The Dandenong Burrowing Crayfish ''(Engaeus urostrictus'') is an Australian freshwater

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

in the

Parastacidae The Parastacidae are the family of freshwater crayfish found in the Southern Hemisphere. The family is a classic Gondwana-distributed taxon, with extant members in South America, Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea, and extinct ta ...

family. As its common name suggests, the Dandenong Burrowing Crayfish is found in the

Dandenong Ranges The Dandenong Ranges (commonly just the Dandenongs) are a set of low mountain ranges in Victoria, Australia, approximately east of the state capital Melbourne. A minor branch of the Great Dividing Range, the Dandenongs consist mostly of rol ...

east of

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia. ''Engaeus urostrictus'' is listed as vulnerable on the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological spe ...

Habitat

The Dandenong Burrowing Crayfish occurs in

riparian zone A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripari ...

s characterised by sandy soil flats adjacent to small, slow-flowing

headwater The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...

streams with high organic content. The

Crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the infraorder Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. Taxonomically, they are members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. They breathe through feather-like gills. Some spe ...

builds extensive burrow systems with many lateral branches amongst buried, rotting plants and roots of ferns, shrubs and trees. The riparian burrow systems of the species have tunnels which descend to the

water table The water table is the upper surface of the phreatic zone or zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with groundwater, which may be fresh, saline, or brackish, depending on the loc ...

, allowing the crayfish to follow the rise and fall of the water table. The species can form chimneys of excavated soil pellets up to 13 cm high.

References

Sources

*Doran, N. & Horwitz, P. 2010.
Engaeus urostrictus
'. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010. Retrieved 5 February 2017. Parastacidae Freshwater crustaceans of Australia Vulnerable fauna of Australia Crustaceans described in 1969 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Crayfish-stub