Astacus is a genus of crayfish found in Europe, comprising three extant (living) species and three extinct fossil species.
The signal crayfish is a North American species of crayfish. It was introduced to Europe in the 1960s to supplement the North European Astacus astacus fisheries, which were being damaged by crayfish plague, but the imports turned out to be a carrier of that disease. The signal crayfish is now considered an invasive species across Europe, Japan, and California, ousting native species there.
Alosa is a genus of fish, the river herrings, in the family Alosidae. Along with other genera in the subfamily Alosinae, they are generally known as shads. They are distinct from other herrings by having a deeper body and spawning in rivers. Several species can be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Also, several taxa occur in the brackish-water Caspian Sea and the Black Sea basin. Many are found in fresh water during spawning and some are only found in landlocked fresh water.
Astacus astacus, the European crayfish, noble crayfish, or broad-fingered crayfish, is the most common species of crayfish in Europe, and a traditional food source. Like other true crayfish, A. astacus is restricted to fresh water, living only in unpolluted streams, rivers, and lakes. It is found from France throughout Central Europe, to the Balkan Peninsula, and north as far as Scandinavia and Finland, and Eastern Europe. Males may grow up to 16 cm long, and females up to 12 cm.
Pontastacus leptodactylus, the Danube crayfish, Galician crayfish, Turkish crayfish or narrow-clawed crayfish, is a relatively large and economically important species of crayfish native to fresh and brackish waters in eastern Europe and western Asia, mainly in the Pontic–Caspian region, among others including the basins of the Black Sea, and the Danube, Dnieper, Don and Volga rivers, as well as aquatic systems in Turkey. It has spread widely beyond its native range, beginning in the 1700s when it spread via canals constructed in western Russia and since the 1900s through introducions to many regions for human consumption. Today it is widespread throughout much of Europe.
Astacidae is a family of freshwater crayfish native to Europe, western Asia and western North America. The family is made up of four extant (living) genera: The genera Astacus, Pontastacus, and Austropotamobius are all found throughout Europe and parts of western Asia, while Pacifastacus is native to western United States and British Columbia, but has also been introduced elsewhere.
Procambarus clarkii, known variously as the red swamp crayfish, Louisiana crawfish or mudbug, is a species of cambarid crayfish native to freshwater bodies of northern Mexico, and southern and southeastern United States, but also introduced elsewhere, where it is often an invasive pest.
Austropotamobius pallipes is an endangered European freshwater crayfish, and the only crayfish native to the British Isles. Its common names include white-clawed crayfish and Atlantic stream crayfish.
Astacoides is a genus of freshwater crayfish endemic to Madagascar. The first specimens were brought to Europe in 1839, and seven species are now recognised, most of which are considered as threatened on the IUCN Red List. They are large and slow-growing, and are threatened by habitat loss, overexploitation by local people and by spread of introduced non-indigenous marbled crayfish. They are only found in a relatively small part of the island, mostly in undisturbed upland areas. They belong to the Gondwana-distributed family Parastacidae, but their nearest relatives live in Australasia, there being no native crayfish in mainland Africa or India.
Austropotamobius is a genus of European crayfish in the family Astacidae. It contains four extant species,
Cambarellus is a genus of small freshwater crayfish in the family Cambaridae. The 19 species are found in Mexico and the Gulf States of the United States. Among the Mexican species, C. areolatus, C. patzcuarensis, and C. prolixus are considered seriously threatened by the IUCN, and C. alvarezi is already extinct. C. chihuahuae was also believed to be extinct until rediscovered in 2012. C. alvarezi and four undescribed, extinct Cambarellus species were restricted to desert spring systems in southwestern Nuevo León; each one shared its habitat with a Cyprinodon pupfish.
Procambarus is a genus of crayfish in the family Cambaridae, all native to North and Central America. It includes a number of troglobitic species, and the marbled crayfish (marmorkrebs), which is parthenogenetic. Originally described as a subgenus for four species, it now contains around 161 species.
The marbled crayfish or Marmorkrebs is a parthenogenetic crayfish that was discovered in the pet trade in Germany in 1995. Marbled crayfish are closely related to the "slough crayfish", Procambarus fallax, which is widely distributed across Florida. No natural populations of marbled crayfish are known. Information provided by one of the original pet traders as to where the marbled crayfish originated was deemed "totally confusing and unreliable". The informal name Marmorkrebs is German for "marbled crayfish".
Potamon fluviatile is a freshwater crab found in or near wooded streams, rivers and lakes in Southern Europe. It is an omnivore with broad ecological tolerances, and adults typically reach 50 mm (2 in) in size during their 10–12 year lifespan. They inhabit burrows and are aggressive, apparently outcompeting native crayfish.
Stephanie Peay is a British ecologist and crayfish researcher.
Faxonius immunis is a species of crayfish in the family Cambaridae. It is native to North America and it is an introduced species in Europe, where it lives along the Upper Rhine. Its common names include calico crayfish and papershell crayfish.
Crayfish are eaten all over the world. Like other edible crustaceans, only a small portion of the body of a crayfish is edible. In most prepared dishes, such as soups, bisques and étouffées, only the tail portion is served. At crawfish boils or other meals where the entire body of the crayfish is presented, other portions, such as the claw meat, may be eaten.
Faxonius maletae, sometimes called the Kisatchie painted crayfish or Kisatchie painted crawfish, is a species of crawdad in the Cambaridae family. The specific epithet maletae is in honor of the discoverer's wife, author Maleta M. Walls, who helped collect many of the original specimens. It was originally described as a subspecies of Orconectes difficilis, but later elevated to full species status. The common name refers to the Kisatchie National Forest, near where the original specimens were found in Bayou Santabarb.
Austropotamobius bihariensis is a species of crayfish in the family Astacidae. It is known to exist only in Romania being restricted to the rivers in the western Apuseni Mountains. Its proposed English common name is idle crayfish. It is supposed to have diverged/split ~15 Ma old from a common relative of A. torrentium from the Dinarides and evolved isolated due to the historically tectonic north-eastern movement of Tisza-Dacia mega-unit through the Pannonian Basin, during the Miocene. The molecular divergence in 582 base length nucleotides of COI mtDNA sequences is supported by 43 mutational steps, a differentiation of 7.4% from the sister clade of A. torrentium located in north-western Dinarides
Cancer or, simply the Crab, is a giant crab in Greek mythology that inhabited the lagoon of Lerna. He is a secondary character in the myth of the twelve labors of Heracles, who attacks Heracles on Hera's orders, while Heracles is in the midst of fighting the Hydra of Lerna. Heracles kills the Crab, who is rewarded for his efforts by Hera turning him into the constellation of Cancer.
