A team of American, German and Spanish scientists have discovered new species of a crustacean and two worms in an underwater cave in the Canary Islands.

The primitive crustacean named Speleonectes (cave swimmer) atlantida was found in the Tunnel de la Atlantida, the world's longest submarine lava tube on Lanzarote, according to the scientists from Texas A&M University and Pennsylvania State University in the U.S., the University of La Laguna in Spain, and the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover and University of Hamburg in Germany.

Two new species of annelid worms of the class Polychaeta were also discovered by the scientist while exploring the tunnel.

The Speleonectes atlantida is the second species of Remipedia found in the tunnel when its DNA was compared to the previous crustacean, the Speleonectes ondinae, found in 1985, said Prof. Stefan Koenemann from the Institute for Animal Ecology and Cell Biology of TiHo Hannover.

A report on the new discoveries will be published in the September issue of the Springer journal Marine Biodiversity.