Tennessee Cave Crayfish
Orconectes incomptus Hobbs & Barr, 1972
Taxonomy
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum | Crustacea |
| Class | Malacostraca |
| Order | Decapoda |
| Family | Cambaridae |
| Genus | Orconectes |
| Species | Orconectes incomptus Hobbs & Barr, 1972 |
Description
Diagnostic characters
- Ecological class
- Stygobiont
- Realm
- Aquatic
- Troglomorphy
- Troglomorphic
- Maximum length
- 46 mm
Distribution
Type locality
Cherry Cave, Jackson Co. TN
Range
Known from six counties in Tennessee in the Interior Low Plateau karst region.
Continent
North America
Country
United States
States and provinces
Tennessee
Counties
- Tennessee
- Clay, DeKalb, Jackson, Putnam, Smith, Wilson
Karst regions
Interior Low Plateau
Genetics
Molecular resources
| Marker | Molecule | Sequences | Length | Exemplar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COI | mitochondrial | 8 | 639-705 bp | ON380879.1 |
| 16S | mitochondrial | 4 | 483-483 bp | AY853614.1 |
| 28S | nuclear | 4 | 418-427 bp | ON383888.1 |
| 12S | mitochondrial | 1 | 312-312 bp | EF207174.1 |
17 sequences, retrieved 23 August 2026. Counts change as sequences are deposited. Search GenBank.
Download all 17 sequence records (CSV) Accession, marker, molecule type, length, GenBank definition and a direct link.
Specimens
Type material
- Holotype
- USNM 130299 · National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
- Allotype
- USNM 130300 · National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
- Paratype ×4
- National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution
Collections holding material
| Institution | Lots |
|---|---|
| National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution | 6 |
| North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences | 1 |
| Yale Peabody Museum | 1 |
8 cataloged lots in 3 collections. 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 8 specimen records (CSV) Institution, catalog number, type status and preparation. No coordinates.
Conservation and management
IUCN Red List
VU Vulnerable D2
Assessed in 2010.
NatureServe
G2 Imperiled
Global rank last reviewed 1 July 2009.
Subnational ranks
- Tennessee
- S1 Critically Imperiled
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
Not listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
Threats
- Oil & Gas Drilling
- Pollution -Sewage or Urban Wastewater
- Pollution - Commercial/Industrial
- Pollution - Agricultural & Forestry
Other resources
References
- Buhay, J.E. & Crandall, K.A. 2005. Subterranean phylogeography of freshwater crayfishes shows extensive gene flow and surprisingly large population sizes. Molecular Ecology 14: 4259–4273.
- Buhay, J.E. & Crandall, K.A. 2008. Taxonomic revision of cave crayfishes in the genus Orconectes, subgenus Orconectes (Decapoda: Cambaridae) along the Cumberland Plateau, including a description of a new species, Orconectes barri. Journal of Crustacean Biology 28: 57–67.
- Hobbs, H.H., Jr. & Barr, T.C., Jr. 1972. Origins and affinities of the troglobitic crayfishes of North America (Decapoda: Astacidae) II. Genus Orconectes. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 105: 1–84. doi:10.5479/si.00810282.105
- 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
- Hobbs, H.H. Jr., Hobbs, H.H. III & Daniel, M.A. 1977. A review of the troglobitic decapod crustaceans of the Americas. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 244: 1–183.
- Lewis, J.J. & Lewis, S.L. 2007. A biological reconnaissance of selected caves in the Highland Rim area of central Tennessee. Tennessee Chapter Cave Program, The Nature Conservancy, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. 42 pp.
- Lewis, J.J., Whitaker, J.O. & Krantz, G.W. 2010. A biological reconnaissance of the invertebrate fauna of twelve Tennessee caves with notes on the guanophilic mites of the genus Macrocheles. Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science 85: 53–61.
- Niemiller, M.L. & Zigler, K.S. 2013. Patterns of cave biodiversity and endemism in the Appalachians and Interior Plateau of Tennessee, USA. PLOS One 8: e64177. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064177
- 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
- Tennessee Cave Survey. 2005. Biological records from Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia caves. Tennessee Cave Survey.
This account was last revised 28 August 2026. Conservation ranks were looked up 23 August 2026.
How to cite this account
Data sources and funding are listed in the Acknowledgments.
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