Fauna of the Australian Capital Territory
The Murray River crayfish has an ornate spiny abdomen with four rows of spines, and two large white claws.
Armadillidium vulgare is frequent in gardens, coloured metallic grey, and rolls up into perfect balls.
[1] Onychophorans, often known as velvet worms, are found in the alpine areas and under logs in sclerophyll forest.
[2] The Atlas of Living Australia lists these protozoa, which include slime molds: Arcyria, Badhamia, Ceratiomyxa, Comatricha, Craterium, Diachea, Diderma, Didymium, Leocarpus, Lycogala, Physarum and Stemonitopsis in the Australian Capital Territory.
The most famous is the Bogong moth, which aestivates in the Brindabella Ranges above 1300 m. It migrates through the territory in October and March when it is attracted in huge numbers by bright lights in the city, sometimes creating a major nuisance.
Bermius brachycerus is found in reed beds alongside streams and rivers.
Heterojapyx evansi is a primitive insect that lives in leaf litter in mountain forests.
Chaetolotis amy is a glossy black colour with a metallic bluish green sheen.
Adam Slipinski auctioned off the naming rights to this beetle in 2003 to raise money in support of the Canberra bushfires of 2003.
Scale insects suck sap from plants, are stationary and covered by a flattened disk.
The San Jose scale is a tiny grey dot that attacks trees.
The greenhouse whitefly is a small aphid with white wings that attacks weeds and broadleaf vegetables.
[20] Yet more Pulmonata species in the ACT include Austrorhytida glaciamans (Koscuiszko carnivorous snail), Dentherona (Dentherona) illustra, Gyraulus (Pygmanisus) scottianus, Isidorella newcombi, Oxychilus cellarius (cellar glass-snail), and Trocholaoma ninguicola.
Lesser known fish are the two-spined blackfish, which survives in the Cotter catchment, the trout cod, which is locally extinct but being restocked, silver perch, which is near local extinction, Macquarie perch, which is endangered but still survives in the Cotter River, and the mountain galaxias, an increasingly threatened small fish now only found in small streams free of trout.
In the dry woodland and sclerophyll forest the most frequent frogs are the pobblebonk and common eastern froglet.
The northern corroboree frog has a dramatic yellow and black striped appearance, but is very rare; a breeding program is trying to save it from extinction.
It lives in high, boggy country in the ACT and also in the Fiery Range in New South Wales.
The deliberately introduced common myna is an environmental pest that is firmly established in the urban area.
The eastern grey kangaroo reaches the highest population densities anywhere in ACT grasslands and is the animal most often killed on the roads.
The swamp wallaby is common in the ranges and persists in lowland reserves containing wooded areas with a shrub layer.
Wallaroos are increasing their distribution through the mountain areas and lowland reserves but are common in only two or three sites.
The common wombat lives in the high country and along river banks, emerging from its burrow at dusk but is increasing its distribution through rural areas and lowland reserves.
Pigs live in the mountains and damage plants; they are controlled by hunting and poisoning.
European fallow deer and wild goats occur in low numbers.
Feral dogs interbreed with, and threaten the genome of, dingos; both are trapped and baited on the edge of rural properties to protect sheep.
