Cherax species

[saunignatius]

Hello everyone,

I am interested in the Cherax group of freshwater crayfish, like redclaws and other species in the group. Does anybody knows how many species that Cherax genus have and in which countries are these species located. It would be interesting to know the person who specialise in this Genus.


Thanks

sauncrayfish

[jwfetz]

Hi saunignatius,

By my count, there are currently 47 species in the genus Cherax. See http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/NewA ... p?g=Cherax

They can be found in Australia and New Guinea.

I do not know of anyone that is currently a specialists on this group, but there are a few folks in Australia that have worked with them.

Cheers,
JWFetz

[saunignatius]

Thank you very much sir, for the information.

This is the baseline information that I needed. Actually Iam from Papua New Guinea (PNG) and I am an Animal Science Assistant Lecturer in one of the small university in Papua New Guinea. Even though I spend 90% of my time teaching animal science (poultry and general livestock husbandry) and part-time in an aquaculture subject, I have postgraduate qualification in aquaculture (Masters level)(first degree in Agriculture) and I am interested in studying freshwater crayfish.

I only know of two Cherax spp. from PNG, especially mainland New Guinea through literature sources, but there are some reports of some freshwater crayfish in one of the outer islands of PNG (Bougainville), at least 2 types, one is a reddish one (whole body red), and the other is coloured, but very small (about 10 mm). In the next few months, I will collect them and try to identify.

Researchers in Australia have spent a great deal of time studying freshwater crayfish in Australia, but in PNG, we have very little information about our freshwater crayfish. It has been 6 months but I still could not find anybody in PNG who knows about Cherax spp.

Thanks very much for your help


Best wishes

Saun

[jwfetz]

In case you have not checked, you should also see some of the posts in the "Newly described species" section of this forum, which lists several newly described Cherax species from PNG, with links to PDFs of the original publications.

When you go out collecting, be sure to take some pictures and post them to the forum. We'd love to see what you find.

Cheers,
JWFetz

[saunignatius]

Thanks sir,

By joining this forum, I now have these information. I have downloaded infor about Cherax pekyni and Cherax holhuisi.

We will keep in touch

Best wishes

Saun

[shmaltz]

Hi Saun,

Professor Chris Austin (chris.austin_at_cdu.edu.au) is probably the leading expert in Cherax spp phylogenetics and systematics. He has been studying them for nearly two decades. Maybe you should contact him.

Good luck,

Mark Schultz

[saunignatius]

Hello everyone,

After sorting through three or four different freshwater prawns and shrimps in a small creek in South Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. We found very few of this specimen. Local people suggested that the use of chemicals have reduced their population in the small creek. Other big rivers in the area also as these type of specimen but we did not have time to check them out. I think this is a freshwater crayfish of the genus Cherax, because it has claws like freshwater crayfish,actually like Cherax albertisii but its all red and it measures 7 cm (see attachment).

Please can somebody verify if this is a freshwater crayfish?


Thanks

Saun Ignatius

[jwfetz]

This looks like a shrimp to me (Macrobrachium sp. perhaps?).

Cheers,
JWFetz

[Chris]

Hi Saun,

it´s great to see somebody from PNG interested in crayfish. There are quite a few Cherax species in New Guinea, however, most of them are apparently found in the Indonesian part (Irian Jaya). A few years ago I did some literature screening on that topic, but the available knowledge on New Guinea crayfish is very limited. I have attached you a rudimentary distibution map for Irian Jaya.

You may also have a look at the page of Chris Lukhaup, he made a great photo collection of New Guinea Cherax type specimens: http://www.crusta10.de/templates/index. ... 73&katid=0
(also, try to contact him - I guess he´s still working on the Cherax spp. from New Guinea)

Cheers,
Chris

Verbreitung_Cherax_Irianiaya.jpg

ps: yes, I also think this is a Macrobrachium spp.