Subspecies Triops australiensis australiensis (Spencer & Hall, 1895)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Apus australiensis Spencer, B & Hall, T.S. 1895. Preliminary description of a new species of Apus. Victorian Naturalist 11: 161-162.

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) NMV J200, J225, J881, Stevenson Creek, northern SA and Charlotte Waters, via Alice Srpings, NT.
• Triops gracilis Wolf, E. 1911. Phyllopoda. In Michaelsen, W. & Hartmeyer, R. (eds) Die Fauna Südwest-Australiens. Ergebnisse der Hamburger südwest-australischen Forschungsreise 1905. Jena : G. Fischer Vol. 3. 253-276 pp. [260-263 figs 5-8].

  Type data:

   Holotype ZMH K19722, Hannan Lake near Kalgoorlie, WA.
• Triops strenuous Wolf, E. 1911. Phyllopoda. In Michaelsen, W. & Hartmeyer, R. (eds) Die Fauna Südwest-Australiens. Ergebnisse der Hamburger südwest-australischen Forschungsreise 1905. Jena : G. Fischer Vol. 3. 253-276 pp. [263-265 figs 9,10].

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Longhurst, A. 1955. A review of the Notostraca. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Zoology 3: 1- 57

Generic Combinations

• Triops australiensis australiensis (Spencer & Hall, 1895). —
  Longhurst, A. 1955. A review of the Notostraca. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Zoology 3: 1- 57

Distribution

Extra Distribution Information

Though uncommon in N coastal, N gulf, NE coastal, SE coastal, S coastal, SW coastal and not in Tasmania (Williams 1968, 1980; Tyler et al. 1996).

Ecological Descriptors

It assumes different forms (varieties/subspecies/species?) in different types of waters: most commonly it lives in turbid waters, as in claypans when it tends to be large and opalescent, but a darker, smaller form lives in clear vegetated water and another form in gnammas in the Murchinson area of WA, and still another form in some inland saline lakes in WA (Wolf 1911; Main 1953; Timms, in press; author, unpublished data).

General References

Longhurst, A. 1955. A review of the Notostraca. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Zoology 3: 1- 57

Main, A.R. 1953. Sex ratio and variation in Apus australiensis Spencer and Hall. Western Australian Naturalist 4: 34-39

Timms, B.V. 2006. The large branchiopods of gnammas (rock holes) in Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 89: 163-173

Tyler, M.J., Davies, M., Watson, G.F. & Williams, D.J. 1996. Significant extension in northern Australia of the known geographic range of the Shield Shrimp Triops australiensis (Crustacea: Notostraca). Hydrobiologia 318: 135-137

Williams, W.D. 1968. The distribution of Triops and Lepidurus (Branchiopoda) in Australia. Crustaceana 14: 119-126

Williams, W.D. 1980. Australian Freshwater Life. Melbourne : Macmillan xi 321 pp.

Wolf, E. 1911. Phyllopoda. In Michaelsen, W. & Hartmeyer, R. (eds) Die Fauna Südwest-Australiens. Ergebnisse der Hamburger südwest-australischen Forschungsreise 1905. Jena : G. Fischer Vol. 3. 253-276 pp.

History of changes