ASTACUS. 147 
Under the name of Astacus fliviatilis, Cammarus, or Gammarus, the older 
authors included not only the “ Edelkrebs,”’ or the species to which the 
name A. fluviatilis is now restricted, but also the “Steinkrebs,” or “Thul- 
krebs,” a smaller form now known as A. torrentinm. Indeed, it is probable that 
these authors confounded A. /orrentium and A. pallipes under the one name 
“ Steinkrebs.’”* As early as 1558 Gesner wrote: “ Abundant Astaci fluvia- 
tiles in Helveticis et alpinis regionibus, in rivis, fluviis, torrentibus, lacubus. 
Sunt autem duorum generum: alii nobiles cognominantur (Edelkrebs), ma- 
jores nigrioresque: alii Steinkrebs (id est saxatiles) et Thulkrebs (nescio 
unde dicuntur) reperiuntur in rivis saxosis, minores, parte supina albiores, 
prona nigriores; elixi non undiquaque rubescunt, sed partim albicant.” + 
Herbst (1796), in his account of Cancer astacus, not only discriminates 
between the Edelkrebs and the Steinkrebs, but mentions the large crayfish 
from the Volga and the Jaik, afterwards described as a distinct species by 
Eschscholtz under the name of A. leptodactylus.t 
In 1802 Schrank first separated the Steinkrebs and Edelkrebs as two 
distinct species, Cancer torrentium and C. nobilis (Fauna Boica, p. 246). The 
Russian A. /eptodactylus was first named and described as a distinct species in 
1825, by Eschscholtz (Mém. Soc. Impér. Nat. Moscou, Tom. V. p. 109, Tab. 
XVIIL). Fourteen years later, Milne Edwards, in the second volume of his 
classical “ Histoire Naturelle des Crustacés,” describes but one species of 
European Astacus (A. fuviatilis). He says, however: “Il existe deux vari- 
étés de cette écrevisse: dans l'une, le rostre se rétrécit graduellement dés sa 
base, et ses dents latérales sont situées prés de son extrémité; dans l’autre, 
les bords latéraux du rostre sont paralléles dans leur moitié postérieure, et 
les dents latérales sont plus fortes et plus éloignées de son extrémité.” 
The second so-called “ variety” is A. fluviatilis. The first might be either 
A. torrentium or A. pallipes, for anything in the description, but the figure 
given by him in the Disciples’ edition of Cuvier’s Régne Animal is A. pal- 
lipes, which seems to be commoner in France than A. /orrentium. 
* The figures of the European crayfish in the older writers down to Pennant, as far as they can be 
determined, seem to represent 4. fluviatilis sensu strictiori. Pennant’s ‘‘ Crawfish” is apparently A. pal- 
lipes. Of the figures published in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, those of Gesner and Mattioli, 
and Jonston’s Tab. IIT. figs. 2, 3, 4, are tolerably good representations of the species. 
+ Op. supra cit., p. 122. Cf. Aldrovandi, Schonevelde, Résel, //. c., ete. 
+ So also Bose, op cif., p. 38 (2d ed.): “Dans les grands fleuves de la Russie asiatique, tels que le 
Don, le Volga, ete., il y a des écrevisses d’une prodigieuse grandeur, qu’on ne péche que pour avoir leurs 
pierres”’; and on p. 40, under Astacus fluviatilis, “Se trouve dans les rivitres en Europe ef en Asie.” So 
also Desmarest, op. cif., p. 211, 1825. 
