A shallow roadside pool in India’s Western Ghats seems to be peculiar at first look. Cattle wade in, vacationers cease for a breather, and beneath the floor small creatures go about their enterprise.
That humble scene now has a stunning forged member, a newly described fairy shrimp whose life performs out in heat, short-term water that usually dries up between seasons.
The animal’s whole recognized world matches inside a pool about 20 toes by 10 toes and a little bit over 3 toes deep.
The invention was reported by Avinash Isaac Vanjare and Prashant Manohar Katke of Ahmednagar School in Maharashtra (ACA), with coauthor Sameer M. Padhye.
Streptocephalus warliae
Researchers named the species Streptocephalus warliae and revealed the outline on July 24, 2025, noting distinctive options of its head appendages and reproductive anatomy. The common physique size is nineteen.1 millimeters, which is about 0.75 inch.
Males carry a particular triangular projection on the base of the second antenna’s distal section, and females present a deep notch on the tip of the second antenna.
The eggs are spherical and about 180 micrometers extensive, with raised ridges and depressed facilities.
The animal’s proportions fall comfortably inside the vary for its group, however the form and armature of these antennae are the giveaways that it’s one thing completely different.
That mixture units it other than associated South and Southeast Asian species described in earlier work.
Lifetime of a brief pool resident
Fairy shrimp belong to Anostraca, a gaggle of crustaceans that characteristically swim the wrong way up in ephemeral swimming pools that seem after rain and vanish within the dry season.
They propel themselves with leaflike legs whereas feeding on microscopic particles.
The the wrong way up posture shouldn’t be a stunt. It positions their limbs and mouthparts for environment friendly feeding close to the water’s floor, the place fantastic detritus and algae focus.
“Streptocephalus warliae sp. nov. is to date recognized solely from its sort locality,” wrote the research authors. The positioning sits on the Jawahar plateau in Maharashtra, a lateritic highland dotted with seasonal rock swimming pools.
Measurements on the pool inform a easy story. The basin is roughly 20 toes by 10 toes and about 3.3 toes deep, with water temperatures round 72 to 75 levels Fahrenheit, a pH between 7.2 and seven.4, and salinity close to 27 to 36 elements per million.
Different residents share the house, together with aquatic beetles, submerged vegetation, and tadpoles. Cattle use the pool for ingesting and bathing, and vacationers pause at its edge throughout drives by the plateau.
Streptocephalus warliae wants safety
“We recommend a pink itemizing of the species,” wrote Vanjare. That decision displays a fundamental actuality of small, remoted habitats: one misstep can erase a species.
Giant branchiopods throughout Asia are nonetheless underexplored, and lots of areas haven’t been surveyed with trendy instruments, which complicates danger evaluation for animals that may disappear earlier than we even know they exist. Urbanization and land conversion add stress to those transient waters.
The Western Ghats are acknowledged globally for top endemism and conservation worth, which raises the stakes for tiny specialists restricted to a single web site. Each new discover tightens the hyperlink between small swimming pools and regional biodiversity.
What makes this species stand out
The important thing traits of Streptocephalus warliae are exact and anatomical quite than flashy. The male’s second antenna bears that triangular basomedial projection, and the terminal constructions cut up into rami with a pointy angle and a selected sample of spines and pustulations.
Females carry an elongated second antenna with a deep apical notch and a brood pouch extending throughout a number of stomach segments.
These characters, taken collectively, separate the species from lookalikes that occupy completely different rock substrates in close by districts.
A hotspot with many gaps
Rocky outcrop swimming pools in Maharashtra assist numerous massive branchiopods, and surveys have proven a number of species partitioning habitats throughout lateritic and basaltic substrates.
That fantastic scale sorting could restrict overlap and make every pool sort essential in its personal proper.
Asia’s massive branchiopod document nonetheless reveals clean areas on the map. New sampling efforts proceed to show up species in locations the place individuals have seemed for many years for bigger animals however missed brief lived crustaceans that flash into existence with the rains.
Tradition in a scientific title
The species honors the indigenous Warli neighborhood that lives in and across the sort locality.
Warli art is historically executed with rice paste and gum on a pink ocher background, a apply carefully tied to seasonal rituals and on a regular basis life.
Naming a species after a area people sends a transparent sign about the place consideration belongs. Conservation begins with the individuals who know the land and its waters greatest.
A tiny pool seems to be dispensable till it turns into the entire world for a species. The habitat’s dimension and shallowness, measured in toes quite than miles, make it each accessible and fragile.
The animal’s eggs can persist by dry spells, ready for the subsequent rain to return the pool to life. That technique hedges towards drought, but it surely doesn’t defend towards concrete, quarrying, or contamination.
Subsequent steps for Streptocephalus warliae
The authors be aware that extra genetic information will assist make clear relationships amongst species that look related however cut up alongside habitat traces.
Integrative work that pairs DNA with morphology can reveal hidden range and information native safety.
Long run monitoring is the sensible step on the bottom. If the pool adjustments, cautious information will present when and the way, and that proof can assist swift motion.
The research is revealed in Zoosystematics and Evolution.
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