Swamp crayfish

Taxobox
name = Swamp crayfish
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Crustacea
classis = Malacostraca
ordo = Decapoda
subordo = Pleocyemata
familia = Parastacidae
genus = "Tenuibranchiurus"
species = ""'T.
binomial = "Tenuibranchiurus glypticus"
binomial_authority = Riek, 1951

The swamp crayfish, "Tenuibranchiurus glypticus", is a tiny freshwater crayfish that occurs in freshwater waterways in Queensland, and is the smallest known species of crayfish. The species is the only member of the genus "Tenuibranchiurus", and the characteristics that distinguish it are its small size (adults are on average 25 mm long) and its claws which open vertically rather than horizontally or obliquely.

The Swamp Crayfish lives in areas which are not very well drained, where pools dry up seasonally every winter. Much of the year is spent in communities in extraordinary underground networks of chambers and tunnels which can be up to 1.5 m below the surface.

References

* [http://www.qmuseum.qld.gov.au/inquiry/leaflets/leaflet0057.pdf Factsheet from the Queensland Museum]