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Classification: Non-native
National Range: “Northern Mexico to Escambia County, Florida, and north to southern Illinois and Ohio. Widely introduced in the United States and elsewhere; Huner (1986) recorded the following introductions: Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Island of Cyprus, Japan, Kenya, People’s Republic of China, Portugal, Spain, Taiwan, and Uganda. It has also been introduced into Oklahoma and into Utah (Johnson, 1986:630). Limited cultivation is in progress in Colombia, France, and Zambia, and introductions are planned or have been made in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe” (Hobbs Jr. 1989); many other nations (escapees from aquaculture facilities)
NC Physiographic Region(s): piedmont and coastal plain (Cooper et al. 1998, Fullerton and Watson 2001)
River Basin(s): Broad, lower Cape Fear, Catawba, French Broad, Lumber, Neuse, Pasquotank, Tar-Pamlico, Yadkin-Pee Dee
Adult Habitat: “lentic and lotic situations and burrows (tertiary burrower)” (Hobbs Jr. 1989);“in its native range this species prefers growths of aquatic vascular plants or leaf litter; tertiary burrower” (Bouchard 1974); “sluggish streams and lentic habitats, swamps, ditches, sloughs, ponds, etc. especially in vegetation, leaf litter, etc.; secondary burrower”(Williams and Bivens 1996); in backwater or swampy areas of reservoirs
Reproductive Season: winter??
Species associates: C. latimanus, C. reduncus,C. diogenes, C. sp. C, F. fodiens, and P. acutus, others?
Conservation status: Nonindigenous (non-native) species in North Carolina
Identification references: Cooper 1998, 1999; Hobbs Jr. 1989; Hobbs 1991
Taxonomic Description:
Crayfish Regulations (PDF)
Illustrations are reproduced with the permission of the Smithsonian Institution Press. We are grateful to them for allowing us to provide this useful information with the other materials provided herein. We also wish to recognize the tremendous contribution to crayfish biology by the author/artist, the late Horton H. Hobbs Jr.
The following illustration is reproduced from: Hobbs Jr., H. H. 1989. An illustrated checklist of the American crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidae, Cambaridae, and Parastacidae). Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, Number 480:1-236.
Credit NCWRC for all photos unless otherwise stated.