Euastacus armatus
Murray River Cray
Keith A. Crandall
Distribution
The species occurs in the Murray River throughout most of its length and major tributaries in Victoria (including the Goulburn, Yea, Murrundindi, Jamieson, Howqua, Ovens and Mitta Mitta Rivers) and New South Wales (including the Murrumbidgee, Cotter and Macquarie Rivers). The range extends over 800 km east-west. The most northerly known site of the species is near Kandos 160 km west of Newcastle, NSW. Presumably the creek flows into the Cudgegong and thence Macquarie and Darling Rivers. This site indicates a north-south range of approximately 450 km.Habitat
Euastacus armatus inhabits large and small streams in a variety of habitats including cleared pasture and dry and wet sclerophyll forests (vegetation usually densest along upper reaches of streams) at altitudes from close to sea level to over 700m a.s.l.Conservation Status
Low elevations may be depopulated with possible extinction of the species in South Australia (Kaires, 1980; Zeidler, 1982).References
Crandall, Keith A., James W. Fetzner, Jr., Carlos G. Jara, and Ludwig Buckup. 2000. On the Phylogenetic Positioning of the South American Freshwater Crayfish Genera (Decapoda: Parastacidae). Journal of Crustacean Biology, 20(3): 530-540.
Kaires, R. 1980. Observation on the physiology of the freshwater crayfish Euastacus armatus and Cherax destructor. Aust. Soc. Limnol. Newsl. 18:13.
Morgan, G. J. 1986. Freshwater crayfish of the genus Euastacus (Decapoda: Parastacidae) from Victoria. Memoirs of the Museum of Victoria 47(1): 1-57.
von Martens E. 1866. On a new species of Astacus. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (3) 17: 359-60.
Zeidler, W. 1982. South Australian freshwater crayfish. S. Aust. Nat. 56: 36-43.
Title Illustrations
Euastacus armatus (von Martens)
Photo copyright © 1998 Keith A. Crandall
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About This Page
Page constructed by Emily Browne.
Keith A. Crandall
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA
Page copyright © 2001 Keith A. Crandall
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Euastacus armatus . Murray River Cray.
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Crandall, Keith A. 2001. Euastacus armatus . Murray River Cray. Version 01 January 2001 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Euastacus_armatus/7904/2001.01.01 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/
