Remipedes: Remipedia - Physical Characteristics, Behavior And Reproduction, Remipedes And People, No Common Name (speleonectes Gironensis): Species Account - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, HABITAT, DIET, CONSERVATION STATUS
caves eat islands troglodytic
Remipedes are found in underwater sea caves along the shores of the Bahamas, Canary Islands, Cuba, eastern Mexico, northwestern Australia, and the Indian Ocean.
Remipedes live only in completely submerged sea caves near the shores of islands and some continents. They live with other cave-dwelling, or troglodytic (TRAH-gloh-DIH-tik), crustaceans and fish.
They are predators and eat troglodytic shrimp and fish. Remipedes are closely associated with the sand or mud at the bottom of caves. In captivity they gather these materials into a small ball, hold it over their mouth, then eat it. Some scientists think that they are using bacteria in the sediment as either a food source or for some physiological purpose.
No remipedes are considered endangered or threatened. However, one species, Speleonectes lucayensis, is protected by Lucayan National Park on Grand Bahama Island. The cave habitats of all remipedes are threatened by logging, development, pesticides, and sewage disposal.
Additional Topics
Remipedes (REM-mih-peeds) are wormlike crustaceans that lack both color and eyes and measure 0.35 to 1.8 inches (9 to 45 millimeters) long. They have a short, distinct head and, depending on species, a long body trunk with 10 to 32 segments. Most of the trunk segments have a pair of flattened, paddlelike limbs directed out from the sides. The head has a pair of thread-like sensory processors and t…
Physical characteristics: Speleonectes gironensis measure up to 0.55 inches (14 millimeters) in length. The maximum number of trunk segments is 25. The last pair of appendages on the end of the body trunk is twice as long as the last body trunk segments. Geographic range: Speleonectes gironensis (abbreviated to S. gironensis) are found only in the undersea caves along the coast of Matanzas and Hol…
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments