Blue Tiger (Cherax albertisii) Ecological Risk Screening Summary

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, November 2018 Revised, February 2019 Web Version, 3/29/2019

1 Native Range and Status in the United States Native Range From Chambers (1987):

“Freshwater crayfish (Cherax albertisii) […] occur throughout the shallow lakes and rivers of Western Province [Papua New Guinea].”

Status in the United States This has not been reported as introduced or established in the United States. There is no indication that this species is in trade in the United States.

Means of Introductions in the United States This species has not been reported as introduced or established in the United States.

Remarks GBIF Secretariat (2017) refers to this species as the “Papua blue green crayfish.”

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From Eprilurahman (2014):

“Significant taxonomic disputation and confusion has surrounded the number and identity of species that is referred to as the C. quadricarinatus – C. albertisii complex, which are identifiable on the basis of red soft membraneous outer margin of the propodus of the claw. The earliest taxonomic reviewers of the genus Cherax, (Smith 1912; Calman 1911; and Clark 1936), considered there was no justification in considering C. quadricarinatus, a large freshwater crayfish, described by von Martens (1868) from northern Australia to be taxonomically distinct from C. albertisii described by Nobilli (1899) from southern New Guinea. […] In contrast, Holthuis (1949; 1950; 1982) considered C. quadricarinatus, C. albertisii and C. lorentzi to be taxonomically distinct, with the former species restricted to Australia and the later [sic] two species occurring in New Guinea. My results […] support the recognition of C. quadricarinatus and C. albertisii, however there is much greater taxonomic diversity within this complex than previously realised.”

“The characters used to differentiate C. quadricarinatus, C. albertisii and related taxa focus predominately on a suite of attributes that are often highly variable, including the number of rostral spines, the length and degree of development of the rostral carinae and the size and shape of the propodus. Thus it is obvious that a more detailed molecular and morphological study of variation with the C. quadricarinatus–albertisii group is required with more intensive sampling in both northern Australia and southern New Guinea to confirm the number of taxa and identify, if possible, diagnostic morphological traits for these species.”

2 Biology and Ecology Taxonomic Hierarchy and Taxonomic Standing From WoRMS (2018):

“Biota > Animalia (Kingdom) > Arthropoda (Phylum) > Crustacea (Subphylum) > Multicrustacea > (Superclass) > (Class) > Eumalacostraca (Subclass) > Eucarida (Superorder) > (Order) > Pleocyemata (Suborder) > Astacidea (Infraorder) > Parastacoidea (Superfamily) > Parastacidae (Family) > Cherax (Genus) > Cherax albertisii (Species)”

“Status accepted Rank Species”

Size, Weight, and Age Range No information available.

Environment From WoRMS (2018):

“Environment […] fresh[water]”

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From Chambers (1987):

“[…] shallow lakes and rivers […]”

Climate/Range From McAlpine et al. (1983):

“The larger part of the country [of Papua New Guinea] experiences relatively high annual rainfall of 2500-3500 mm. […] The seasonal variation of rainfall over most of Papua New Guinea can be described best as a change from ‘fairly wet’ to ‘very wet’.”

“Temperature regimes [in Papua New Guinea] are equable, showing little seasonal variation. Daily mean maximum temperatures on the coast are around 30-32° C, with minima around 23°C.”

Distribution Outside the United States Native From Chambers (1987):

“Freshwater crayfish (Cherax albertisii) […] occur throughout the shallow lakes and rivers of Western Province [Papua New Guinea].”

Introduced This species has not been reported as introduced or established outside of its native range.

Means of Introduction Outside the United States This species has not been reported as introduced or established outside of its native range.

Short Description From Karadal and Türkmen (2014):

“Morphologically C. albertisii and C. quadricarinatus have a similarity in body shape and colours (Kusmini, 2009).”

Biology From Karadal and Türkmen (2014):

“In nature, C. quadricarinatus and other Australian crayfish are found in either rocky or sandy areas. Juveniles use pebbles as shelter to protect themselves from predation or attacks by conspecifics (Jones and Ruscoe, 2001; Molony and Bird, 2005). Morphologically C. albertisii and C. quadricarinatus have a similarity in body shape and colours (Kusmini, 2009). Also, they prefer the same habitat types in nature.”

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Human Uses Faulkes (2015) reports C. albertii as present in the pet trade in Germany (Chucholl 2013), the Czech Republic (Patoka et al. 2014, 2015), and Turkey (Türkmen and Karadal 2012).

Diseases From Sugiani et al. (2015):

“Crayfish “red-claw” (Cherax quadricarinatus) and “blue-huna” (Cherax albertisii) are susceptible to ectosymbiont Craspedella sp.”

No OIE-reportable diseases (OIE 2019) have been documented for this species.

Threat to Humans No information available.

3 Impacts of Introductions This species has not been reported as introduced or established outside of its native range.

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4 Global Distribution No georeferenced occurrence information was available for this species (GBIF Secretariat 2017).

Figure 1. Map of Papua New Guinea, highlighting the Western Province, which is the known native range of Cherax albertisii as reported by Chambers (1987). Map: TUBS. Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Available: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16875338. (February 2019).

5 Distribution Within the United States This species has not been reported as introduced or established in the United States.

6 Climate Matching Summary of Climate Matching Analysis The Climate 6 score (Sanders et al. 2018; 16 climate variables; Euclidean distance) for the contiguous United States was 0.001, which is a low climate match. A Climate 6 score of 0.005 or below indicates a low match. The climate score was medium in and low for the remaining 47 States. Locally, the climate match was medium only in southern peninsular Florida; in all other areas, the climate match was low.

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Figure 2. RAMP (Sanders et al. 2018) source map showing weather stations on the island of New Guinea selected as source locations (red; Papua New Guinea) and non-source locations (gray) for Cherax albertisii climate matching. Source locations based on distribution information reported by Chambers (1987).

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Figure 3. Map of RAMP (Sanders et al. 2018) climate matches for Cherax albertisii in the contiguous United States based on distribution information reported by Chambers (1987). 0= Lowest match, 10=Highest match.

The “High”, “Medium”, and “Low” climate match categories are based on the following table:

Climate 6: Proportion of Climate Match (Sum of Climate Scores 6-10) / (Sum of total Climate Scores) Category 0.000≤X≤0.005 Low 0.005

7 Certainty of Assessment There is little information available on the biology, physical description and distribution of Cherax albertisii. Because no georeferenced occurrences are available, the climate match is based on a general description of this species’ range, contributing to uncertainty. Taxonomic confusion surrounds C. albertisii and closely related congeners, and there are no diagnostic morphological characters that can be used to reliably distinguish among species. Additionally, no introductions have been reported on which to base an evaluation of impacts. Further information

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is needed to adequately assess the risk this species poses to the contiguous United States. Certainty of this assessment is low.

8 Risk Assessment Summary of Risk to the Contiguous United States Cherax albertisii is a freshwater crayfish native to southwestern Papua New Guinea. It is in the aquarium trade in Turkey, Germany, and the Czech Republic, but does not appear to be in trade in the United States. C. albertisii has never been reported as introduced or established outside of its native range. History of invasiveness is uncertain. This species has a low climate match with the contiguous United States overall, and a medium match in Florida. However, the climate match was based on a general description of the species range because georeferenced occurrences are not available. Due to a lack of introduction history and distribution information relevant to assessing the invasive potential of this species in the contiguous United States, the certainty of this assessment is low. The overall risk assessment category is uncertain.

Assessment Elements  History of Invasiveness (Sec. 3): Uncertain  Climate Match (Sec. 6): Low  Certainty of Assessment (Sec. 7): Low  Overall Risk Assessment Category: Uncertain

9 References Note: The following references were accessed for this ERSS. References cited within quoted text but not accessed are included below in Section 10.

Chambers, M. R. 1987. The freshwater lakes of Papua New Guinea: an inventory and limnological review. Journal of Tropical Ecology 3(1):1-23.

Eprilurahman, R. 2014. Molecular and evolution of freshwater crayfish of the genus Cherax (Decapoda: Parastacidae) from northern Australia and New Guinea. Masters thesis. Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia.

Faulkes, Z. 2015. The global trade in crayfish as pets. Research 44:75-92.

GBIF Secretariat. 2017. GBIF backbone taxonomy: Cherax albertisii (Nobili, 1899). Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Copenhagen. Available: https://www.gbif.org/species/8940788. (February 2019).

Karadal, O., and G. Türkmen. 2014. Effects of substrate preference on growth and survival of blue tiger crayfish (Cherax albertisii). Ege Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 31(1):1-4.

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McAlpine, J. R., G. Keig, and R. Falls. 1983. Climate of Papua New Guinea. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and Australian National University Press, Canberra, Australia.

OIE (World Organisation for Health). OIE-listed diseases, infections, and infestations in force in 2019. Available: http://www.oie.int/animal-health-in-the-world/oie-listed- diseases-2019/. (March 2019).

Sanders, S., C. Castiglione, and M. H. Hoff. 2018. Risk Assessment Mapping Program: RAMP, version 3.1. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Sugiani, D., A. M. Lusiastuti, and U. Purwaningsih. 2015. Treatments for temnocephalids ectosymbiont Craspedella sp. on Cherax quadricarinatus and Cherax albertisii “Papua Freshwater Lobster.” World Journal of Engineering and Technology 3:48-54.

WoRMS. 2018. Cherax albertisii. In World Register of Marine Species. Available: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=885535. (November 2018).

10 References Quoted But Not Accessed Note: The following references are cited within quoted text within this ERSS, but were not accessed for its preparation. They are included here to provide the reader with more information.

Calman, W. T. 1911. Note on a crayfish from New Guinea. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 8(8):366-368.

Chucholl, C. 2013. Invaders for sale: trade and determinants of introduction of ornamental freshwater crayfish. Biological Invasions 15:125-141.

Clark, E. 1936. The freshwater and land of Australia. Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria 10:5-58.

Holthuis, L. B. 1949. Decapoda Macrura with a revision of the New Guinea Parastacidae. Zoological Results of the Dutch New Guinea Expedition 1939, number 3. Nova Guinea 5:289-328.

Holthuis, L. B. 1950. The Crustacea Decapoda Macrura collected by the Archbold New Guinea expeditions. American Museum Novitates 1461:1-17.

Holthuis, L. B. 1982. Freshwater Crustacea Decapoda of New Guinea. Pages 603-619 in J. L. Gressit, editor. Biogeography and ecology of New Guinea, volume 2. Monographiae Biologicae 42.

Jones, C. M., and I. M. Ruscoe. 2001. Assessment of five shelter types in the production of redclaw crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus (Decapoda: Parastacidae) under earthen pond conditions. Journal of the World Aquaculture Society 32:41-52. 9

Kusmini, I. I. 2009. Phenotype and genotype characteristics of blue crayfish (Cherax albertisii) and red claw (Cherax quadricarinatus) hybrid. Master’s thesis. Institute of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia. (In Indonesian with English abstract.)

Molony, B.W., and C. Bird. 2005. Are marron, Cherax tenuimanus (Crustacea: Decapoda), populations in irrigation reservoirs habitat limited? A trial using artificial habitats. Lakes & Reservoirs: Research & Management 10:39-50.

Nobili, G. 1899. Contribuzioni alia conoscenza della fauna carcinologica della Papuasia, delle Molucche e dell' Australia. Annali del Museo Civico di Genova, series 2, 20(40):230- 282.

Patoka, J., L. Kalous, and O. Kopecký. 2014. Risk assessment of the crayfish pet trade based on data from the Czech Republic. Biological Invasions 16(12):2489-2494.

Patoka, J., L. Kalous, and O. Kopecký. 2015. Imports of ornamental crayfish: the first decade from the Czech Republicʼs perspective. Knowledge and Management of Aquatic Ecosystems 416:04.

Smith, G. 1912. The freshwater crayfishes of Australia. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 82(1):144-171.

Türkmen, G., and O. Karadal. 2012. The survey of the imported freshwater decapod species via the ornamental aquarium trade in Turkey. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances 11(15):2824-2827. von Martens, E. 1868. Ueber einige neue Crustaceen und uber die neuholländischen Süsswasserkrebse. Monatsberichte Akademie Wissenschaften Berlin 1868:608- 619.

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