Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Girard, 1852
Size
Maximum size is a total carapace length (CPL) of 61 mm (2.38 in.) However, adults range from approx CPL 40mm to 61mm - Juveniles are CPL less than 40mm (1.56 in.)
Identification
Coloration: reddish-brown or grayish with bright or pastel shades of red and blue along margins and crevices
Spines: lacking marginal, cephalic; cervical spines present in juveniles, but not adults
Rostrum: wide and squarish but with converging margins, somewhat long; concave; small pinched acumen
Areola: linear (or nearly so), or obliterated (closed)
Chelae: robust; strong dorsolatitudinal ridges; having broad shallow curved excision in proximal half of movable dactyl; large tubercle about midway on mesial margin of fixed finger (in adults); palm has two lateral rows of tubercles, and a third dorsally from base of palm diagonally to base of dactyl
Other characteristics:
- eyes well developed
- form I male gonopod: corneous central projection somewhat rounded and not bearing subapical notch; central projection longer than mesial process; mesial process inflated and bulbous at base, tapering distally
(See
Illustration [Hobbs Jr., 1989])
Range
"Very widespread east of the Rockies and south of the Great Lakes, except peninsular Florida and the Alleghenies; not reported northeast of New Jersey in the East and east of western Pennsylvania in the Mississippi drainage system." (Hobbs Jr., 1989)
“throughout Cumberlands (Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama), avoiding areas of high gradient” (Bouchard, 1974)
Habitat
"Burrows (primary burrower); often found in ponds or streams in the spring season." (Hobbs Jr., 1989)
“Primary burrower along water courses and in low swampy areas. Adults, and especially juveniles, also collected in epigean bodies of water” (Bouchard 1974)
Life Cycle
“amplexus in fall; spring brooding” (NHP ICAS 1999)
Remarks
Considered an almost certain species complex in need of revision.
Print References
Bouchard, R. W. 1974. Geography and ecology of crayfishes of the Cumberland plateau and Cumberland mountains, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. Part II. The genera Fallicambarus and Cambarus. Freshwater Crayfish 2: International Symposium on Freshwater Crayfish, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Hobbs, H.H. Jr. 1989. An illustrated checklist of the American crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidae, Cambaridae, and Parastacidae). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology no. 480. 236 pp.
Natural Heritage Program (NHP) Invertebrate Characterization Abstracts (State of North Carolina) (ICAS). 1999. Printed from the Biological Conservation Database (BCD) by John Finnegan.
Taylor, Chris A. and Guenter A. Schuster, 2004. The Crayfishes of Kentucky. Illinois Natural History Survey Special Publication No. 28. viii + 210pp.
