3: Calico or Papershell Crayfish

Hi friends,

I write to you from Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne land. I am interested in learning about the different animals that live in the place where I was born. I want to mention that biological classification as taught by western science has its roots in racism, sexism, and transphobia – here’s a good explainer about why.

Today’s animal is the calico or papershell crayfish (Orconectes immunis); these crustaceans don’t live under the sea, but instead in the northern and central riparian waterways of the USA, especially around the Great Lakes. Human activity – using them as bait – has also moved them into a few areas outside their native range, including northern Idaho around Couer d’Alene and Colorado, where they were first seen on the Upper Yampa. Presumably these bait animals were surprised to find themselves in the rather drier environs of the high plains.

Interestingly they have also been found in the Upper Rhine of Germany, again, introduced as a bait species.

This reminds me of a summer afternoon sometime in high school when my friends and I were wandering around a suburban neighborhood and encountered a crayfish crawling down the sidewalk. We assumed he had escaped from a barbecue (though in retrospect it was probably a baitbox) and rescued him by scooping him up in a tupperware and driving him quite a distance to the South Platte. We released him on a bank and saw him waddling into the sandy riverbottom right before we became aware of the presence of several hungry-looking birds. Someone played “The Circle of Life” on an ipod plugged into a tape drive on the way back to our friend’s parents’ house.

The description of the papershell crayfish from Smith 2013 – found here – is a delightful collection of rarely used nouns: “The calico crayfish is a plain, grey-green species characterized by a pale zone in the middle of the carapace and abdomen. Their chelipeds (pincers) have orange tips, with the exception of male chelipids that usually display a pale purple tint as breeding regalia.” Carapace, chellipeds, and breeding regalia! Seems rude to call them “plain.”

Looking forward to tomorrow, when we learn about our first fish!