Classification: Nongame Fish - Crustacean
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:
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.