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The aquatic Comal Springs riffle beetle sports a mass of tiny, unwettable hairs on its underside, which it uses to maintain a thin bubble of air that allows it to breathe while it swims. But this remarkable respiration method doesn’t work well when normally clean, flowing water dries up and stagnates, reducing levels of dissolved oxygen. If groundwater pumping and pollution continue to affect the Texas springs this riffle beetle calls home, it won’t have much choice but to suffocate as a species.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
YEAR LISTED: 1997
CRITICAL HABITAT: Approximately 30.3 acres in central Texas designated in 2007
RECOVERY PLAN: None
RANGE: Comal Springs in Comal County, Texas and San Marcos Springs in Hays County, Texas
THREATS: Decreased spring flow due to increased use of groundwater resources; drought; increased flooding and erosion, pollution, siltation, and storm-water runoff associated with urbanization; and the presence of exotic species
POPULATION TREND: Comal Springs riffle beetles have been collected from spring runs 1, 2 and 3 at Comal Springs and a single specimen was taken from San Marcos Springs. It is not known whether this species historically ranged in other springs that are now dry almost all the time, such as San Pedro Springs and San Antonio Springs.
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SAVING THE COMAL SPRINGS RIFFLE BEETLE
The Comal Springs riffle beetle, along with its endangered fellows the Comal Springs dryopid beetle and the Peck’s cave amphipod, once survived a drought that stopped the flow of Comal Springs from June 13 through November 3, 1956. The fact that these invertebrates weren’t extirpated at that time says a lot for their tenacity, but all three species were left devastated and still have very small populations. Today, groundwater pumping at Edwards Aquifer is greatly reducing the water flow of the springs in which these species are found, and could result in years — not months — of significant drying. To make the situation worse, pollution from myriad other human activities contaminates what water remains.
The Comal Springs riffle beetle, Comal Springs dryopid beetle, and Peck’s cave amphipod were all proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act in 1994. However, a congressionally imposed moratorium on final listing actions and reduced funding left the invertebrates without protection until 1997. In that year, all three were declared endangered, but no critical habitat was designated.
To protect the invertebrates’ home, the Center sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2003, and finally, four years later, critical habitat was designated for all three species. But this designation, part of an arbitrary and capricious decision ordered by former Interior Department official Julie MacDonald, covered a ridiculously small area — not nearly enough to ensure the invertebrates’ recovery. In August of 2007 we filed a notice of intent to sue the Department of Interior and the Fish and Wildlife Service over this unlawful designation, as well as for illegally failing to implement protections for 54 other imperiled species. More litigation, specifically advocating for these three invertebrates and other Texas species, is planned.
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Contact: Kierán Suckling
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