Classification: Nongame Fish - Crustacean
National Range: “Headwater areas of the Hiwassee (Ocoee, Nottely, and Toccoa river basins), Savannah (Chattooga, Tugaloo, and Koewee river basins), and Chattahoochee river systems in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia” (Hobbs Jr. 1989)
NC Physiographic Region(s): southwestern mountains
River Basin(s): Hiwassee
Adult Habitat: “burrows and occasionally in streams” (Hobbs Jr. 1989); burrows in muck, some burrows submerged in seepage water, some crayfish found under rocks in these areas (Cooper and Braswell 1995); “primary burrower although may be collected in seepage areas, under rocks on the shore or the shoreline, and under rocks at midstream” (Williams and Bivens 1996); seepages and other mucky areas; mostly in burrows, but also under rocks in pools and slow runs along banks” (NHP ICAS 1999)
Reproductive Season: extended spring and extended fall
Species associates: n/a
Conservation status: placed on North Carolina Watch List (W.F. Adams and J.E. Cooper in Clamp 1999); considered by Taylor et al. (1996) to be currently stable throughout its range
Identification references: Hobbs Jr. 1989, Hobbs Jr. 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.