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

Pygmarrhopalites pygmaeus (Wankel, 1860)

Taxonomy

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Arthropoda
Subphylum Hexapoda
Class Collembola
Order Symphypleona
Family Arrhopalitidae
Genus Pygmarrhopalites
Species Pygmarrhopalites pygmaeus (Wankel, 1860)

Description

Diagnostic characters

Ecological class
Troglophile
Realm
Terrestrial

Distribution

Range

Known from 26 counties across nine states.

Continent

North America

Country

United States

States and provinces

Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia

Counties

Alabama
Blount, Jackson, Madison, Marshall
Arkansas
Izard
Georgia
Bartow
Iowa
Clayton, Delaware, Jackson, Winneshiek
Illinois
Hardin, Johnson
Kentucky
Edmonson, Pulaski
Missouri
Perry
Tennessee
Cumberland, Fentress, Marion, Overton, Pickett, Sequatchie, Van Buren, Warren, White
Virginia
August, Rockingham

Conservation and management

NatureServe

GNR Unranked

G1G2G3G4G5

National ranks

United States
NNR
Canada
NU

Subnational ranks

Illinois
SNR Unranked
Alabama
S2 Imperiled
Oklahoma
SNR Unranked
Missouri
SNR Unranked
Arkansas
SNR Unranked
Ontario
SU Unrankable
Nova Scotia
SU Unrankable
Alberta
SU Unrankable

State and federal status

Not listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act

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.
  • 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.
  • Giovannoli, L. 1933. Invertebrate life of Mammoth and other neighboring caves. In: Bailey, V. (ed), Cave Life of Kentucky, pp. 600–623.
  • Lawson, K.M., Schotz, A.R., Jenkins, A.J., Armbruster, J.W., Black, C., Callahan, M., Goertzen, L., Hansen, C., Stephen, C.D.R., Werneke, D., Mendonca, M. & Molina, E. 2021. Planning level survey of Redstone Arsenal for at-risk species and ecologically significant communities. Environmental Management Division, U.S. Army Garrison, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama, USA. 402 pp.
  • Lewis, J.J. 2004. Interstate 66 karst faunal study. Environmental Impact Statement. 17 pp.
  • Lewis, J.J. 2005. A biological inventory of caves of the Cumberland Plateau. Tennessee Chapter Cave Program, The Nature Conservancy, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 156 pp.
  • McDaniel, V.R. & Smith, K.L. 1976. Cave fauna of Arkansas: selected invertebrate taxa. Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science 30: 57–60. https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol30/iss1/22.
  • Nicholas, G. 1960. Checklist of macroscopic troglobitic organisms of the United States. The American Midland Naturalist 64: 123–160. doi:10.2307/2422897
  • Peck, S.B. & Lewis, J.J. 1978. Zoogeography and evolution of the subterranean invertebrate faunas of Illinois and southeastern Missouri. National Speleological Society Bulletin 40: 39–63.
  • Peck, S.B. & Christiansen, K. 1990. Evolution and zoogeography of the invertebrate cave faunas of the Driftless Area of the upper Mississippi River Valley of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, U.S.A. Canadian Journal of Zoology 68: 73–88. doi:10.1139/z90-012
  • Peck, S.B. 1995. The cave fauna of Alabama. Part II: The insects. National Speleological Society Bulletin 57: 1–19.
  • Reeves, W.K., Jensen, J.B. & Ozier, J.C. 2000. New faunal and fungal records from caves in Georgia, USA. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 62: 169–179. https://caves.org/wp-content/uploads/Publications/JCKS/v62/v62n3-Reeves.pdf.
  • Webb, D.W., Taylor, S.J. & Krejca, J.K. 1993. The biological resources of Illinois caves and other subterranean environments. Illinois Natural History Survey, Champaign, Illinois, USA. 143 pp.
  • Zigler, K.S., Niemiller, M.L., Stephen, C.D.R., Ayala, B.N., Milne, M.A., Gladstone, N.S., Engel, A.S., Jensen, J.B., Camp, C.D., Ozier, J.C. & Cressler, A. 2020. Biodiversity from caves and other subterranean habitats of Georgia, USA. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 82: 125–167. doi:10.4311/2019LSC0125

How to cite this account

Pygmarrhopalites pygmaeus (Wankel, 1860). Cave Biology Data Portal, account SP-2008. https://cavebiology.org/species/pygmarrhopalites-pygmaeus/ (accessed 7 September 2026).

Data sources and funding are listed in the Acknowledgments.

Spotted something wrong on this page? Report a correction. Accounts are compiled from many sources and corrections from people who know the group are the most useful email we get.

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.

Text and data CC BY 4.0. Images all rights reserved unless stated.

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