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Faxonius palmeri

(Faxon, 1884)

Gray-speckled Crayfish

G5Secure Found in 2 roadless areas NatureServe Explorer →
G5SecureGlobal Rank
Least concernIUCN
LowThreat Impact
Identity
Unique IDELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.962700
Element CodeICMAL11930
Record TypeSPECIES
ClassificationSpecies
Classification StatusStandard
Name CategoryInvertebrate Animal
IUCNLeast concern
Endemicendemic to a single nation
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumArthropoda
ClassMalacostraca
OrderDecapoda
FamilyCambaridae
GenusFaxonius
Synonyms
Orconectes palmeri(Faxon, 1884)
Concept Reference
Johnson, D.P. 2010. Four new crayfishes (Decapoda: Cambaridae) of the genus Orconectes from Texas. Zootaxa. 2626:1-45
Taxonomic Comments
Based on Crandall and De Grave (2017), the representatives of Orconectes form at least two distinct groups. The nominal group (the "cave Orconectes") form a monophyletic group that is more closely related to members of Cambarus, while the remaining "Orconectes" are more closely related to Barbicambarus, Creaserinus, and other species of Cambarus (Crandall and Fitzpatrick 1996, Fetzner 1996). As the type species of Orconectes, Orconectes inermis Cope, 1872, belongs to the cave-dwelling group, the genus is herein restricted to just those taxa. The surface-dwelling taxa now excluded from Orconectes sensu stricto are herein placed in the resurrected genus Faxonius Ortmann, 1905a, the oldest available name previously considered to be a synonym of Orconectes Cope, 1872.

Johnson (2010) split Orconectes palmeri lonigmanus into three closely allied taxa; O. p. longimanus, O. texanus (n. sp.), and O. occidentalis (n. sp.).
Conservation Status
Review Date2009-07-01
Change Date1996-02-19
Edition Date2009-07-01
Edition AuthorsCordeiro, J.
Threat ImpactLow
Range Extent20,000-200,000 square km (about 8000-80,000 square miles)
Number of Occurrences> 300
Rank Reasons
It occurs as three weakly differentiated subspecies from southeastern Missouri and adjacent sections of Kentucky and Tennessee, southward along the Mississippi River to Louisiana and westward to central Texas and the Oklahoma panhandle (Pflieger, 1996).
Range Extent Comments
It occurs as three weakly differentiated subspecies from southeastern Missouri and adjacent sections of Kentucky and Tennessee, southward along the Mississippi River to Louisiana and westward to central Texas and the Oklahoma panhandle (Pflieger, 1996). Orconectes palmeri creolanus inhabits the Pearl and Pascagoula rivers and Lake Pontchartrain in Mississippi and Louisiana in (Hobbs, 1974). Orconectes palmeri longimanus inhabits the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Louisiana (Metcalf and Distler, 1963; Hobbs, 1974; Pflieger, 1996). Orconectes palmeri palmeri inhabits the Lower Mississippi Valley occurring in western Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi and in eastern Missouri and Arkansas (Hobbs, 1974; Burr and Hobbs, 1984).
Occurrences Comments
In Kansas, subspecies longimanus occurs in the Arkansas River basin in Cowley Co. (Ghedotti, 1998). Surveys from 2002 to 2004 uncovered Orconectes palmeri longimanus from seven streams in the Kiamichi River watershed in Oklahoma (Jones and Bergey, 2007). In Missouri, it occurs widely in the Lowlands Faunal Region and into the lower reaches of Ozark streams that flow into the lowlands (Pflieger, 1996). In Texas, subspecies longimanus is common in the Red River basin along the northern border of the state and is occasionally caught in the eastern part of the state (Johnson and Johnson, 2008); and also the Middle Colorado basin (J. Cordeiro, pers. obs., 2009). Subspecies creolanus is restricted to the Coastal Plain in Georgia (Skelton, 2010).
Threat Impact Comments
There are no known major threats.
Ecology & Habitat

Habitat

Preferred habitat is permanently running streams with clay banks and sand and coarse gravel substrate (Hogger, 1988). Pflieger (1996) claims it is strictely confined to flowing waters in ditches and streams, not swamps sloughs and natural lakes. In Texas, holes in steep banks and root masses are the favored cover during daytime in more permanent streams and Red River tributaries are usually shallow except during rainy periods when submerged rocks and logs become favored sites in shallow stream beds (Johnson and Johnson, 2008).
Other Nations (1)
United StatesN5
ProvinceRankNative
MissouriSNRYes
KentuckySNRYes
GeorgiaSNANo
LouisianaS5Yes
KansasS1Yes
MississippiS5Yes
TennesseeS5Yes
TexasSNRYes
OklahomaSNRYes
ArkansasS4Yes
Roadless Areas (2)
Arkansas (2)
AreaForestAcres
Blue MountainOuachita National Forest9,755
East ForkOzark-St. Francis National Forest13,037
References (15)
  1. Burr, B. M. and H. H. Hobbs, Jr. 1984. Additions to the crayfish fauna of Kentucky, with new locality records for <i>Cambarellus shufeldtii</i>. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Sciences 45:14-18.
  2. Crandall, K. A., and S. De Grave. 2017. An updated classification of the freshwater crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidea) of the world, with a complete species list. Journal of Crustacean Biology 37(5):615-653.
  3. Ghedotti, M.J. 1998. An annotated list of the crayfishes of Kansas with first records of <i>Orconectes macrus</i> and <i>Procambarus acutus</i> in Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 101(1-2):54-57.
  4. Hobbs, H.H., Jr. 1974. A checklist of the North American and middle American crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidae and Cambari dae). Smithsonian Contrib. to Zool. 166:1-161.
  5. Hobbs, H. H., Jr. 1989. An Illustrated Checklist of the American Crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidae, Cambaridae, and Parastacidae). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 480:1-236.
  6. Hogger, J.B. 1988. Ecology, population biology and behaviour. Chapter 5, pages 114-144 In D.M. Holdich and R.S. Lowery (eds.) Freshwater Crayfish. Biology, Management and Exploitation. Croom Helm: London, and Timber Press: Portland, Oregon. 498 pp.
  7. Johnson, D.P. 2010. Four new crayfishes (Decapoda: Cambaridae) of the genus <i>Orconectes</i> from Texas. Zootaxa. 2626:1-45
  8. Johnson, S.K. and N.K. Johnson. 2008. Texas Crawdads. Crawdad Club Designs: College Station, Texas. 160 pp.
  9. Jones, S.N. and E.A. Bergey. 2007. Habitat segregation in stream crayfishes: implications for conservation. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 26(1): 134-144.
  10. McLaughlin, P. A., D. K. Camp, M. V. Angel, E. L. Bousfield, P. Brunel, R. C. Brusca, D. Cadien, A. C. Cohen, K. Conlan, L. G. Eldredge, D. L. Felder, J. W. Goy, T. Haney, B. Hann, R. W. Heard, E. A. Hendrycks, H. H. Hobbs III, J. R. Holsinger, B. Kensley, D. R. Laubitz, S. E. LeCroy, R. Lemaitre, R. F. Maddocks, J. W. Martin, P. Mikkelsen, E. Nelson, W. A. Newman, R. M. Overstreet, W. J. Poly, W. W. Price, J. W. Reid, A. Robertson, D. C. Rogers, A. Ross, M. Schotte, F. Schram, C. Shih, L. Watling, G. D. F. Wilson, and D. D. Turgeon. 2005. Common and Scientific Names of Aquatic Invertebrates from the United States and Canada: Crustaceans. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 31. 545 pp.
  11. Metcalf, A. L. and D. A. Distler. 1963. The crayfish <i>Orconectes palmeri longimanus</i> (Faxon) in Kansas. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science. 66(1):141-147.
  12. Pflieger, W.L. [B. Dryden, editor]. 1996. The Crayfishes of Missouri. Missouri Department of Conservation, Jefferson City, Missouri. 152 pp.
  13. Skelton, C.E. 2010. History, status, and conservation of Georgia crayfishes. Southeastern Naturalist 9 (special issue 3):127-138.
  14. Taylor, C.A. and G.A. Schuster. 2004. The Crayfishes of Kentucky. Illinois Natural History Survey Special Publication, 28: viii + 210 pp.
  15. Taylor, C. A., G. A. Schuster, J. E. Cooper, R. J. DiStefano, A. G. Eversole, P. Hamr, H. H. Hobbs III, H. W. Robison, C. E. Skelton, and R. F. Thoma. 2007. A reassessment of the conservation status of crayfishes of the United States and Canada after 10+ years of increased awareness. Fisheries 32(8):371-389.