Goal: Deliver Benefits to the Public Two new crayfish species discovered in Alabama and Mississippi

Nine years after researchers found a crayfish that didn’t look quite like the species they were seeking, Mael Glon, a Ph.D. candidate at Ohio State University, and USDA Forest Service scientist Susie Adams returned to Mobile Bay for two weeks in January 2020. Along with colleagues, they discovered not one, but two new species of burrowing crayfishes: the Lonesome Gravedigger (Lacunicambarus  mobilensis) and the Banded Mudbug (L. freudensteini). Both species are small, ecologically important, and beautiful—with vibrant combinations of olive green, blue, or brown, and orange and red highlights.

The research contributes to a fundamental part of conservation work: understanding the size of a species’ range. The Lonesome Gravedigger has a 400 square mile range, and the Banded Mudbug is limited to an area about half that size between Mobile Bay and the Pascagoula River.

A restricted range increases a species’ sensitivity to environmental change. The Banded Mudbug may be further limited by its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico. Its burrows are located at low elevations, and rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion could threaten the species’ long-term survival.

Further research is necessary to understand the life history of these crayfishes, refine their conservation status, and define threats to their persistence.

One such threat includes dams and their associated impoundments. A recent study by SRS scientists Zanethia Barnett and Susie Adams, with colleagues from the University of Mississippi, shows that dams restrict movement and gene flow which can genetically isolate and increase chances of local extinction of crayfish populations.