Dikerogammarus villosus
| Dikerogammarus villosus | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Amphipoda |
| Family: | Gammaridae |
| Genus: | Dikerogammarus |
| Species: | D. villosus |
| Binomial name | |
|
Dikerogammarus villosus (Sowinsky, 1894) |
|
| External identifiers for Dikerogammarus villosus | |
|---|---|
| Encyclopedia of Life | 3033511 |
| NCBI | 191522 |
| WoRMS | 148586 |
Dikerogammarus villosus, also known as the killer shrimp, is a species of amphipod crustacean native to the Ponto-Caspian region of eastern Europe, but which has become invasive across the western part of the continent. In the areas it has invaded, it lives in a wide range of habitats and will kill many other animals, often not eating them. It is fast-growing, reaching sexual maturity in 4–8 weeks. As it has moved through Europe it threatens other species and has already displaced native amphipods as well as other amphipods which had invaded areas previously.
D. villosus can grow up to 30 millimetres (1.2 in) in length, relatively large for a freshwater amphipod. It varies in appearance, with some specimens being striped, and some not. It has relatively large mandibles which allow it to be an effective predator.
D. villosus was originally found in the lower courses of large rivers in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea drainage basins. It has become an invasive species across central and western Europe, using the Danube river and its tributaries in its expansion. It is thought to have first escaped from the Danube in 1992 when the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal was opened and has since spread to nearly all the major rivers in western Europe, including the Rhône, Loire, Seine, Moselle, Meuse, Rhine and Main, as well as the Baltic Sea. It is unknown how the species is dispersed but it is probably related to shipping activity. It spread quickly through western Europe; found in the Rhine at the German–Dutch border (1995), the canals and rivers of northern Germany (1998), the Baltic Szczecin Lagoon (2001), the Moselle (2001), the Netherlands (2002), Lake Constance (2003), Lake Leman, the Rhine in France (2003), the Grand Canal d'Alsace (2003) and Lake Garda (2003). Its spread is thought to be related to the previous introduction of the zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha which it has evolved alongside. In September 2010, it was found in Grafham Water in Cambridgeshire, the first report of the species in the United Kingdom and it was found in Wales in November 2010.
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