Engaeus phyllocercus
Narracan Burrowing Crayfish
Keith A. CrandallTypes
Syntypes, Australian Museum, Sydney P13217 (3 intersexed). As given in Lew Ton & Poore (1987).Distribution
E. phyllocercus is restricted to locations above 120 m in altitude in the hills to the north and west of Eastern Strzlecki Ranges in South Gippsland, Victoria. The range is likely to be slightly increased westward by further collecting, however extensive collections in northerly, southerly and easterly directions have failed to reveal its presence.Habitat
The species is typically found in the flood-bed regions of fern tree gullies in wet sclerophyll forests. The burrows are therefore constructed in type 2 habitats, and consist of usually more than two openings; each opening carried a chimney which is conical in shape and consists of pellets of soil. The openings descend to lateral ramifications at between 10 and 30 cm below the surface, from which there may be one or two descending tunnels. The lateral ramifications may be constructed immediately beneath the root mats of the tree ferns Dicksonia antarctica and Cyathea. The soils in such flood-beds are usually high in organic matter, have a high silt component, and are dark in color. Burrows of this species may occasionally be found in the banks of flowing creeks, and under these circumstances the burrows usually have two or three openings (which are chimneyed), descending to the water level where they have a horizontal component before descending further to the deepest level of the water-table.References
Baillie, Jonathan, and Brian Groombridge. 1996. IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals.
Horwitz, Pierre. 1990. A Taxonomic Revision of Species in the Freshwater Crayfish Genus Engaeus Erichson (Decapoda: Parastacidae). Invertebr. Taxon., 1990, 4, 427-614.
Lew Ton, H. M., and G. C. B. Poore. 1987. Types of Parastacidae (Crustacea: Decapoda) held in the Museum of Victoria. Occasional Papers from the Museum of Victoria 3, 21-29.
Smith, G. W. and W. H. J. Schuster. 1913. The genus Engaeus, or the land crayfishes of Australia. Proceedings of the Zoological Society (London) 1913, 112-127.
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Keith A. Crandall
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA
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Crandall, Keith A. 2001. Engaeus phyllocercus . Narracan Burrowing Crayfish. Version 01 January 2001 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Engaeus_phyllocercus/7843/2001.01.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
