Classification: Special Concern
National Range: "known only from the Little Tennessee River in Rabun County, Georgia, and Macon County, North Carolina" (Hobbs Jr. 1989) Also, known from Swain and Jackson counties.
NC Physiographic Region(s): western mountains; likely absent from higher elevations
River Basin(s): upper Little Tennessee
Adult Habitat: "streams" (Hobbs Jr. 1989); "streams of medium to low gradient, flowing in some cases over gravel and rubble and in other cases over heavy sediments" (McLarney 1993); "associated with debris in slower parts of swift streams and areas lacking other crayfish competitors; seems unable to compete with C.bartonii in riffle areas; seems to hide in trapped leaf debris" (NHP ICAS 1999)
Reproductive Season: spring and fall
Species associates: C. bartonii, C. asperimanus
Conservation status: state-listed as Special Concern in North Carolina (J.E. Cooper and W.O. McLarney in Clamp 1999); considered by Taylor et al. (1996) to be Endangered
Identification references: Hobbs Jr. 1989, Hobbs 1991; also see description by J.E. Cooper and W.O. McLarney in Clamp (1999)
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 unless otherwise stated.