Work

Rediscovery of red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Girard, 1852) in southern Idaho, United States after a half century

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii (Girard, 1852) was collected from southwestern Idaho, United States in 1975, but went undetected in this region over more recent decades.In 2023 and 2024, multiple P. clarkii individuals were collected from the same watershed as the 1975 population but approximately 13 km downstream.We sequenced the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene of mitochondrial DNA to compare museum-vouchered P. clarkii from 1975 to the contemporary specimens.Modifications to our extraction protocol enabled retrieval of usable DNA from museum specimens stored in ethanol (EtOH) for a half century.We found that four (100%) of the 1975 specimens and four of five (80%) of the 2023 and 2024 specimens shared an identical COI haplotype, distinct from the known haplotype of the nearest P. clarkii population approximately 320 km north in Idaho.As such, P. clarkii may have persisted in the study region over time, although it is also possible that southwestern Idaho has been reinvaded by P. clarkii from a similar or shared source population between 1975 and the present day.

Source: BioInvasions Records

DOI: 10.3391/bir.2025.14.4.12

Authors: Caitlin Bloomer, Jordyn Chace, William Clark, Mark Gunderson, Eric Larson

Institutions: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, College of Idaho

Language: English

Topic: Crustacean biology and ecology

Subfield: Ecology

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $323

Funders: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture