Kauaʻi cave amphipod

About Kauaʻi cave amphipod

Spelaeorchestia koloana is an amphipod crustacean in the family Talitridae. Published sources characterize its origin status as endemic to Kauaʻi. Published Kauaʻi evidence documents the species from Kōloa Basin cave habitat. Evidence types include federal species record. These records establish a documented Kauaʻi occurrence but are not automatically interpreted as a present-day abundance estimate. The documented Kauaʻi habitat context includes terrestrial lava-tube cave. For current-status context, extant federal species record; precise localities sensitive. This obligate cave amphipod is restricted to the Kōloa Basin on Kauaʻi and has been federally listed as endangered since 2000. Exact cave locations should not be published. Its documented conservation status in the reviewed material is Endangered — U.S. Endangered Species Act. Sensitive locality information is therefore generalized in public display. The available Kauaʻi evidence does not support adding island-specific claims about diet, reproduction, behavior, population size, or trend unless those points are stated in the cited sources, so they are not inferred here. Keeping the accepted taxonomic concept together with the dated occurrence evidence allows later surveys to distinguish historical documentation from contemporary status.