‘Dead Shrimp Blues’
I woke up this mornin’ and all my shrimps was dead and gone
So sang the legendary blues artist Robert Johnson back in 1937. Sadly, it’s a lyric which resonates today, according to a study led by the Museum and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Almost 28% of the world’s 762 freshwater shrimp species, a group which supports the livelihoods of some of the world’s poorest communities, are now threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The main threats include urban and agricultural pollution, human intrusions and disturbance, and invasive species.
“Freshwater shrimps are extensively harvested for human food, especially by the poorest communities in tropical regions, where they often dominate the biomass of streams and play a key role in regulating many ecosystem functions. However, little is known about the impacts the loss of these species may cause to ecosystem services,” say the Museum’s Sammy De Grave, lead author of the report, which is published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Two species were declared as Extinct and a further ten are also Possibly Extinct, but require field surveys to confirm that status. Several of these species are only known from a single cave or stream in locations which have undergone significant levels of habitat degradation and conversion, and have not been sighted for decades. For example, Macrobrachium purpureamanus is only known from peat swamps on Kundur Island, Riau Archipelago (Indonesia), an area which from 1998 has been extensively converted to an oil palm plantation.
The research, which collated distribution data for all species, identified areas containing high levels of species diversity in the Western Ghats, Madagascar, the Guyana Shield area, the upper Amazon, Sulawesi and Indo-China. Additionally, high concentrations of cave-dwelling species were found in areas of China, the western Balkan Peninsula, the Philippines and Cuba.
Although threatened species are found across the globe, notable concentrations were found in Sulawesi (Indonesia), Cuba, the Philippines and southern China, many of which are restricted to cave habitats. As well as cave-dwelling species, those restricted to lakes and freshwater springs also face higher levels of threat. The Alabama Cave Shrimp (Palaemonias alabamae), for example, is listed as Endangered, and is known from only four cave systems in Alabama, USA that are currently under threat from groundwater abstraction and habitat change.
As well as making a number of recommendations for conservation actions, the report stresses the urgent need for field research to increase understanding of the life histories, threats and distribution of many shrimp species.
“The high levels of extinction threat that the team found for freshwater shrimps have also been found for freshwater crabs and crayfish, and these studies of global faunas highlight the fragile state of freshwater invertebrates across the world,” says Neil Cumberlidge, Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Freshwater Crustacean Specialist Group.
“Sadly, the prospect of losing these important species often goes unnoticed. The information on these threatened freshwater crustaceans is readily available on the IUCN Red List and needs to be incorporated into decision making at all levels if we are to protect the world’s rapidly deteriorating freshwater habitats and the amazing but highly threatened species that live there.”
The study, Dead Shrimp Blues: A global assessment of extinction risk in freshwater shrimp (Decapoda: Caridea), involved researchers from the UK, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore and Taiwan.
Sammy De Grave – Head of Research
Working on the Lepidoptera Project in the Entomology department keeps me very busy during the day, but I rarely get to see other parts of the Life Collections. So it was a real treat when my boss Darren said I could look at the specimens in the bird skin store. While carefully going through the drawers, I found this spectacular little bird from the family Nectariniidae. The species is Cinnyris solaris, which is also has the evocative name of Flame-Breasted Sun Bird. This particular specimen was an amazing surprise, because of the label data. It states:
In 1893, the major portion of the collection was donated to the British Museum in London via a relative, Miss Pascoe, but she donated the remainder to the Hope Department here at the Museum in 1909. Alfred Russel Wallace himself was said to have suggested this. These items were mostly insects, but also included this beautiful Flame-Breasted Sun Bird. Today the Flame-Breasted Sun Bird is a scarce species due to its limited island range, but is not considered threatened. I feel privileged to have chanced across such an amazing specimen in the bird stores. Gina Allnatt, Curatorial assistant (Lepidoptera) ** Letter used by Gina for research can be seen at 
The big ones are from a family of beetles called Cerambycidae or Longhorn Beetles. This family is found all over the world and varies greatly in size and colour. These ones are particularly interesting to me because of the historic collection they are from. The vast Baden-Sommer collection, containing many different beetle families, came to the museum via a dealer in 1910 and unusually it is still in its original layout. The labels you can see in the drawer were written by the two entomologists that collected the specimens, J. Baden and M. Sommer.
These are my first love when it comes to beetles. The Histeridae, or Clown Beetles, vary a lot in size; the one in my hand (below) is about as big as they get, but they can be as small as 1 mm in length.
I have re-curated all of the Museum’s historic Histeridae specimens and mounted up many modern ones, like you can see above. This modern system of trays and pest proof drawers ensures the longevity of specimens, as well as making them easier to access.
More Than A Dodo 