Atyid shrimp  (Typhlatya iliffei)

Classified as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List 2006 (1).

This small shrimp is whitish overall with some internal red pigment cells (chromatophores). The eyes are also pigmented and are directed upward through the orbit (eye socket). The walking legs are long and slender, and there is a long, simple, spine-like rostrum, but no spines exist on the smooth body surface (carapace) (2).

Known only from Tucker’s Town Cave, Bermuda (2).

Found in the brackish water of a sand and silt-bottomed pool in a single, anchialine, limestone cave. Specimens have been collected at a depth of 12 m (2).

Nothing is known about the biology of this species.

The threats to this atyid shrimp are unknown, but its confinement to just a single cave place it in an extremely vulnerable position in which habitat degradation or alteration could rapidly lead to its extinction (2).

There are currently no conservation measures underway targeting this species.

For more information on this atyid shrimp see:

• Anchialine Caves and Cave Fauna of the World:
  http://www.tamug.edu/cavebiology/fauna/shrimp/T_iliffei.html

• Anchialine: coastal bodies of standing waters that have no surface connections to the ocean but display both tidal fluctuations and salinity ranges characteristic of fresh and brackish waters, indicating the presence of subsurface connections to the watertable and ocean.
• Chromatophores: Pigment-bearing cells.
• Rostrum: Central, forward-projecting and occasionally long spine between the eyes of crustaceans.

1. IUCN Red List (January, 2007)
   http://www.iucnredlist.org
2. Anchialine Caves and Cave Fauna of the World (February, 2007)
   http://www.tamug.edu/cavebiology/fauna/shrimp/T_iliffei.html