Range expansion of the vulnerable crayfish Creaserinus fodiens (Cottle, 1863) (Decapoda, Cambaridae) in Ontario, Canada, with added notes on the distribution, ecology and conservation status of this species in North America
2021
Guiaşu, Radu C.
The distribution of the semi-terrestrial burrowing crayfish Creaserinus fodiens (Cottle, 1863) in Ontario was updated based on the examination of the records stored in the crayfish database of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and specimens collected during field studies. New Ontario locality records are reported for this crayfish species from MacGregor Point Provincial Park and other nearby sites in Bruce County, along the shores of Lake Huron. These are among the northernmost locality records reported for this species in North America. These new records represent a northwestern range expansion for this crayfish species in southern Ontario. As a result of these new records, the revised distribution of this species in Ontario is estimated to cover an area of about 32 620 km². This is an increase of 7620 km² over a previous 1996 estimate of this range. Creaserinus fodiens is a vulnerable species in Ontario, mainly due to the loss of suitable wetland habitats. Thus, the new locations and the range expansion reported here provide some hopeful news about the long-term future of burrowing crayfishes in this Canadian province. At some of the new locations, C. fodiens was found together with Faxonius immunis (Hagen, 1870), another burrowing crayfish species. However, this analysis of all the relevant records found in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto) and the Canadian Museum of Nature (Ottawa) shows that our knowledge of the distribution of C. fodiens in Ontario remains quite incomplete. A survey of the conservation status and challenges for this crayfish species in various regions of North America was also undertaken.
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