Recovery of the Cave Crayfish (Decapoda: Cambridae) 

 Population in Peacock Springs, Florida? 



W. J. Streever 



Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, 



University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611 



ABSTRACT— In 1991, a cave fauna kill was observed within 

 the fully-flooded cave system at Peacock Springs, Suwannee 

 County, Florida. Organisms affected by the kill included the 

 pallid cave crayfish (Procambarus pallidus), the yellow bull- 

 head (Ameiurus natalis), the American eel (Anguilla rostrata), 

 and the Asiatic clam (Corbicula fluminea). Following the kill, 

 no crayfish were present along transects, but recently collected 

 census data are not significantly different from data collected 

 before the 1991 kill (Paired Mest, P > 0.1). However, cray- 

 fish numbers have not returned to their pre- 1991 levels in the 

 cave passage where the highest crayfish density occurred 

 before the kill. Also, the scarcity of small (<1.5 cm total 

 length) crayfish suggests that the return to pre-1991 levels may 

 reflect dispersal of animals from inaccessible portions of the 

 cave and not replacement of crayfish through reproduction. 



The troglobitic pallid cave crayfish, Procambarus pallidus, 

 inhabits flooded caves in the Suwannee River drainage in north 

 Florida (Franz and Lee 1982). These caves also are inhabited by other 

 troglobitic and troglophillic species, including several species of 

 catfish (Hale and Streever 1994), ostracods (Walton and Hobbs 1959), 

 the American eel Anguilla rostrata (Franz et al. 1994), the Asiatic 

 clam Corbicula fluminea (Streever 1992a), tubificidae worms (Streever 

 19926), and the colonial cnidarian Cordylophora lacustris (Streever 

 1992c). Franz et al. (1994) provide an extensive review of Florida's 

 cave fauna, emphasizing distributional records for all species report- 

 ed in association with caves. Little is known about the ecology or 

 population dynamics for most of these species. 



The Peacock Springs cave system consists of over 3,300 m of 

 fully-flooded passage, with depths down to about 60 m. Eight openings 

 provide access to the cave system. A surface channel connects open- 

 ings commonly called Peacock I, II, and III to the Suwannee River. 

 Water from the Floridan aquifer normally flows out of the Peacock I 

 opening and drains into the Peacock III opening and the Suwannee 



Brimleyana 22:61-65, June 1995 61 



