The Crayfish: An Introduction to the Study of Zoology.Huxley, Thomas Henry
Science
The Crayfish: An Introduction to the Study of Zoology.
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Crayfish; Zoology
Crossing the Pacific, we meet with some half-a-dozen kinds of
crayfishes,[30] different from those of the old world, but still
belonging to the genus _Astacus_, in British Columbia, Oregon, and
California. Beyond the Rocky Mountains, from the Great Lakes to
Guatemala, crayfishes abound, as many as thirty-two different species
having been described, but they all belong to the genus _Cambarus_
(fig. 63, p. 248). Species of this genus also occur in Cuba,[31]
but, so far as is at present known, not in any of the other West
Indian islands. The occurrence of a curious dimorphism among the male
_Cambari_ has been described by Dr. Hagen; and a blind _Cambarus_
{306} is found, along with other blind animals, in the subterranean
caves of Kentucky.
[30] Dr. Hagen in his “Monograph of the North American
Astacidæ,” enumerates six species; _A. Gambelii_, _A.
klamathensis_, _A. leenisculus_, _A. nigrescens_, _A. oreganus_,
_and A. Trowbridgii_.
[31] Von Martens. _Cambarus cubensis._ Archiv. für
Naturgeschichte, xxxviii.
All the crayfishes of the northern hemisphere belong to the
_Potamobiidæ_, and no members of this family are known to exist
south of the equator. The crayfishes of the southern hemisphere,
in fact, all belong to the division of the _Parastacidæ_, and in
respect of the number and variety of forms and the size which they
reach, the head-quarters of the _Parastacidæ_ is the continent of
Australia. Some of the Australian crayfishes (fig. 76) attain a foot
or more in length, and are as large as full-sized lobsters. The genus
_Engæus_ of Tasmania comprises small crayfish which, like some of the
_Cambari_, live habitually on land, in burrows which they excavate in
the soil.
New Zealand has a peculiar genus of crayfishes, _Paranephrops_, a
species of which is found in the Fiji Islands, but none are known to
occur elsewhere in Polynesia.
Two kinds of crayfish have been obtained in southern Brazil, and
have been described by Dr. v. Martens,[32] as _A. pilimanus_ and _A.
brasiliensis_. I have shown that they belong to a peculiar genus,
_Parastacus_. The former was procured at Porto Alegre, which is
situated in 30° S. Latitude, close to the mouth of the Jacuhy, at the
north end of the great Laguna do Patos, which {308} communicates
by a narrow passage with the sea; and also at Sta. Cruz in the upper
basin of the Rio Pardo, an affluent of the Jacuhy, “by digging it out
of holes in the ground.” The latter (_P. brasiliensis_, fig. 64) was
obtained at Porto Alegre, and further inland, in the region of the
primitive forest at Rodersburg, in shallow streams.
[32] Südbrasilische Süss- und Brackwasser Crustaceen, nach den
Sammlungen des Dr. Reinh. Hensel. Archiv. für Naturgeschichte,
XXXV. 1869.
[Illustration: FIG. 76.—Australian Crayfish (1/3 nat. size).[33]]
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