Santee Crayfish

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:

• body shape: cylindrical, large animal
• coloration:  shades of tan, brown, and green with dark speckles or light mottling
• spines: strong cervical, cephalic, branchiostegal, and marginal spines
• rostrum: long; with marginal spines and long spiniform acumen
• areola: narrow
• chelae: not robust
• other characteristics: n/a
• form I male gonopod: distal ¼ of shaft straight; subapical setae arising from promiment knob like eminence at cephalic margin; setae and knob cephalic to base of cephalic process, not hiding part of cephalic process when viewed laterally

Notes:  very difficult to distinguish from P. acutus where they co-occur (distinguishable only with form I male and can be confusing even then)