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Hi Guys!!

Back again with some more crays from the weekend trip to the FL panhandle. Here's the next one:

I think this one's C. diogenes - even though the color is off - I collected this one in a small overflow puddle/pond that had a tannish clay substrate:

According to the Hobbs paper I read, the spot I collected was supposed to be the type locality for Proc. hubbelli and I originally thought this was hubbelli, but after taking the pics I think it's diogenes. Any opinions? More to come:

Here's the next one: Collected in a location that Hobbs' notes said should be Proc. versutus, but this one looks to me more like spiculifer - any help?

I forgot to take a claw shot of this one, but on comparing this side by side with the spiculifer that I collected near Valdosta, GA last winter, I can see some obvious differences:

More later....

Yes that is C. diogenes and I think you are right, the other is P. spiculifer. I have run into similar problems going to type localities where there are several other species present. I have yet to find a C. nodosus at its type locality and can only find C. acanthura. Same problem with Fallicambarus hortoni.

Another late response. That is Cambarus striatus. Aside from the color differences that you mentioned, note that the shape of the rostrum is subtly different from that of diogenes (not necessarily obvious in the various line drawings). The Florida specimens were originally described by Hobbs as C. floridanus, but Bouchard synonomized floridanus with striatus. Hobbs had striatus (floridanus) only in the Ochlockonee and Chipola drainages in Florida, but it is widespread in the Choctawhatchee drainage and in the upper Florida portions of the Yellow and Blackwater drainages.

When I visited the type locality for hubbelli in 2004, I also collected striatus there. Although striatus was not expected, I was also not surprised, as I had previously collected it south of I-10 in Walton County in the late 80s. The hubbelli should have been abundantly available at that site by dipnetting in the ditches and along the margins of the deeper water on the north side of the highway. Hobbs also had hubbelli only in the Choctawhatchee drainage, but it is widespread throughout the Yellow and Blackwater drainages.

Wow that is what striatus looks like in FL???? It is no wonder Horton thought it was a different species. They look very different in TN and KY. However I would take any synonomies by Raymond Bouchard with some skepticism. I now have no doubt that striatus is a species complex and needs a lot of work.

Mudbug I would like to see a pic of the gonopods when this cray molts.

On page 128 of The Crayfishes of Georgia, Hobbs discusses the question and concurs with Bouchard's synonomization of the two. Striatus means striped, of course, but the Florida version is completely unstriped. Hobbs discusses the striped color pattern on page 130, but refers the reader to Bouchard (1978) for descriptions of the unstriped form. There are several ongoing genetic studies that should clarify the relationships.

I have only seen the striped form in KY. I have gotten solid color forms in TN. I have never collected striatus outside those two states.

You know the literature well. What are you studying?

For some reason my brain interpreted this as:

"The force is strong in this one"