Paracalliope is a genus of amphipod

Amphipoda

Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. The name amphipoda means "different-footed", and refers to the different forms of appendages, unlike isopods, where all the legs are alike. Of the 7,000 species, 5,500 are classified...

 crustacean

Crustacean

Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...

s that live in Australasia

Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...

. They include the most common freshwater amphipods in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, where they are particularly frequent in slow-flowing reaches of rivers. They shelter among weed beds and are important prey items for fish such as the New Zealand smelt

New Zealand smelt

The New Zealand smelt, New Zealand common smelt, or New Zealand cucumber fish, Retropinna retropinna, is a smelt of the family Retropinnidae, found only in New Zealand at shallow depths in estuaries and rivers...

, Retropinna retropinna, which are in turn important prey for the freshwater eel

Eel

Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...

s Anguilla australis

Short-finned eel

The short-finned eel, Anguilla australis, is one of the 15 species of eel in the family Anguillidae. It is native to the lakes, dams and coastal rivers of south-eastern Australia, New Zealand, and much of the South Pacific, including New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island, Tahiti, and...

and Anguilla dieffenbachii

New Zealand longfin eel

The New Zealand Longfin eel is one of three freshwater eels found in New Zealand. The other two species of eel are the Shortfin eel which is also found in south-eastern Australia and the recently arrived Australian Longfin eel .The easiest method for identification of the New Zealand Longfin eel...

. Paracalliope acts as an intermediate host

Intermediate host

A secondary host or intermediate host is a host that harbors the parasite only for a short transition period, during which some developmental stage is completed. For trypanosomes, the cause of sleeping sickness, humans are the primary host, while the tsetse fly is the secondary host...

 for the nematode

Nematode

The nematodes or roundworms are the most diverse phylum of pseudocoelomates, and one of the most diverse of all animals. Nematode species are very difficult to distinguish; over 28,000 have been described, of which over 16,000 are parasitic. It has been estimated that the total number of nematode...

 Hedruris spinigera

Hedruris spinigera

Hedruris spinigera is a parasite belong to phylum Nematoda, commonly found in stomach of freshwater fish. The female Hedruris spinigera attaches itself onto the epithelium of the fishes' stomach using a hook at the curved tail...

, which can thus reach their primary host, the eel.

Species

Ten species have been described:

• Paracalliope australis (Haswell, 1880) –
• Paracalliope bacescui Ortiz & Lalana, 1997 –
• Paracalliope dichotomus Morino, 1991 –
• Paracalliope fluviatilis (Thomson, 1879) –
• Paracalliope karitane Barnard, 1972 –
• Paracalliope larai Knott, 1975 –
• Paracalliope lowryi Barnard & Drummond, 1992 –
• Paracalliope mapela Myers, 1985 –
• Paracalliope novaecaledoniae Ruffo & Paiotta, 1972 –
• Paracalliope vicinus Barnard & Drummond, 1992 –

See also

• Video of Paracalliope from Waikatere City Council