Syncaris pacifica [SEP] IUCN conservation status
Syncaris pacifica
Syncaris pacifica is an endangered species of freshwater shrimp in the family Atyidae that occurs only in a limited range within the northern San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA. Specifically, this species occurs only in 17 stream segments within Sonoma, Napa and Marin Counties. This species is often translucent to transparent, with both sexes capable of considerable coloration altering, as a sophisticated form of camouflage. This decapod is commonly known as California freshwater shrimp, and is the only decapod shrimp in California that occurs in non-
arthropods.
The following is a very small fraction of the potentially hundreds of thousands of endangered arthropods, limited to species which have been formally recognized as to their special conservation status:
- Alabama cave shrimp ("Palaemonias alabamae")
- California freshwater shrimp ("Syncaris pacifica")
- Delhi Sands flower-loving fly ("Rhaphiomidas terminatus abdominalis"), due to severely limited range of habitat and development
- South African black millipedes ("Doratogonus" spp.), due to habitat destruction