Abstract
Palaemonias alabamae is endemic to subterranean waters in northern Alabama. Its type locality is Shelta Cave, Madison County, and ostensibly conspecifi c shrimps have been found in Bobcat and two other caves. Pollution and other factors may have extirpated the shrimp from the type locality. In Shelta Cave the species is smaller than the shrimp in Bobcat Cave and P. ganteri in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Adult female P. alabamae (s.s.) and P. ganteri are larger than males. Female P. alabamae with visible oocytes or, rarely, attached ova, were observed from July through January in Shelta Cave. Each female there produces 8 to 12 large ova, whereas females of the population in Bobcat Cave produce 20 to 24 ova, and P. ganteri produces 14 to 33 ova. Plankton samples taken in Shelta and Mammoth caves yielded nothing identifi able as zoea or postlarvae. Palaemonias alabamae and P. ganteri usually feed by fi ltering bottom sediments through their mouthparts, but both sometimes feed upside down at the water’s surface. Although there is some overlap, the compositions of the aquatic communities in Shelta and Mammoth caves differ, and there are some major differences among the Alabama shrimp caves. The stygobiotic fi sh, Typhlichthys subterraneus, is a known predator on P. alabamae in Shelta Cave.
Highlights
The shrimp family, Atyidae, is a large, cosmopolitan group of decapods that, in the Americas, contains nine described stygobiotic species (Holthuis 1956; Hobbs et al 1977)
Two of them are found in caves of the United States: Palaemonias alabamae Smalley, 1961, occurs in subterranean systems in northern Alabama, where its type locality is Shelta Cave in Huntsville, and Palaemonias ganteri Hay, 1902, occurs in underground waters in the Mammoth Cave area of central Kentucky, where its type locality is Roaring River in Mammoth Cave
Cadmium has been shown to accumulate in much higher concentrations in the tissues of a stygobiotic crayfish species that occurs in Shelta Cave than in the tissues of a stygophilic species that occurs there (Dickson et al 1979)
Summary
The shrimp family, Atyidae, is a large, cosmopolitan group of decapods that, in the Americas, contains nine described stygobiotic species (Holthuis 1956; Hobbs et al 1977). At times during this period we collected and made observations on the biota of two of the other caves where shrimp are known to occur (Cooper & Cooper 1974; McGregor et al 1997; Rheams et al 1992). Rheams et al (1994:58) reported that Torode and others had in November 1991 observed shrimp in Brazelton Cave, identified by Graham (1969) as a possible western resurgence for the Hering-Glover system.
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