The spiny-cheek crayfish, Orconectes limosus (Rafinesque, 1817) [Crustacea: Decapoda: Cambaridae], digs into the UK.
By David Holdich. 2007
85 citations recorded by the source corpus.
The invasive, plague-carrying, North American spiny-cheek crayfish, Orconectes limosus, has apparently only recently reached the UK despite being first introduced into continental Europe in 1890. A number of populations have now developed over a wide geographic area in England. It is thought that these have arisen from deliberate introductions by anglers or from aquarium pets being released by the general public. O. limosus probably poses as great a threat to the indigenous white-clawed crayfish, Austropotamobius pallipes, in the UK as does the North American signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus. Like the signal crayfish, O. limosus burrows extensively. A developing lake population of O. limosus has been studied by trapping and direct observation for the first time in the UK to see whether it could be controlled before it spreads to adjacent lakes and a river. Although large numbers appear to be present they are not easily caught in traps and the CPUE over the year of trapping was low (1.28), although in certain months, i.e. September and October, it was relatively high (2.0). Trap catches were dominated by adult males. Mating and egg-laying took place in the spring. A berried female of 62 mm CL and a male of 65 mm CL were found, which were probably at least four years old. A review of the life-history of O. limosus is also undertaken as there appears to be some variation within Europe, with two periods of mating being reported for some populations. The only way to control the population would appear to be by chemical or physical (dewatering) means.
Subfields: Aquatic Science, Ecology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/58ebfc70cb828679b568925947e812f496ea15d5
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Aquatic Science
In Ecology
- C. Souty‐Grosset
- J. Reynolds
- B. Hänfling
- François K. Edwards
- P. Sibley
- David Holdich
- Francesca Gherardi
- A. Kouba
Citations in the corpus
- Continental-wide distribution of crayfish species in Europe: update and maps (2014, background): “In 2004, a breeding population of the virile crayfish, originally misidentified as the spiny-cheek crayfish (Holdich and Black, 2007), was reported also from a pond in the catchment of the River Lee in north London.”
- A review of the ever increasing threat to European crayfish from non-indigenous crayfish species (2009, background): “Orconectes virilis was originally identified as O. limosus from a pond near the River Lee in north London in 2004 (see Holdich and Black, 2007); however, Ahern et al. (2008) re-identified it as O. virilis, and recorded it in watercourses adjacent to the pond within a 7 km radius, a dispersal rate…”
- Invasive alien Crustacea: dispersal, establishment, impact and control (2011, background): “being translocated for stocking purposes (Holdich and Black 2007).”