Spiny Cave Springtail
Pseudosinella spinosa (Delamare Deboutteville, 1949)
Taxonomy
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum | Hexapoda |
| Class | Collembola |
| Order | Entomobryomorpha |
| Family | Entomobryidae |
| Genus | Pseudosinella |
| Species | Pseudosinella spinosa (Delamare Deboutteville, 1949) |
Synonyms
- Troglosinella spinosa Delamare, 1949 (prior combination, CoL)
Description
Diagnostic characters
- Ecological class
- Troglobiont
- Realm
- Terrestrial
- Troglomorphy
- Troglomorphic
Distribution
Type locality
Alladin's Cave, Madison Co. AL
Range
Known from 18 counties across four states across two karst regions.
Continent
North America
Countries
Mexico, United States
States and provinces
Alabama, Georgia, Mexico, Tennessee
Counties
- Alabama
- Jackson, Madison, Marshall, Morgan, Shelby
- Georgia
- Dade
- Mexico
- FELIPE CARRILLO PUERTO, Quintana Roo
- Tennessee
- Coffee, DeKalb, Franklin, Grundy, Hamilton, Jackson, Putnam, Van Buren, Warren, White
Karst regions
Appalachians, Interior Low Plateau
Specimens
Collections holding material
| Institution | Lots |
|---|---|
| Universidad de Quintana Roo | 3 |
| Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard | 1 |
| Natural History Museum, London | 1 |
5 cataloged lots in 3 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 5 specimen records (CSV) Institution, catalog number, type status and preparation. No coordinates.
Conservation and management
NatureServe
G5 Secure
Global rank last reviewed 21 August 2002.
Subnational ranks
- Alabama
- SNR Unranked
- Georgia
- SNR Unranked
- 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
References
- Christiansen, K. 1960b. The genus Pseudosinella (Collembola, Entomobryidae) in caves of the United States. Psyche 67: 1–25. doi:10.1155/1960/25063
- Cramphorn, B. 2024. Phylogeography, speciation, and cryptic diversity in the cave springtail Pseudosinella spinosa (Entomobryomorpha: Entomobryidae) from the Interior Low Plateau and Appalachian Valley & Ridge karst regions. The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama, USA. 64 pp. https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/684/?utm_source=louis.uah.edu%2Fuah-theses%2F684&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages. details
- Dixon, G.B. & Zigler, K.S. 2011. Cave-obligate biodiversity on the campus of Sewanee: The University of the South, Franklin County, Tennessee. Southeastern Naturalist 10: 251–266. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41263008. details
- Godwin, J.C. 2008. Biological inventory of the cave and karst systems of The Nature Conservancy's Sharp-Bingham Mountain Preserve. Alabama Natural Heritage Program, Auburn, Alabama, USA. 40 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.
- 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., Slay, M.E., Inebnit, T., Miller, B., Tobin, B., Cramphorn, B., Hinkle, A., Jones, B.D., Mann, N. & Niemiller, K.D.K. 2023a. Fern Cave: a hotspot of subterranean biodiversity in the Interior Low Plateau karst region of Alabama in the southeastern United States. Diversity 15: 633. doi:10.3390/d15050633
- 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
- Peck, S.B. 1995. The cave fauna of Alabama. Part II: The insects. National Speleological Society Bulletin 57: 1–19.
- Wakefield, K.R. & Zigler, K.S. 2012. Obligate subterranean fauna of Carter State Natural Area, Franklin County, Tennessee. Speleolobiology Notes 4: 24–28.
- 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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