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47 DIAGNOSTIC FEATURES AND DESCRIPTION The Ringed crayfish is distinctive in many ways. From the side, this crayfish has a dark back grading into a tan line that abruptly stops. Below this the carapace is transparent, though this appears as a dark band. This can be seen in the photo at right as well as the one opening this section. Another color characteristic that is visible in the photo above is the rusty-red tinge on the edges of the telson (tail). Again, this is most visible on freshly molted specimens. If you do an internet search for images of "Ringed crayfish" or "Orconectes neglectus", you will often see that this crayfish has a pair of crescent shaped black bars on its carapace which are visible in the photo at left. One of the key identification characters of many crayfishes is the shape of the first pleopod of a Form I male. The terminal elements of the first pleopod of the Ringed crayfish are straight with the mesial process having a slightly flattened end. [Note that this is quite similar to that of the Rusty crayfish.] In non- breeding season the pleopod reverts to a juvenile form Form II that is of little use for identification. The aureola in the Ringed crayfish is wide but not well defined. There is room for several rows of punctuations. The rostrum of the Ringed crayfish is generally similar to that of the Northern and Rusty crayfishes except that it has a bump (median carina) in the center. This is a key characterist ic and separates this species from all other Nebraska crayfishes. (Note that on small juveniles this carina is little more than a high spot in the rostrum.) There are no keys that will work to identify female crayfish. They are identified by their association with and similarity to male crayfish collected from the same location. That is because the main sex characteristic,