December 2005 Volume 27 Issue 4

ISSN 1023-8174 The Official Newsletter of the International Association of Astacology

Inside this issue: A Productive Year For Describing

Cover Story 1 New Species ! Presidents Corner 2 Short Articles 4 Impact of the 4 Introduced Red Swamp Crayfish in Rice Field Ecosystems Overview of the 5 Crayfish Situation in Greece First Report of 6 Branchiobdellidans From Lake Tahoe News From Around the 8 World

Literature of Interest 12 to Astacologists Cambarus (Cambarus) eeseeohensis, one of two new species described by Roger Thoma in 2005. Photo ©2005 by Roger Thoma.

Keep up to date This past year has been a dalgo, Mexico (Lopez-Mejia et with crayfish productive one in terms of the al., 2005), a new Virilastacus was related news and number of new crayfish species described from Chile (Rudolph & events by joining described by astacologists. In Crandall, 2005), a new Asta- the crayfish list total, 10 species were described coides was described from server, CRAYFISH-L, as new to science, while one ad- Madagascar (Boyko et al., 2005), and/or the Fresh- ditional species was redescribed and four species of Euastacus water Crayfish Fo- based on old type materials (see were described from New South rum. This is also a Table 1 for a list of the new spe- Wales, Australia (Coughran, great way to keep cies). 2005, see also pg. 10). in touch with other Three species (2 Cambarus, 1 In addition, similis Astacologists and Orconectes) were described from Korea, was redescribed af- find out what is from the United States (Thoma ter the type material happening with et al., 2005, Thoma, 2005, Wet- (presumably lost for quite some the IAA. zel et al., 2005), a new Procam- barus was described from Hi- (Continued on page 3) Crayfish News y Volume 27 Issue 4: Page 1

Presidents Corner

Dear IAA members:

This is to quickly wish you my Australia for the 16th IAA Sympo- warmest “Happy New sium. You are all invited to take Year!” (this morning I started my part in this meeting. A number third class of the first semester!). of important decisions will be Francesca Gherardi, We certainly had a very busy made there. We will nominate IAA President 2005. We made a lot of field and the new President and Board, laboratory work, attended sev- and decide the venue for the 17th eral conferences, taught too IAA Symposium. Also, that will many classes, and wrote enough give all of us a chance to express papers. Indeed, 2006 will cer- our opinions about the future of tainly bring much more work to our beloved Society. H all of us. Our usual objectives will be: To increase and disseminate our knowledge. To find and pro- See you soon, pose measures to improve cray- Francesca Gherardi fish conservation and to counter- Department of Biology act biological invasions. To ex- and Genetics tend our passion and belief to University of Florence the younger generations. To de- Via Romana 17, 50125 velop our Society and find means Florence, Italy to improve its “health”. Remember that this coming August we will meet at the exotic location of the Gold Coast of

The International Association of Astacology (IAA), founded in Officers: Hintertal, Austria in 1972, is dedicated to the study, conservation, Francesca Gherardi, President, Department of Animal Biology and wise utilisation of freshwater crayfish. Any individual or firm and Genetics, University of Florence, via Romana 17, 50125 Firenze, interested in furthering the study of astacology is eligible for Italy. E-mail: [email protected] membership. Service to members include a quarterly newsletter, membership directory, bi-annual international symposia and Catherine Souty-Grosset, President-elect, Laboratoire de Géné- publication of the journal Freshwater Crayfish. tique et Biologie des Populations de Crustacés, University of Poitiers, UMR CNRS 6556, 86022 Poitiers Cedex, France. Secretariat: E-mail: [email protected] The International Association of Astacology has a permanent Elizabeth Watson, Secretary, DRA Aquatic Consultants, 20 Cedar secretariat managed by Bill Daniels. Address: IAA Secretariat, Road, Castle Donington, Derby, DE74 2LR. England. Room 123, Swingle Hall, Department of Fisheries and Allied Aqua- E-mail: [email protected] cultures, Auburn University, AL 36849-5419, USA. Keith Crandall, Past-President, Department of Integrative Biol- Tel: +1(334) 844-9123 / Fax: +1(334) 844-9208 ogy, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602-5255 USA. E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Web page: Statements and opinions expressed in Crayfish News are not http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/IAA/ necessarily those of the International Association of Webmaster: James W. Fetzner Jr. Astacology E-mail: [email protected] This issue edited by James W. Fetzner Jr. and Francesca Gherardi

Crayfish News y Volume 27 Issue 4: Page 2

(Continued from page 1) Kawai T and Min G-S (2005). Re-examination of Table 1. List of newly described crayfish spe- type material of cies. (Koelbel, 1892) (: ) ——————————————————— with a lectotype designation, re-description, and evaluation of geographical variation. Family: Cambaridae Proceedings of the Biological Society of Cambarus (Tubericambarus) polychromatus Washington 118(4): 777–793. Cambarus (Cambarus) eeseeohensis Orconectes (Procericambarus) pardalotus Lopez-Mejia M, Alvarez F, and Mejia-Ortiz LM Procambarus (Ortmannicus) hidalgoensis (2005). Procambarus (Ortmannicus) hidal- goensis (Crustacea: Decapoda: Cambaridae), Family: Parastacidae a new species of crayfish from Mexico. Pro- Astacoides hobbsi ceedings of the Biological Society of Wash- Euastacus dalagarbe ington 118(3): 558-565. Euastacus girurmulayn Euastacus guruhgi Rudolph EH and Crandall KA (2005). A new spe- cies of burrowing crayfish, Virilastacus ru- Euastacus jagabar capihuelensis (Crustacea: Decapoda: Virilastacus rucapihuelensis Parastacidae), from southern Chile. Proceed- ——————————————————–— ings of the Biological Society of Washington 118(4): 765–776. time) were recently found in the Natural History Museum in Vienna. Thoma RF, Jezerinac RF, and Simon TP (2005). For additional information, photos, ab- Cambarus (Tubericambarus) polychromatus (Decapoda: Cambaridae), a new species of stracts, and links to downloadable PDF files crayfish from the United States. Proceedings of these papers, please see the Freshwater of the Biological Society of Washington 118 Crayfish Forum at the following link (2): 326-336. http://147.72.68.29/crayfish/phpbb2/ viewforum.php?f=10. H Thoma RF (2005). Cambarus (Cambarus) eeseeo- hensis (Decapoda: Cambaridae), a new spe- cies of crayfish from the Linville River of James W. Fetzner Jr. North Carolina and its bearing on under- Section of Invertebrate Zoology standing the evolution of the subgenus Carnegie Museum of Natural History Cambarus. Proceedings of the Biological So- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. ciety of Washington 118(4): 794–802. [email protected] http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/ Wetzel JE, Poly WJ and Fetzner, JW Jr. (2005). Orconectes pardalotus, a new species of References: crayfish (Decapoda: Cambaridae) from the lower Ohio River with notes on its life his-

tory. Aqua, Journal of Ichthyology and Boyko CB, Ravoahangimalala RO, Randriamasi- Aquatic Biology 10(2): 57-72. manana D, and Razafindrazaka TH (2005). Astacoides hobbsi, a new crayfish (Crustacea: Decapoda: Parastacidae) from Madagascar. Zootaxa 1091: 41–51.

Coughran J (2005). New (Decapoda: Parastacidae: Euastacus) from northeastern New South Wales, Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 57(3): 361-374.

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Short Articles

Impact of the Introduced Red Swamp Crayfish do eat several rice pests and Crayfish in Rice Field Ecosystems this was demonstrated by our field moni- toring studies, experimental outdoor meso- cosms and laboratory work. In fact, the Scientific conclusions are presented for this presence of P. clarkii may significantly af- recently completed project, which was fect e.g. the abundance of Chironomus ri- funded by “FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e parius and Physa acuta. Our field work also Tecnologia”, project POCTI/2001/BSE/42558 demonstrated that crayfish adapt their diet and by FEDER. to the abundance of prey and this may eventually work as an important rice pest outbreak control mechanism. You can find more information, namely a project description and a publication list, Other rice pests, such as algae and on the project homepage: http:// macrophytes, are also consumed by cray- crayfishandrice.no.sapo.pt/index.htm fish. The amount of filamentous algae (Pithophora spp.) removed by each crayfish (g removed · g crayfish-1 · day-1) can be mod- This project showed how much and in elled by the use of the equation: what ways crayfish affect rice plants and y=0.0452x+0.0228 (n=35, r2=0.8743). Aver- also how these effects relate to both cray- age algae consumption rate was 0.057 g fish and plant growth phases. Larger cray- (live weight) · g crayfish-1 · day-1 in the ab- fish size results in larger negative effects on sence of other food items. We concluded rice plant establishment, and consumption that, when given a choice of several vege- is the most important cause of rice destruc- tal materials, crayfish usually prefer rice tion. Although the consumption rates may seedlings, although algae are consumed be rather low, a high number of seeds or more than other plant pests. seedlings are affected by crayfish. Recently The study of the interference of crayfish developed parts of the rice plant are pre- with rice field aquatic vertebrate fauna ferred and the effect is highest during the demonstrated that there may be an effect first days of growth. Seedlings are more af- of crayfish on amphibian populations. In fected by crayfish than seeds or older fact, our results indicate that P. clarkii is a plants. potential predator of amphibian eggs and The project also studied the effects of larvae. Hyla meridionalis tadpoles are more crayfish on the other rice field ecosystem vulnerable to predation than Rana perezi components namely on the algae, macro- and crayfish eat R. perezi eggs. Direct con- phytes, macroinvertebrates and water qual- sumption aquarium experiments showed ity. One of the main objectives was to that P. clarkii consumes mosquitofish, Gam- check if the indirect effects of crayfish on busia holbrooki, and that G. holbrooki con- rice would be positive or negative. We sumes P. clarkii juveniles. However, meso- found that crayfish change several water cosm experiments showed no significant quality variables, among which we empha- predation on mosquitofish by crayfish. size the turbidity of the water during early Moreover, G. holbrooki did not display rice growth. Nevertheless, the effects of anti-predator behavior when exposed to P. crayfish on the studied rice variety through clarkii under laboratory conditions. We be- water quality changes are not relevant to (Continued on page 7) early rice developmental stages.

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Overview of Crayfish Situation in Greece

This is the second Greek contribution to Crayfish News. Only recently have crayfish attracted scientific interest in Greece through a handful of people. Therefore, in- formation on crayfish species (native and alien) has been really scarce. In general, crayfish can be found in 19 out of 53 prefectures, forming isolated populations in relatively pristine water bod- ies. Three native species occur in Greek wa- ters: astacus, Astacus leptodactylus Figure 1: Male Cherax quadricarinatus in aquarium and Austropotamobius torrentium as well as (city of Igoumenitsa, N.W. Greece) (Photo by Costas one alien species Pacifastacus leniusculus. Perdikaris) Greece represents probably the most south- Holdich 2005). During 2005 accidental catch ern natural distribution limit for A. astacus of six specimens in the same river re- and A. torrentium. Concerning non indige- documented the occurrence of the species nous crayfish species, P. leniusculus was im- (Perdikaris et al. 2005). ported from Sweden and Germany during the early and late 1980s, respectively, in or- Finally, published work by Koutrakis et der to replace A. astacus stocks which were al. (2005) showed that a deep-dwelling A. diminishing at that time. torrentium population with bluish legs might live in depths up to 7,800 meters in- Recently, a male Cherax quadricarinatus side the Aggitis Cave in north-eastern was seen in a restaurant’s aquarium (city of Greece. Igoumenitsa, Region of Epirus), raising fears about uncontrolled imports of alien pet spe- There is a lot of work to be done, both cies (Fig. 1). On a subsequent visit to the from scientific and production points of nearby pet shop, three more C. quadricari- view, on distribution and population dy- natus were available to hobbyists at a price namics, genetics, reproduction and farming of € 9.5 each. of crayfish species. Moreover, several actions should be undertaken to reform the existing During our 2004-2005 survey, we found legislation, in order to protect native species that P. leniusculus not only established a and their habitats. H thriving population in the artificial Lake Agra (Region of Central Macedonia) but also Costas Perdikaris live together with A. torrentium. It is also Department of Aquaculture & Fisheries suspected that A. astacus may co-exist with Technological Educational Institute of Epirus these two species, as three large male speci- Irinis & Filias 1, GR-46100 Igoumenitsa, Greece mens were caught in a creek in close vicinity [email protected] to the lake. Manos Koutrakis As for A. leptodactylus, there was no re- Fisheries Research Institute cent information about occurrence, and the National Agricultural Research Foundation only three preserved samples from the River GR-64007 Nea Peramos, Kavala, Greece. Evros (natural border with Turkey in Thrace), dated back to the 19th century (Machino & (Continued on page 7)

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First Report of Branchiobdellidans attenuatus Holt, 1981, a widely distributed From Lake Tahoe species on P. leniusculus in the Northwest- ern U.S.A. Slides (USNM 101628 to 101635) were returned to the NMNH where the cor- There is strong evidence that crayfish did rect names have been added to the labels. not occur in Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada, Gelder et al., (2002: 460) noted that USA, before the documented introductions branchiobdellidans had not been reported of P. leniusculus between 1895 and 1916 from Nevada. As the eastern portion of (Abrahamsson & Goldman, 1970: 84). The Lake Tahoe occurs in Nevada and the cray- introductions probably consisted of all fish move freely about the lake, this State three subspecies of P. leniusculus from vari- can be considered to have branchiobdelli- ous watersheds, predominantly, but not dans. In addition, P. leniusculus were also necessarily restricted to Oregon. As a result, introduced into the Carson River and the current P. leniusculus population in the Washoe Lake, Nevada, about 100 years ago lake now consists of many hybrids (Abrahamsson & Goldman, 1970: 84). There- (Abrahamsson & Goldman, 1970). The nu- fore, branchiobdellidans were probably pre- merous introductions of signal crayfish sent on those crayfish too, but as far as the around the region have blurred the subspe- author is aware, specimens from the area cies characters to such an extent that this have not been examined for the ectosymbi- study only uses P. leniusculus unless a cita- onts. H tion refers to a particular subspecies.

Perry C. Holt visited Lake Tahoe, Califor- nia, in 1964, and was given a number of preserved signal crayfish, mainly Paci- Stuart R. Gelder fastacus leniusculus leniusculus (Dana, 1852) Department of Science and Math and a few Pacifastacus leniusculus University of Maine at Presque Isle trowbridgii (Stimpson, 1857), that had been 181 Main Street collected from a number of sites by local Presque Isle, ME 04769, USA. collectors. He (P. C. Holt, unpublished data) [email protected] removed the branchiobdellidans and identi- Fax: 1-(207)-768-9443 fied specimens of Xironogiton victoriensis Gelder & Hall, 1990, which he named Xi- ronogiton instabilis (Moore, 1894), along References: with those of an undescribed species. He gave these latter mounted specimens a Abrahamsson SAA and Goldman CR (1970). name but did not publish a named descrip- Distribution, density and production of tion of them. The mounted specimens were the crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus subsequently placed in the National Mu- Dana in Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada. seum of Natural History (NMNH), Smith- Oikos 21: 83-91. sonian Institution, Washington D.C., U.S.A., collection after Holt’s death. These undescribed specimens were ex- Gelder SR, Gagnon NL and Nelson K (2002). amined by the author in the belief that a Taxonomic considerations and distribu- new species of branchiobdellidan from Lake tion of the Branchiobdellida (Annelida: Tahoe might prove to be unique, or of lim- Clitellata) on the North American conti- ited distribution to the area. However, all nent. Northeastern Naturalist 9: 451-468. the specimens turned out to be Sathodrilus

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(Continued from page 4) (Continued from page 5) lieve that in rice field conditions the impact [email protected] of crayfish on mosquito fish is negligible. With the scientific data obtained by this Yoichi Machino project we were able to design applied field Higashi-Monzen-cho 520-4, Sakyo-ku experiments namely devoted to testing new Kyoto 606-8345, Japan control methods for crayfish effects on rice. [email protected] The preliminary results of these experiments are quite promising and hopefully the new rice growth techniques will spread rapidly Literature cited: among farmers. H Pedro Anastácio Koutrakis E.T., Machino Y., Kallianiotis A. & Department of Ecology, University of Évora Holdich D.M. (2005). Austropotamobius Rua Romão Ramalho 59 torrentium (Schrank, 1803) in the Aggitis 7000-671 Évora Cave (Northern Greece). Is it a cave- Portugal dwelling species? Bulletin français de la [email protected] Pêche et de la Pisciculture 376/377 : 529- 538. www.decol.uevora.pt\anastacio Machino Y & Holdich DM (2005). Distribu- (Continued from page 8) tion of crayfish in Europe and adjoining countries: updates and comments. Fresh- page 9 for a table of contents for the third water Crayfish, 15 (in press). volume. Also, the table of contents for this

and previous volumes of BFPP relating to CRAYNET meetings have been posted to the Perdikaris C, Koutrakis M & Saraglidou V IAA website at http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/ (2005). Occurrence of narrow-clawed crayfish/IAA/BFPP1_toc.htm. H crayfish Astacus leptodactylus (Eschscholtz 1823) in River Evros (Thrace,

Greece). Proceedings of the 12th Hellenic Catherine Souty-Grosset Congress of Ichthyologists. Drama, [email protected] Greece 13-16 October 2005. (in Greek with English abstract).

(Continued from page 11) exhibits anti-predator behavior in the pres- ence of P. clarkii. To address this question, busia holbrooki, and the red swamp cray- laboratory tests were performed in experi- fish, Procambarus clarkii, are native to mental aquaria, analyzing the following North America, and have been introduced behavioral traits of the mosquitofish: activ- worldwide, causing negative effects on ity, distance from the predator, and space aquatic ecosystems. The interactions be- use. The mosquitofish were generally active tween these exotic species are poorly and mainly preferred open space in both known. In natural habitats P. clarkii con- controls and treatments. Results suggest sumes G. holbrooki, but it is not clear if the that G. holbrooki does not display anti- mosquitofish has anti-predator defenses predator behavior when exposed to P. clarkii against the crayfish. The main objective of under the laboratory conditions used in this this study was to determine if G. holbrooki study. H Crayfish News y Volume 27 Issue 4: Page 7

News From Around The World IAA Members Catherine Souty- Grosset and Leopold Füereder An- nounce the Publication of the Volume Issued From the Third Thematic Meet- ing of CRAYNET, Innsbruck (Austria, 8-11 September 2004)

The third thematic meeting of CRAYNET (co-ordinator C. Souty- Grosset), entitled “European native crayfish in relation to land-use and habitat deterioration with a special focus on Austro- potamobius torrentium”, was held in Inns- bruck, Austria from 8-11 September 2004. This meeting in the middle of the Alps at- tracted 75 participants from 17 European na- tions. The effect of land-use and habitat dete- rioration on autochthonous and alien cray- fish in general was considered a specific topic of particular importance, since the Leopold Füreder and Daniela Sint, organizers of the meeting, looking for Austropotamobius torrentium European Water Framework Directive de- during the field trip (Tyrol, Austria) fined guidelines towards unified freshwater assessment methodologies and required member states to commit to the ecological, (species conservation programmes). catchment-orientated management of The volume (25 papers and 4 roundta- freshwaters. Therefore, the aim of the Inns- bles) is now published by the French Higher bruck meeting was to gather crayfish re- Fisheries Council (Conseil Supérieur de la searchers and managers from the Alpine Pêche) in the Bulletin Français de la Pêche et countries (Austria, Northern Italy, Germany, de la Pisciculture (Knowledge and Manage- Switzerland) and to associate partners from ment of Aquatic Ecosystems): this is the circum-Alpine regions (Bosnia-Herzegovina, third volume published with the help of The Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, European Commission. The fourth volume Slovenia, Slovakia, Yugoslavia, etc.) in order about the CRAYNET final conference a) to define the status of crayfish species in- (“European crayfish as heritage species- cluding Austropotamobius torrentium in the linking research and management strategies individual countries, b) to share the latest to conservation and socio-economics”, results on crayfish research, and c) to discuss Firenze, May 2005) is in preparation. See necessary research activities and manage- (Continued on page 7) ment strategies for crayfish protection

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Crayfish News y Volume 27 Issue 4: Page 9

Yabbies Ain't Yabbies... and together they form an identifiable group within the spiny crayfish , Euastacus.

All four species are of conservation concern The rainforests of the Northern Rivers still due to their restricted distributions. hold many surprises… With funds from the Australian Geo-

graphic Society and the NSW Fisheries Sci- Biological surveys have revealed a stag- entific Committee, Jason's research has gering four new species of freshwater cray- yielded many other surprises. “It was a real fish from the subtropical rainforests of can of worms. The level of species diversity northeastern New South Wales. Formal de- is astounding, and the number of species in scriptions for the four new yabbies have just the area has doubled during my research. been published in the prestigious journal, But there's also an enormous diversity in Records of the Australian Museum, by aspects of growth, size, reproduction, be- Southern Cross University PhD Candidate havior, seasonal activity, and habitat.” Jason Jason Coughran. has recently prepared a field guide to the According to Jason, the yabbies in this region's yabbies, which was developed with part of the country have previously been the general community in mind. It includes overlooked by scientific research. “When my all of the recently discovered species, and is research began, I was looking at five spe- planned for release in early 2006. H cies in the region, and none of them had previously been studied in the wild. So I For more information, visit knew that it was going to be exciting to re- cord the biology of these for the http://www.croakingenvironment.com.au/pa first time... but I didn't expect anything like ges/products/CrayFG.html what I found.” or contact Jason at The four new species described in Jason's [email protected] latest paper are small, rainforest species,

One of the new yabbies discovered in recent surveys.

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Dear Fellow Astacologists, Happy New Year! Good luck, good health, and many new interesting things for the new year! We have started up the first station for bio-indication with crayfish (see photo above). H Sincerely yours, Valerij Fedotov at al. from Russia

(Continued from page 12) regulatory mechanisms.

Abstract: Recent sampling has provided new records for two Illinois crayfish species Leite EP, Anastacio PM, Ferreira, M, Vicente that dramatically increase their known L, and Correia AM (2005). Do eastern ranges within the state. The new records mosquitofish exhibit anti-predator be- for the Cajun dwarf crayfish, Cambarellus havior towards red swamp crayfish? shufeldtii, most likely represent an undis- Zoological Studies 44(4): 513-518. covered population while those of the red Abstract: Anti-predator behavior has been swamp crawfish, Procambarus clarkii, rep- described in many freshwater fish species. resent an introduced population. The re- Freshwater crayfish may have a great im- cords of the latter species illustrate the pact on prey species through behavioral continual problem of non-native species changes. The eastern mosquitofish, Gam- introductions and the lack of effective (Continued on page 7)

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Literature of Interest to Astacologists Carmona-Osaldea C, Olvera-Novoaa MA, water biodiversity, are poorly known, and and Rodríguez-Serna M (2005). Effect of there is concern that the harvest may be un- the protein-lipids ratio on growth and sustainable. We investigated sustainability maturation of the crayfish Procambarus of the crayfish harvest in and around (Austrocambarus) llamasi. Aquaculture Ranomafana National Park in eastern 250(3-4): 692-699. Madagascar, focusing on the heavily har- Helms BS and Creed RP (2005). The effects vested A. granulimanus. Several villages of 2 coexisting crayfish on an Appala- around the park have traditional taboos chian river community. Journal of the against selling crayfish, resulting in widely North American Benthological Society 24 varying levels of crayfish exploitation. We (1): 113-122. used two approaches to assess sustainability of the harvest. First we used participatory Jiravanichpaisal P, Sricharoen S, Söderhäll I, mapping combined with a geographic infor- and Söderhäll K (2006). White spot syn- mation system analysis to produce a spa- drome virus (WSSV) interaction with tially accurate map of harvesting intensity. crayfish haemocytes Fish & Shellfish Im- We then carried out mark-and-recapture munology 20(5): 718-727. sampling at 74 sites across a range of har- Martínez-Péreza F, Zinker S, Aguilar G, vest intensities to test whether the level of Valdés J, and Aréchiga H (2005). Cir- harvesting was a significant predictor of cadian oscillations of RPCH gene expres- crayfish density and structure. Second, we sion in the eyestalk of the crayfish used size-structured matrix population mod- Cherax quadricarinatus. Peptides 26(12): els to estimate the forest area necessary to 2434-2444. provide the observed annual harvest from Sullivan JM and Beltz BS (2005). Newborn one harvesting village and compared this cells in the adult crayfish brain differen- estimate with the area available to the har- tiate into distinct neuronal types. Journal vesters. Our findings show that the crayfish of Neurobiology 65(2): 157-170. harvest in Ranomafana may be sustainable under current socioeconomic conditions, suggesting that A. granulimanus is less vul- Jones JPG, Andriahajaina FB, Hockley NJ, nerable to overexploitation than previously Balmford A, and Ravoahangimalala OR thought. We emphasize the importance of a (2005). A multidisciplinary approach to multidisciplinary approach to assessing sus- assessing the sustainability of freshwater tainability involving both ecological infor- crayfish harvesting in Madagascar. Con- mation about the harvested species and so- servation Biology 19(6): 1863–1871. cioeconomic data about the level and spa- Abstract: There is growing interest among tial pattern of the harvest. conservation decision makers in promoting harvesting of forest products as an incentive Christopher A. Taylor and John K. Tucker for communities to retain forest cover. As- (2005). New distributional records for Illi- sessments of the sustainability of existing nois crayfishes (Decapoda: Cambaridae) harvests are essential for implementing such with comments on the continued spread policies. Madagascar’s endemic freshwater of non-native species. Transactions of crayfish, Astacoides spp., are harvested the Illinois State Academy of Science 98 throughout their range. Despite their im- (1&2): 75-80. portance to human communities, Madagas- car’s crayfish, like much of the island’s fresh- (Continued on page 11) Crayfish News y Volume 27 Issue 4: Page 12