Crayfishes of Mississippi: A Provisional Checklist with Distributions and Discussion of Unresolved Taxonomic Issues

Abstract

Recent state crayfish records, species descriptions, taxonomic revisions, and extensive additional collecting have rendered the previous Mississippi crayfish list, published in 2002, outdated. We compiled 9597 crayfish collection records from multiple sources, georeferencing localities that lacked coordinates. The new state list includes 65 species and possibly 5 subspecies. Thirteen species and 1 subspecies are endemic to the state, and another 21 species occur in only 1 other state. We created species lists by county and 4- and 8-digit hydrologic unit codes (HUCs) and discussed taxa whose presence in the state was recorded but questionable or not recorded but plausible. We coarsely estimated that 175–200 records were necessary to consider a county well-sampled; 18% of counties met that threshold. Finally, we summarized numerous, unresolved taxonomic issues.