Donaldson's Cave Copepod
Megacyclops donnaldsoni (Chappuis, 1929)
Taxonomy
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum | Crustacea |
| Class | Maxillopoda |
| Order | Cyclopoida |
| Family | Cyclopidae |
| Genus | Megacyclops |
| Species | Megacyclops donnaldsoni (Chappuis, 1929) |
Description
Diagnostic characters
- Ecological class
- Stygobiont
- Realm
- Aquatic
- Troglomorphy
- Troglomorphic
Distribution
Type locality
Donaldson Cave, Lawrence Co. IN
Range
Known from six counties across four states across two karst regions.
Continent
North America
Country
United States
States and provinces
Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee
Counties
- Georgia
- Dade
- Indiana
- Crawford, Lawrence
- Kentucky
- Edmonson
- Tennessee
- Grundy, McMinn
Karst regions
Appalachians, Interior Low Plateau
Specimens
Collections holding material
| Institution | Lots |
|---|---|
| National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution | 1 |
1 cataloged lot in 1 collection. 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 1 specimen records (CSV) Institution, catalog number, type status and preparation. No coordinates.
Conservation and management
NatureServe
G3G4 Vulnerable to Apparently Secure
Global rank last reviewed 21 August 2002.
Subnational ranks
- Indiana
- S1 Critically Imperiled
- Kentucky
- S4S5 Apparently Secure to Secure
- Tennessee
- S1 Critically 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
References
- 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
- Bunting, D.L. 1973. The Cladocera and Copepoda of Tennessee II. Cyclopoid copepods. Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science 48: 138–141.
- 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. & Reid, J.W. 2007. Patterns and processes of groundwater invasion by copepods in the Interior Low Plateaus of the United States. Acta Carsologica 36: 279–289. doi:10.3986/ac.v36i2.197
- 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
- Reid, J.W. 2004. New records and new species of the genus Diacyclops (Crustacea: Copepoda) from subterranean habitats in southern Indiana, USA. Jeffersoniana 12: 1–65.
- 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
This account was last revised 28 August 2026. Conservation ranks were looked up 23 August 2026.
How to cite this account
Data sources and funding are listed in the Acknowledgments.
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