain outside Cape Town, South Africa. The two additional species are known from caves in Brazil and Western Australia. Spelaeogriphaceans are members of the short, branchial carapace clade within the super-order Peracarida. There is only one family, Spelaeogriphidae.

Physical characteristics

Spelaeogriphaceans have elongate, cylindrical bodies. A short carapace extends posteriorly from the back of the head. Both pairs of antennae are elongate and biramous. On the head are eye lobes, but no trace of the eye can be found. The first thoracic somite is fused to the head and its appendage is a maxilliped, which has a branchial epipod that extends into the branchial chamber formed by the short carapace. The mouthparts, including the maxilliped, are armed with long, stiff setae, suggesting they are used in a sweeping motion during feeding. The remaining thoracopods, known as pereopods, have endopods developed for walking, and exopods used to circulate water past the body. It is possible that the anterior exopods are also used for respiratory gas exchange. In females, the first five pereopods bear small brood plates. The appendages of the abdominal somites, known as pleopods, are moderately strongly developed, except for the last pair. At the end of the abdomen is a large fleshy telson and a pair of flattened uropods.

Distribution

Spelaeogriphaceans are known only from caves in South Africa, Brazil, and Western Australia.

Habitat

They are found in freshwater streams or pools in caves.

Behavior

Little is known about the behavior of these animals. They are unable to burrow into the sand or to swim. They walk about on the surface of the sand in the cave streams or pools and are easily swept about if the current is moderately strong.

Feeding ecology and diet

Spelaeogriphaceans appear to feed on plant detritus washed into the caves. They sweep their mouth appendages over the substrate in order to pick up small particles.

Reproductive biology

Nothing is known about mating or development. Females carry 10–12 eggs in the brood pouch.

Conservation status

Although no species are listed by the IUCN, the South African species, Spelaeogriphus lepidops, is protected locally and can be collected only by permit. Numbers seem to be stable.

Significance to humans

The species in this order are important as relicts of past life.

Species accounts

Resources

Schram, F. R. Crustacea. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Gordon, I. "On Spelaeogriphus, a New Cavernicolous Crustacean from South Africa." Zoology 5 (1957): 31–47.

Poore, G. B., and W. F. Humphreys. "First Record of Spelaeogriphacea (Crustacea) from Australia—A New Genus and Species from an Aquifer in the Arid Pilbara of Western Australia." Crustaceana 71 (1998): 721–742.

[Article by: Les Watling, PhD]

A crustacean order within the Malacostraca: Peracarida, erected for a single living species. Spelaeogriphus lepidops. This shrimplike animal lives in a stream inside a cave on Table Mountain, South Africa. Spelaeogriphus has a slender, flexible body, seven pairs of walking legs, five pairs of swimmerets, and a very long flagellum on each second antenna. A short carapace is fused to the first thoracic segment, covers the second, and forms ventrolateral branchial chambers, within which are cuplike gills, attached to the first thoracic segment. The animals creep over the stream bottom with their walking legs and swim by undulations of the whole trunk. See also Peracarida.

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Spelaeogriphacea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Crustacea
Class:	Malacostraca
Order:	Spelaeogriphacea Gordon, 1957
Family:	Spelaeogriphidae Gordon, 1957
Genera
Mangkurtu Potiicoara Spelaeogriphus

Spelaeogriphacea is an order of crustaceans that grow to no more than 10 mm. Only four species, all subterranean, have been described. Of the three genera, Potiicoara is known only from a cave in Brazil's Matto Grosso, Spelaeogriphus only from a cave on Table Mountain in South Africa, and the two Mangkurtu species only from individual Australian aquifers. This widely separated distribution implies an early origin for the group, hypothesised as emerging at least 200 million years before present in the Tethys Sea around Gondwana. Little is known about the ecology of the order.

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