Croatan Crayfish

National Range: “Carteret, Craven, Duplin, and Jones counties, North Carolina” (Hobbs Jr. 1989)

NC Physiographic Region(s): coastal plain

River Basin(s): Northeast Cape Fear, White Oak, may be expanding into lower reaches of Neuse (has been found in Craven Co.)

Adult Habitat: “temporary ponds, pools, and burrows (secondary burrower)” (Hobbs Jr. 1989);“temporary static waters; can burrow into substrate during drought; rivers, ponds, ditches, and borrow pits” (NHP ICAS 1999); swampy (often acidic) streams

Reproductive Season: n/a

Species associates: P. acutus but usually found alone

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 a species of Special Concern

Identification references: Cooper 1998, Hobbs Jr. 1989, Hobbs 1991

Taxonomic Description:

• body shape: cylindrical; fairly small species
• coloration: light brown or tan with highlights in pastels (greens, pinks, salmon) and often speckled with dark spots or mottled
• spines: branchiostegal spine present; marginal spines or tuberclesusually present; others lacking
• rostrum: short, blunt, fairly flat; usually with marginal spines or tubercles
• areola: wide
• chelae: having strong dorsolongitudinal ridges; not robust but fairly large for this genus
• other characteristics: n/a
• form I male gonopod: tip of gonopods angled less than 90 degrees from main shaft (terminal elements directed caudodistally); cephalic process not broad, situated mesial to and partly obscured by central projection; caudal process not flared, forming compressed plate along caudolateral margin of distal part of gonopod; mesial process directed caudomesially

Notes:  North Carolina endemic; part of the planirostris group;may be expanding its range into the lower Neuse River Basin via canals (Cooper and Braswell 1995)