''Milyeringa justitia'', commonly known as the Barrow cave gudgeon, is a species of fish in the family

Milyeringidae Milyeringinae, the blind cave gobies, is a subfamily of gobies in the family Eleotridae. There are two genera and six species within the subfamily: one genus ('' Milyeringa'') is restricted to caves in the North West Cape region of Australia and ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to groundwater systems (

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...

s) of Barrow Island, around 50 km off the Pilbara coast in Western Australia. This

troglobitic A troglobite (or, formally, troglobiont) is an animal species, or population of a species, strictly bound to underground habitats, such as caves. These are separate from species that mainly live in above-ground habitats but are also able to live u ...

species has a pale body, lacking in pigment, and it is eyeless and blind, using sensory papillae located on the head and body to allow it to feed and move around in total darkness. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''justitia'' is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "justice" and was given by the describers to complement the specific name of ''

Milyeringa veritas ''Milyeringa veritas'' (commonly known as the blind gudgeon) is a species of fish in the family Milyeringidae. It is endemic to groundwater and anchialine systems in caves in the Cape Range, Australia. Like other cave-adapted fish, the blind gu ...

'' which means "truth" in the hope that “As truth and justice are supposed to go together, we name this species justitia, from the Latin for justice, in the hope that justice helps the species to survive on Barrow Island, which has been an oilfield since 1967 and is most recently the site of the Gorgon Gas Hub development.” Very little is known about ''M. justitia'' as between 2002 and 2013 only six specimens were collected but its biology is assumed to be similar to that of ''M. veritas''.

References

justitia Lady Justice () is an Allegory, allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial systems. Her attributes are Weighing scale, scales, a sword and sometimes a blindfold. She often appears as a pair with Prudentia. Lady Justice originat ...

Fish described in 2013 Taxa named by Helen K. Larson Taxa named by Ralph Foster Cave fish {{Gobiiformes-stub