Engaeus sternalis
Warragul Burrowing Crayfish
Keith A. CrandallTypes
Lectotype, Museum of Victoria, Melbourne J900 (intersexed). (Other types apparently lost; see Lew Ton & Poore 1987).Distribution
This species is only known from one location near Warragul. As such it can be considered as either very rare or very cryptic, since the area surrounding Warragul has been extensively searched.Habitat
The burrow structure is briefly described in Horwitz & Richardson (1986). E. sternalis digs complex, narrow winding tunnels down to the water-table. The soils in the area are variable with local patches of sand at one extreme, to patches of clay-dominated soil at the other. E. sternalis was always found in the latter. This species appears to be somewhat cryptic in its occurence at Labertouche since the openings to the burrows were not highlighted by the presence of extrued soil or chimneys. It was found that the easiest way to collect this species was to remove a section of the bank of the creek to expose the clay-dominated soils beneath and, hopefully, the network of tunnels.References
Baillie, Jonathan, and Brian Groombridge. 1996. IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals.
Clark, E. 1936. The freshwater and land crayfishes of Australia. Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria 10, 5-58.
Horwitz, Pierre. 1990. A Taxonomic Revision of Species in the Freshwater Crayfish Genus Engaeus Erichson (Decapoda: Parastacidae). Invertebr. Taxon., 1990, 4, 427-614.
Horwitz, P. H. J., and A. M. M. Richardson. 1986. An ecological classification of the burrows of Australian freshwater crayfish. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 37, 237-242.
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.
About This Page
Page constructed by Emily Browne.
Keith A. Crandall
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA
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Engaeus sternalis . Warragul Burrowing Crayfish.
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Crandall, Keith A. 2001. Engaeus sternalis . Warragul Burrowing Crayfish. Version 01 January 2001 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Engaeus_sternalis/7849/2001.01.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
