New Findings of White Clawed Crayfi sh, Austropotamobius pallipes (Decapoda, Astacidae), and Peculiarities of its Spatial Distribution in Neretvica (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Abstract

At the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austropotamobius pallipes (Lereboullet, 1858) is present mainly in the Neretva basin, partly in the Una and Tsetina river basins (Trožić-Borovac et al., 2012). This species was registered at elevations from 180 to 1024 m a.s.l., but most habitats are located at elevations from 300 to 600 m a.s.l. Based on indirect data, one can state that more than 2/3 of the crayfish population in the Neretva basin is concentrated in the Neretvica basin. Our studies showed that the crayfish are very irregularly distributed in the Neretvica basin. The crayfish are almost absent at well-flushed habitats without CPOM (deposits of coarse particulate organic matter, e. g., fallen leaves), as well as at habitats with monotonous boulders or gravel-sand bottom. The study of the size structure of the crayfish population showed the presence of juvenile crayfish with a size of less than 5 cm in the Neretvica river course. The most balanced structure of the crayfish population represented by juvenile as well as adult species is observed in Gorovnik.