Euastacus clydensis has been reinstated as a valid species.

Originally, Edgar Riek described two giant spiny crayfish species, firstly in 1956 E. spinosus from the upper reaches of the Hastings River, New South Wales, then secondly in 1969 E. clydensis, from a side stream of the Clyde River near Brooman, and paratypes from near Conjola, New South Wales. Morgan (1997) revised the taxonomy of (more…)

Freshwater leeches feeding on Crayfish

Freshwater blood and fluid sucking leeches can pose a serious problem for freshwater crayfish. Typically it’s the common yabby (Cherax destructor) that you find leeches attached to or they have a nasty round scar indicating a leech has had a feed. The scar remains until the crayfish moults but the scar itself can create difficulty (more…)

Central Highlands Burrowing Cray Engaeus affinis (Smith & Schuster 1913)

This species is endemic to Victoria with a relatively small distribution known at this time (estimated extent of occurrence of approximately 200 km2). Found in the upper Yarra, Acheron, Yea and Big Rivers. An area roughly from Kinglake to Eildon to Jamieson to Noojee to Hoddles Creek. Central Highlands Burrowing Cray Engaeus affinis has been assessed on (more…)

An expedition to Victoria –November 2015

I had the pleasure of traveling to Victoria to present a lecture on “The Freshwater Crayfish of Victoria” to the Bendigo Field Naturalists Club. They were great crowd and I had a great time chatting with them. Whilst in the Bendigo area I sampled the local creeks and streams, only finding yabbies Cherax destructor. The (more…)

The Southern Lobster Euastacus yanga

We have finally finished our aquatic surveys of the lower Clyde River, NSW. It’s an exciting area with mostly pristine clear flowing streams full of aquatic life. The results of the survey have been extremely interesting and have resulted in some significant findings. We have identified 3 different freshwater crayfish species in the lower Clyde (more…)