Featured picture: A “gravedigger” with rarity value

Crayfish
(Image: Guenter Schuster / Eastern Kentucky University)

This colorful journeyman is one of a very rare crayfish recently discovered in the southern United States. Because of his lonely, active lifestyle, the biologists gave him the name “Lonesome Gravedigger” – lonely gravedigger.

Crayfish are picky: They prefer clean water and are therefore relatively sensitive to water pollution. This is one of the reasons why they have become rare in many rivers today. Most crayfish, however, are far less choosy about their food: they eat water insects, mussels, worms or small fish. These crustaceans also don’t scorn carrion.

The approximately 300 known crayfish species occur in various regions of the world, but the waters in the southeastern United States are particularly rich in species. This colorful representative of the crayfish also comes from this area. The researchers discovered this species by accident. Because they were actually looking for a more common related crayfish species when they encountered one of these water dwellers.

They then went on a more systematic search and finally confirmed with the help of DNA comparisons that this is indeed a completely new species. Lacunicambarus mobilensis, as its official name, occurs only in a small area in the south of the US states of Alabama and Mississippi. It is therefore already considered to be potentially threatened.

Typical of this crayfish is not only its nocturnal lifestyle and loneliness. He is also noticeable because he likes to dig himself into the ground. The biologists therefore gave him the nickname “Lonesome Gravedigger” – lonely gravedigger. “The impressive thing about this new species is that it reminds us of how little we still know about nature,” says Mael Glon from Ohio State University. “You can find new species in our garden yourself.”

Recent Articles

Related Stories

Stay on op - Ge the daily news in your inbox