Stygofauna of the Pilbara

What are stygofauna ?

• Ground water fauna, or stygofauna, are animals that live permanently underground in water.
• Most stygofauna are small crustaceans that are between 0.3 to 10 millimetres in length. Other stygofauna include fish, worms, snails, mites and insects.
• Stygofauna live in a range of groundwater habitats - from tiny spaces between sand grains to pools and streams in caves.
• As stygofauna have evolved in the dark, they lack eyes and pigmentation but compensate for this by having well elongated feelers.

Stygofauna
• Western Australia has two threatened stygofaunal fish species:
  • Blind cave eel (Ophisternon candidum)
  • Blind gungeon (Milyeringa veritas).
    Both are found in the Cape Range area near Exmouth
• Stygofauna are an important, but under-researched, part of Western Australia's biodiversity.