Last summer, Dr. Adrian Smith joined me in the field to capture video of the excavation of an undescribed species of burrowing crayfish. Three hours of digging (we were in the middle of a dry spell), untold numbers of mosquito bites, and a wee bit of caked on mud later I got one. And Adrian’s footage of it was magical; check out the video on his AntLab YouTube channel here:
@BWWilliamsLab we would love to show you our crayfish - you take gorgeous photos of them by the way! Looking forward to connecting in the new year about our shared mission.
@gmnh Yes!!!!!!!!!!!
@BWWilliamsLab cool video! Being in Louisiana now I have a whole new appreciation for crayfish (I mean, crawfish), including their diversity!
@TheKaneLab thank you! I started working with crayfishes in the Canadian Prairie Provinces, where there is 1 very widespread species (Virile Crayfish), albeit with a complicated post-glacial history. Even so, the local variations were mind boggling. When I landed my job here in NC, I was a bit like a kid in a candy store. So much diversity, taxonomically, ecologically, behaviorally, etc. (& phenomenal collaborators). The more we learn, the less we know. It’s both daunting and exciting.
@BWWilliamsLab we usually have a bunch in the lab for teaching experiments. This one is gravid! One of my PhD students is raising one of the eggs that fell off.
@TheKaneLab if you ever want to go down a fun rabbit hole with the students - or in general - see if you can find branchiobdellidans and entocytherid ostracods on the crayfish. There is so much we don’t know about these communities: what they are, how they formed and are maintained in ecological and evolutionary time, how each taxon individually and together responds to stressors (like increased salinities). 🧐 (My brain should be named ‘Rabbit Holes R Us’)
This is the crayfish I dug that day. It’s a gorgeous form of Cambarus reduncus, the Sickle Crayfish. Using an integrated approach, we have discovered a lot of “hidden” diversity in North Carolina and South Carolina in this group of crayfishes (Depressicambarus), which includes both secondary and primary burrowing species. Finding the animals can be the most challenging aspect of this work! 📸 Michael A. Perkins, NCWRC. #crustmas #crayfish #crustacea