The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed its review of an Endangered Species Act (ESA) petition to delist the Bone Cave harvestman, an eyeless relative of the spider found only in two Texas counties. The Service found the petition did not present substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that delisting may be warranted due to recovery or error in the original scientific data. The Bone Cave harvestman will continue to be protected as an endangered species under the ESA and the Service will take no further action on this petition.
Although this finding ends our formal consideration of the petition, we are in the process of conducting a species status assessment and a five-year status review of the Bone Cave harvestman, as required by the ESA. The assessment – expected to be completed by early 2018 – will help inform the five-year review, which will ensure that the species has the appropriate level of federal protection. The five-year review will likely be finalized in early 2019.
Additional information is available at https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/AustinTexas/.
