page_title: Wildlife of North Macedonia
section_title: Crustaceans
hierarchical_section_title: Wildlife of North Macedonia / Animals / Invertebrates / Arthropods / Crustaceans
caption_attribution_description: English: Chirocephalus diaphanus carinatus, Mountain lake Golina, Vevcani, Macedonia
context_page_description: Over 22,500 species of wildlife have been recorded in North Macedonia. The majority of these are animals, with invertebrates making up over half of the total species of recorded wildlife. Of these, the vast majority are insects, which include over 10,000 identified species. Over 3000 of these insects are beetles, with other large clades including Lepidoptera, flies, and Hymenoptera. Other arthropods invertebrate groups include Chelicerata and crustaceans. Among vertebrates, there have been over 300 species of birds recorded at some point, although not all nest in the area. There are over 80 species of both fish and mammals, 32 reptiles, and 14 amphibians.
  Over 4200 plants have been identified, with over 3700 of these being vascular plants. Forested area has expanded slightly in recent years, although this expansion was not shared evenly by different forest types. More than half of the country's forested area is considered deciduous. Over 2000 species of algae have been found, most of them within lakes. There are also 2000 species fungi, with 90% of these being Basidiomycota. In addition to these species, at least 450 lichens are present.
context_section_description: Of the 490 crustacean species found, 133 are considered endemic.
  Within the class Branchiopoda, the most numerous order is Diplostraca, which has 86 species. Alona smirnovi is endemic to Lake Ohrid. Of the other orders, there are six species of Anostraca, including Chirocephalus pelagonicus which is endemic to wetlands in the Pelagonia plain. The two species of order Notostraca (which contains only the Triopsidae family) present are Lepidurus apus and Triops cancriformis.
  All 172 representatives of the ostracods are from the order Podocopida. Numerous genera within this order have high levels of endemism.
  Of the class Maxillopoda, 146 species are copepods: 60 Cyclopoida, 54 Harpacticoida, 30 Calanoida, and two Poecilostomatoida. Both Cyclopoida and Harpacticoida contain several endemic genera. 12 of these copepods are known to be parasitic, found infecting fish in the major lakes. Other Maxillopoda include three Branchiura, all from the genus Argulus within the class Argulidae. One, Argulus foliaceus, is a parasite of at least three fish species. There is one representative of the Pentastomida known: Linguatula serrata, which is a human parasite.
  There are representatives of four orders of Malacostraca. Isopoda is represented by 50 species, of which about a third are endemic. Amphipoda is represented by 47 species, with five genera (Bogidiella, Gammarus, Niphargus, Hadzia, and Ignolfiella) containing many endemic species. Decapoda is represented by five species: two Astacidae (Austropotamobius torrentium and Astacus astacus), two Potamidae (Potamon fluviatile and Potamon ibericum), and one Atyidae (Atyaephyra stankoi, which was found in Lake Dojran). Bathynellacea is represented by three species: Bathynella natans, Parabathynella stygia, and Bathynella chappuisi.
  There are around 100 species of Myriapoda, including 18 endemic millipedes. There are 21 identified species of Entognatha, including 11 Collembola, eight Protura and two Diplura.
caption: Chirocephalus diaphanus in a mountain lake
exif: {}