Benton County Cave Crayfish
Cambarus aculabrum Hobbs & Brown, 1987

Taxonomy

Description

Diagnostic characters

Ecological class

Stygobiont

Realm

Aquatic

Troglomorphy

Troglomorphic

Maximum length

48 mm

Distribution

Type locality

Logan Cave, Benton Co., AR

Range

Known from one county across two states in the Ozarks karst region.

Continent

North America

Country

United States

States and provinces

Arkansas, Missouri

Counties

Arkansas

Benton

Karst regions

Ozarks

Genetics

Molecular resources

4 sequences, retrieved 23 August 2026. Counts change as sequences are deposited. Search GenBank.

Download all 4 sequence records (CSV) Accession, marker, molecule type, length, GenBank definition and a direct link.

Specimens

Type material

Holotype

USNM 219149 · National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Allotype

USNM 219150 · National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Paratype ×9

National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Collections holding material

11 cataloged lots in 1 collection. Compiled from GBIF and not an exhaustive census: many collections are not yet digitised, and holdings are added continually. Search GBIF for specimen records.

Download all 11 specimen records (CSV) Institution, catalog number, type status and preparation. No coordinates.

Conservation and management

IUCN Red List

CR Critically Endangered B2ab(iii)

Assessed in 2010.

NatureServe

G1 Critically Imperiled

Global rank last reviewed 2 May 2019.

Subnational ranks

Arkansas

S1 Critically Imperiled

Missouri

SNR Unranked

Ranks looked up 23 August 2026. Conservation status changes, and a rank here is as current as that date and no more.

State and federal status

Endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, listed in 1993.

Threats

• Urbanization - Residential
• Urbanization - Comm. & Industrial
• Agriculture - Livestock
• Overcollection - Amateur
• Recreational/Commerical Cave Activities
• Pollution -Sewage or Urban Wastewater
• Pollution - Commercial/Industrial
• Pollution - Agricultural & Forestry

Other resources

Catalogue of Life

7RTVJ

GBIF

2227319

ITIS

650324

iNaturalist

96529

NCBI Taxonomy

1240888

References

• Adams, G.L., Burr, B.M. & Warren, Jr., M.L. 2020. Chapter 21. Amblyopsidae: cavefishes. In: Warren, Jr., M.L & Burr, B.M. (eds), Freshwater Fishes of North America. Volume 2. Characidae to Poeciliidae, pp. 281–321. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
• Breinholt, J.W., Porter, M.L. & Crandall, K.A. 2012. Testing phylogenetic hypotheses of the subgenera of the freshwater crayfish genus Cambarus (Decapoda: Cambaridae). PLoS One 7(9): e46105. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0046105
• Hobbs & H.H. Jr. 1989. An illustrated checklist of the American crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidae, Cambaridae, and Parastacidae). Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 480: 1–236. doi:10.5479/si.00810282.480
• Holsinger, J.R. & Lewis, J.J. 2025. Systematics of the subterranean amphipod genus Stygobromus (Crangonyctidae): Species of the Ozarks and adjacent regions. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 87: 34–81. doi:10.4311/2024LSC0113
• Simon, T.P. 2011. Conservation status of North American freshwater crayfish (Decapoda: Cambaridae) from the southern United States. Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 120(1–2): 71–95. https://journals.indianapolis.iu.edu/index.php/ias/article/download/21024/20442/0. details
• Stern, D.B., Breinholt, J., Pedraza-Lara, C., Lopez-Mejia, M., Owen, C.L., Bracken-Grissom, H., Fetzner, J.W., Jr. & Crandall, K.A. 2017. Phylogenetic evidence from freshwater crayfishes that cave adaptation is not an evolutionary dead-end. Evolution 71(10): 2522–2532. doi:10.1111/evo.13326

How to cite this account

Data sources and funding are listed in the Acknowledgments.

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