no. 3621 CRAYFISH FROM ALABAMA CAVES — HOBBS 7 



Disposition of types. — The holotypic male, form I, the allotypic 

 female, and the morphotypic male, form II, are deposited in the United 

 States National Museum (nos. 117684, 117685, and 117686, respec- 

 tively.) Of the paratypes, one male, form I, one male, form II, and 

 a female are in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, a similar series 

 in the Department of Zoology, Tulane University, and two males, 

 form I, one male, form II, and six females are in the United States 

 National Museum. 



Range. — Procambarus pecki is known from two localities other 

 than the type-locality. Four of the 18 specimens available were col- 

 lected in Cave Spring Cave, 2 nine miles southeast of Decatur, Morgan 

 County, Ala. (ACS No. 53) (Sec, 4. T 6S, R 3W), and two of them 

 from Key Cave (ACS No. 99) just above the northern bank of the 

 Tennessee River, about eight miles southwest of Florence, Lauderdale 

 County, Ala. (Sec, 35, T 3S, R 12 W). The type-locality and Cave 

 Spring Cave are south of the Tennessee River whereas Key Cave 

 lies on its north bank. 



Variations. — -In general, the specimens from Cave Spring Cave, 

 Morgan County, have weaker spines than those from the type-locality, 

 but for all other variations noted, specimens from one or the other 

 locality exhibit the extreme ranges. The marginal rostral spines may 

 reach the midlength of the ultimate podomere of the antennule; the 

 cervical spines vary from one to three on each side, but in none of the 

 specimens are there fewer than two on at least one side. The proximal 

 section of the lateral ramus of the uropod bears from 7 to 13 spines 

 along its distal margin. The chelipeds exhibit considerable variation 

 in prominence and numbers of tubercles and spines. The annulus 

 ventralis and the wings of the sternal plate immediately cephalic to 

 it may or may not be pigmented. 



Life history notes. — First form males were collected on Dec. 22, 

 1965, Apr. 16, 1966, and July 9, 1966. No ovigerous females, or females 

 with young, or even young free in the water have been observed. 



Relationships. — Procambarus pecki seems equally closely related 

 to the troglobitic members of the genus Orconectes and to the mem- 

 bers of the Mexicanus Section of the genus Procambarus, and there 

 are good reasons for assigning it to either of the two. Almost certainly 

 it has had a common origin with both of the groups mentioned, and, 

 while it resembles 0. p. pellucidus (Tellkampf, 1844, p. 583) as strongly 

 as it does any other species, at least some of the similarities almost 

 certainly are due to convergence in response to a spelean environ- 



2 This is the type-locality of Cambarus jonesi Hobbs and Barr (1960, p. 19), 

 listed by them as "12.1 miles northwest of Valhermosa." Mrs. Cooper has called 

 my attention to the fact that we erred in quoting Dr. Jones' description of this 

 cave, as his was that of another "Cave Spring Cave" in Madison County, Ala. 



