Cambarus loughmani, a new species of crayfish (Decapoda: Cambaridae) endemic to the pre-glacial Teays River Valley in West Virginia, USA

ABSTRACT

A new species of crayfish, Cambarus loughmani sp. nov., is described from the preglacial Teays River Valley of Cabell, Kanawha, Lincoln, Mason, and Putnam counties, West Virginia. The species was previously considered to be part of the Cambarus dubius complex. Loughman et al. restricted C. dubius to an orange colour morph found in central and northern portions of the Allegheny Mountains and Appalachian Plateau in central West Virginia, western Maryland, and south-central Pennsylvania. The new species described herein can be distinguished from all other members of Cambarus Erichson, 1846 by a double row of cristiform tubercles on the palm, an open areola with two rows of punctations, and a consistent blue colouration.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:5BC7C861-038E-457C-80F3-ED7A66E10D73

KEYWORDS:

• Appalachian Plateau
• Cambarus
• crayfish
• new species
• West Virginia

Acknowledgements

We extend special thanks to Sarah Messer and Riley Aulick for providing us with housing while collecting. We thank Tim Brust, D.W. Mahan and Ashley Leek for aid in collection of specimens used in the description. We thank Dr Guenter A. Schuster for his aid in photographing and creating colour plates for C. loughmani. Special thanks are extended to Lauren Cole for noticing and posting a photo of C. loughmani to iNaturalist as well as pointing us to the colonies at Chief Logan State Park. Thanks to Cynthia Cyprych and Katie Scott for their aid in the creation of the maps. Additionally, we would like to thank the numerous landowners who helped us locate potential sites and who sampled for the animals on their property, in particular Mr Jeffrey Given. Any use of trade, firm or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US government.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.