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 Crayfish 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, Cambaroides 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 Animal 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 Cambaroides similis cies. (Koelbel, 1892) (Decapoda: Cambaridae) ——————————————————— 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 crayfishes (Decapoda: Parastacidae: Euastacus) from northeastern New South Wales, Australia. Records of the Australian Museum 57(3): 361-374. Crayfish News y Volume 27 Issue 4: Page 3 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.