About Cambarus bartonii (Fabricius, 1798)
Cambarus bartonii is a crayfish species native to eastern North America, where it is known by the common names common crayfish and Appalachian brook crayfish. It was the first crayfish species to be described from North America. Johan Christian Fabricius formally published its description in 1798 in his work Supplementum entomologiae systematicae, under the original name Astacus bartonii. The exact capture location of the specimen Fabricius used for the description is unknown, but it is thought to have been collected near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This species inhabits fast-flowing, cool, rocky streams and also shallow lakes. Its distribution covers the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, and ranges from Maine to Alabama in the United States. In the southern portion of its range, C. bartonii is only found in the Appalachian Mountains and their foothills. Its coloration is most often a plain dark brown, though individuals occasionally show mottling or a saddle-shaped marking. Multiple subspecies of C. bartonii have been recognized, but the validity of this classification is uncertain, and research is still ongoing to clarify patterns of infraspecific variation within the species. The IUCN Red List classifies Cambarus bartonii as a species of Least Concern, but it holds the status of Species of Special Concern in the U.S. state of Connecticut.
