Classification: Nongame Fish - Crustacean
National Range:“in the coastal plain from the Pee Dee River system in South Carolina and southern North Carolina southward to the Santee River basin in South Carolina” (Hobbs Jr. 1989)
NC Physiographic Region(s): coastal plain
River Basin(s): Lumber, Waccamaw, possibly lower Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear
Adult Habitat: “lentic and lotic situations and burrows” (Hobbs Jr. 1989); slow, slack, or stagnant areas (like pools) in piedmont streams; associated with vegetation or woody debris in swamps
Juvenile Habitat: same as adults but more associated with littoral areas
Reproductive Season: late summer, fall
Species associates: fall and spring but extended
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: Cooper 1998, 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.