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Cave Biology Data Portal
Subterranean biodiversity of North America and around the globe
AnimaliaArthropodaCrustaceaMalacostracaAmphipodaCrangonyctidaeStygobromus

Mammoth Cave stygobromid
Stygobromus vitreus Cope, 1872

Taxonomy

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Arthropoda
Subphylum Crustacea
Class Malacostraca
Order Amphipoda
Family Crangonyctidae
Genus Stygobromus
Species Stygobromus vitreus Cope, 1872

Synonyms

  • Crangonyx vitreus (Cope, 1872) (prior combination, CoL)

Description

Diagnostic characters

Ecological class
Stygobiont
Realm
Aquatic
Troglomorphy
Troglomorphic

Distribution

Type locality

Mammoth Cave, Edmonson Co. KY

Range

Known from 14 counties across four states in the Interior Low Plateau karst region.

Continent

North America

Country

United States

States and provinces

Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee

Counties

Alabama
Colbert, Jackson, Lauderdale, Madison, Morgan
Indiana
Orange
Kentucky
Barren, Edmonson, Hart, Trigg, Warren
Tennessee
Franklin, Grundy, Montgomery

Karst regions

Interior Low Plateau

Specimens

Collections holding material

InstitutionLots
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution 39
Yale Peabody Museum 1

40 cataloged lots in 2 collections. Compiled from GBIF and not an exhaustive census: many collections are not yet digitised, and holdings are added continually. Search GBIF for specimen records.

Download all 40 specimen records (CSV) Institution, catalog number, type status and preparation. No coordinates.

Conservation and management

NatureServe

G4 Apparently Secure

G1G2G3G4▲G5

Global rank last reviewed 21 August 2002.

Subnational ranks

Alabama
SNR Unranked
Kentucky
S1 Critically Imperiled
Tennessee
S2 Imperiled

Ranks looked up 23 August 2026. Conservation status changes, and a rank here is as current as that date and no more.

State and federal status

Not listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Other resources

Catalogue of Life
538PX
GBIF
2217808
ITIS
93870
iNaturalist
231913

References

  • Bailey, V. 1933. Cave Life of Kentucky. US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, Washington, DC, USA. 256 pp.
  • Banta, A.M. 1907. The fauna of Mayfield's Cave. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 67: 1–114. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/60987. details
  • Barr, T.C., Jr. & Kuehne, R.A. 1971. Ecological studies in the Mammoth Cave system of Kentucky. II. The Ecosystem. Annales de Speleologie 26: 47–96. doi:10.5038/1827-806X.3.1.10
  • Cooper, J.E. 1975. Ecological and behavioral studies in Shelta Cave, Alabama, with emphasis on decapod crustaceans. University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA. 364 pp.
  • Cooper, J.E. & Cooper, M.R. 2011. Observations on the biology of the endangered stygobiotic shrimp Palaemonias alabamae, with notes on P. ganteri (Decapoda: Atyidae). Subterranean Biology 8: 9–20.
  • Cooper, J.E. & Kuehne, R.A. 1974. Speoplatyrhinus poulsoni, a new genus and species of subterranean fish from Alabama. Copeia 1974: 486–493.
  • Cope, E.D. & Packard, A.S. 1881. The fauna of the Nickajack Cave. American Naturalist 15: 877–882.
  • Giovannoli, L. 1933. Invertebrate life of Mammoth and other neighboring caves. In: Bailey, V. (ed), Cave Life of Kentucky, pp. 600–623.
  • Hay, W.P. 1902b. Observations on the crustacean fauna of the region about Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. Proceedings of the United States National Museum 25: 223–236. doi:10.5479/si.00963801.25-1285.223
  • Hubricht, L. 1943. Studies in the Nearctic freshwater amphipods, III. Notes on the freshwater Amphipoda of eastern United States, with descriptions of ten new species. The American Midland Naturalist 29: 683–712. doi:10.2307/2421157
  • Lewis, J.J. 1988. The systematics, zoogeography and life history of the troglobitic isopods of the Interior Plateaus of the eastern United States. University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. 281 pp.
  • Lewis, J.J. 2005a. A biological inventory of caves of the Cumberland Plateau. Tennessee Chapter Cave Program, The Nature Conservancy, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 156 pp.
  • Lewis, J.J. & Lewis, S.L. 2005. Inventory of the subterranean fauna of Tims Ford State Park, Franklin County, Tennessee. Tennesee Natural Heritage Program, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 28 pp.
  • McGregor, S.W., O'Neil, P.E., Rheams, K.F., Moser, P.H. & Blackwood, R. 1997. Biological, geological, and hydrological investigations in Bobcat, Matthews, and Shelta caves and other selected caves in north Alabama. Geological Survey of Alabama Bulletin 166: 1–198.
  • McGregor, S.W., Rheams, K.F., O'Neil, P.E., Moser, P.H. & Blackwood, R. 1994. Biological, geological, and hydrological investigations in Bobcat, Matthews, and Shelta caves and other selected caves in north Alabama. Geological Survey of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. 226 pp.
  • Nicholas, G. 1960. Checklist of macroscopic troglobitic organisms of the United States. The American Midland Naturalist 64: 123–160. doi:10.2307/2422897
  • Niemiller, M.L. & Zigler, K.S. 2013. Patterns of cave biodiversity and endemism in the Appalachians and Interior Plateau of Tennessee, USA. PLOS One 8: e64177. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064177
  • Niemiller, M.L., Zigler, K.S., Hinkle, A., Stephen, C.D.R., Cramphorn, B., Higgs, J., Mann, N., Miller, B.T., Niemiller, K.D.K., Smallwood, K. & Hardy, J. 2023b. The Crystal-Wonder Cave System: a new hotspot of subterranean biodiversity in the southern Cumberland Plateau of south-central Tennessee, USA. Diversity 15: 801. doi:10.3390/d15070801

This account was last revised 28 August 2026. Conservation ranks were looked up 23 August 2026.

How to cite this account

Stygobromus vitreus Cope, 1872. Cave Biology Data Portal, account SP-1105. https://cavebiology.org/species/stygobromus-vitreus/ (accessed 18 October 2026).
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Data sources and funding are listed in the Acknowledgments.

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Cave Biology Data Portal

Species accounts, distributions, and conservation status for the subterranean fauna of North America and around the globe, with resources for the cave and karst research community.

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