Family MONODELLIDAE or HALOSBAENIDAE

Cave micro-shrimps

Code: None allocated

An order of Malacostracan crustacean of uncertain family placement. Not a decapod, although similar in that the thorax is protected by a carapace. There is one Australian species, Halosbaena tulki, a minute species (1-1.5mm long) known from a single cave on the North West Cape Peninsula, Western Australia. Elsewhere the order is confined to caves and to hot springs.

Thermosbaenacea are recognised by a reduced carapace which is fused to the first thoracic segment but free above the other segments. In females the carapace is formed as a dorsal pouch. The body is elongate with seven thoracic and seven abdominal segments, the last with a pair of 3-segmented, cylindrical uropods.

References:

Horwitz, P., Knott, B. and Williams, W.D. (1995) A Preliminary Key to the Malacostracan Families (Crustacea) found in Australian Inland Waters. Co-operative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology Identification Guide No. 4., Albury, NSW.

Poore, G.A. and Humphreys, W.F. (1992) First record of Thermosbaenacea (Crustacea) from the Southern Hemisphere: a new species from a cave in tropical Western Australia. Invertebrate Taxonomy 6: 719-725.