Oregon Fairy Shrimp (Eubranchipus oregonus): Species Account Now Posted

 Oregon Fairy Shrimp, photo by Thalia Grant

A new species account for the Oregon Fairy Shrimp (Eubranchipus oregonus), written by reseacher Thalia Grant, is now posted on E-Fauna BC. This tiny crustacean species is primarily a species of western North America (disjunct in Oklahoma), where it is reported from California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. In British Columbia, it is described by Thalia as "recorded from Vancouver Island, Salt Spring Island, Texada Island, Galiano Island and on the lower mainland between the US border and Whistler, with one historical outlying record from Kamloops (RBCM collection). It is now rare on the mainland of British Columbia. The species was first described in Oregon, in 1930. It was first collected in Hope, BC, in 1918 but at the time was misidentified as Eubranchipus vernalis (Johansen, 1921; Ferguson, 1935)."  

Thalia describes the habitat of the Oregon Fairy Shrimp as follows:  "[It] occupies small, freshwater ephemeral ponds from sea level to 1500 meters elevation. It is restricted to small water bodies that are neutral to mildly acidic, low in dissolved solids and turbidity, have little or no flow, and are inundated for several months (Eng et. al, 1990). Habitat ranges from deciduous or mixed forest, to wet meadow and Typha-dominated pools, with some shade and proximity to coniferous forest being frequent habitat descriptors (Hill et. al, 1997)."

Thalia Grant is a recognized expert on the Galapagos, and has been working on Eubranchipus oregonus with John Richardson at UBC.  She has recently published a book titled Darwin in Galapagos: Footsteps to a New World (2009).  Her most recent Galapagos research has focused on the distribution and breeding behavior of the world’s rarest gull, the Lava Gull (Leucophaeus fuliginosus).

Read more about the Oregon Fairy Shrimp on our atlas page, found here.
Read more about Thalia's book, co-authored by her husband Greg Estes, here. 
View Thalia's photos of the Oregon Fairy Shrimp on E-Fauna BC here.