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Calico Crayfish

Orconectes immunis

Summary 4

Orconectes immunis, the calico crayfish or papershell crayfish, is a species of North American freshwater crayfish which has also been introduced to Europe, where it lives along the Upper Rhine. It lives in slow-flowing bodies of water, and can survive by burrowing if they dry out.

Diagnostic description 5

Male with hooks on 3rd pereiopods only; male first pleopod as described above; areola narrow.

Distribution 6

Global Range: (>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)) This is a wide-ranging species that occurs from southern Quebec and New England westward across the upper Midwest to Wyoming and eastern Colorado and the Dakotas and south to extreme northwestern Tennessee (Hobbs, 1989; Pflieger, 1996).

Habitat and ecology 7

Habitat and Ecology

This is a generalist species often found in roadside ditches, as well as ponds, flood plains, drainage ditches and small sluggish streams. It also occurs in higher gradient gravel bedded streams (Pflieger 1996, Williams 1954). The substrate in the habitats of this species is generally soft mud or clay with abundant aquatic vegetation (Crocker and Barr 1968, Berrill 1978). This species is also not an obligate burrower and so can also travel across dry ground, especially in wet weather and is thus able to move from pond to pond (Crocker and Barr 1968). This species is found to occur with other crayfish species such as Cambarus bartonii, Fallicambarus fodiens, Orconectes propinquus, Orconectes rusticus rusticus, Orconectes virilis and Orconectes obscurus (Berrill 1978, David et al. 1996, Hamr unpublished data).
Although this species has a broad ecological niche it is unable to colonize fast flowing streams of more than 26 cms-1 which restricts its distribution (Taylor et al. 2005).

Systems
  • Freshwater

Iucn red list assessment 8


Red List Category
LC
Least Concern

Red List Criteria

Version
3.1

Year Assessed
2010

Assessor/s
Adams, S., Schuster, G.A. & Taylor, C.A.

Reviewer/s
Collen, B. & Richman, N.

Contributor/s
Livingston, F., Livingston, F., Soulsby, A.-M., Batchelor, A., Dyer, E., Whitton, F., Milligan, H.T., Smith, J., Lutz, M.L., De Silva, R., McGuinness, S., Kasthala, G., Jopling, B., Sullivan, K. & Cryer, G.

Justification
Orconectes immunis has been assessed as Least Concern (LC). This generalist species has a very wide native distribution in North America and Canada, with no reported threats impacting it. Although it is unknown to what extent the harvesting of wild individuals of this species is having on the native population size, this species can tolerate poor habitat condition and coexist with invasive species. It is therefore unlikely to be currently threatened with extinction.

Nature serve conservation status 9

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Reasons: This is a wide-ranging species that occurs from southern Quebec and New England westward across the upper Midwest to Wyoming and eastern Colorado and south to extreme northwestern Tennessee (Hobbs, 1989). It is widespread and faces no threats.

Range description 10

This is a widespread crayfish speciesfound from Maine and Connecticut in the east to eastern Colorado and Wyoming in the west, and from Kentucky in the south to southern Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec in the north. Its presence in New England, including New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Massachusetts are probably the result of introductions. The presence of this species in Connecticut is questionable (Fetzner 2008, Pflieger 1996, Hobbs 1974, Hobbs 1989, Williams 1945, Aiken 1965, Simon et al. 2005). Since this species was introduced into Europe in the early 1990s is has steadily spread along the Rhine in Germany (Gelmar 2006). The native Extent of Occurrence (EOO) of this species has been estimated to exceed 6 million km2.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Lisa Brown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://www.flickr.com/photos/33695431@N00/3688974908
  2. (c) choua vang, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by choua vang
  3. (c) Astacoides, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Orconectes_immunis_Kalikokrebs_calico_crayfish.JPG
  4. Adapted by rkkessler from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orconectes_immunis
  5. (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28952633
  6. (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28952628
  7. (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/34615242
  8. (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/34615239
  9. (c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/28952621
  10. (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/34615240

More Info

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(c) NatureServe, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

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