Engaeus hemicirratulus
Keith A. CrandallDistribution
This species is both widespead and abundant in southern Victoria, occuring on both sides of the La Trobe River Valley, usually above an altitude of 100 m, in the Western and Eastern Strzelecki Ranges and in the southwestern parts of the Australian Alps. The record of a specimen from Wilsons Promontory in the Museum of Victoria has not been substantiated (in fact this area has not been well investigated for parastacid fauna).Habitat
E. hemicirratulus is the only species in the genus which exclusively occupies burrows in type 3 habitats; these are typically situated in the yellow-orange clay-dominated soils of South Gippsland, often in what was formerly dense wet sclerophyll forest dominated by the mountain ash Eucalyptus regnans. The burrows exhibit the typical characteristics of those constructed by the other species occupying this habitat, including fan-shaped chimneys and tunnels descending obliquely to chambers; these burrows are often shallow, with the chambers occasionally just below the surface of the ground (animals are most easily obtained from such burrows). Larger burrow systems containing family groups of crayfish exhibit multiple juvenile openings on the surface and greatly enlarged chambers.References
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.
About This Page
Page constructed by Emily Browne.
Keith A. Crandall
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA
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Engaeus hemicirratulus .
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Crandall, Keith A. 2001. Engaeus hemicirratulus . Version 01 January 2001 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Engaeus_hemicirratulus/7830/2001.01.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
