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The Crayfish of Nebraska

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99 Prairie crayfish, Procambarus gracilis This map shows that the Prairie crayfish, Procambarus gracilis, has a small range in the central and eastern U.S. As with the Devil crayfish, only the northern portion of its range would have been affected by the ice during the Pleistocene. It also shows that the glacial refugia for this species was south of the ice. In its migration north and east, it seems to be favoring the glaciated areas since it has not moved into the non- glaciated area in southwest Wisconsin. If a burrowing species like the Devil crayfish is hard to sample, the Prairie crayfish is doubly so. To date, I have only five records for the species in Nebraska. All of these are in a small area in the glaciated area of southeast Nebraska. At this time, my best estimate is that this species will only be found in the southeastern corner of the state, east of the Big Blue River and south of the Platte. This species prefers undisturbed grassland with moist soils. Much of the grassland in southeast Nebraska has been drained and converted to row crops which has probably affected their presence in the state. Discussion This has been an interesting exercise but don't know if it proved anything. Perhaps someone reading this can address some of these questions in the future.

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