112 J. E. Cooper and A. L. Braswell 



REA, Jr; this locality is on a narrow peninsula between the Cape Fear 

 River and Onslow Bay. Onslow Co. — (9) permanent ditch and pools 

 along US 17, 0.4 mi (0.6 km) N jet SR 1103, ca. 3.7 air mi (5.9 air 

 km) S Verona; 1 6 I, 1 6 II, 4 $ (NCSM C-70), 10 Aug 1976, M. 

 M. Browne. 



Although the natural range of P. plumimanus appears to be 

 limited to the Northeast Cape Fear and New (White Oak) basins, and 

 this species did not appear at any of the N. lewisi survey stations 

 sampled in the Neuse basin (Cooper and Ashton 1985:10), two 

 localities for the species within the lower Neuse basin are known. 

 The type locality, "Roadside ditch 2.2 miles southeast of Havelock, 

 Craven County, North Carolina on Hwy. 70" (Hobbs and Walton 1958: 

 10) apparently lies close to East Prong Slocum Creek and not far 

 from the head of Hancock Creek, both north-flowing streams that 

 drain into the Neuse River on either side of the Cherry Point Naval 

 Reservation. Only swamps separate this area from nearby headwaters 

 of the Newport River not far to the south. The second locality, also in 

 the Neuse basin in Craven County, is a ditch along Catfish Lake Road 

 (SR 1100), 3.0 air mi (4.8 air km) southwest of the town of Croatan, 

 in the drainage of East Prong Brice Creek. 



This apparent expansion of the range of P. plumimanus into the 

 lower Neuse basin possibly can be explained by the fact that in 

 Carteret, southern and eastern Craven, and southern Jones counties, 

 as in much of the poorly drained outer (tidewater) Coastal Plain, 

 contemporary drainage distinctions have become blurred. The drainage 

 divides, very low to begin with, have been breached by stream 

 channelization, a vast system of man-made drainage canals, and the 

 Intracoastal Waterway. Drainage canals along SR 1100 east and south- 

 east of Catfish Lake provide access from the White Oak River basin 

 to West Prong Brice Creek of the Neuse basin. Farther east, the 

 Harlowe (Clubfoot), Adams Creek, and other canals, link elements of 

 the Neuse River with the Newport and North rivers. Precisely what 

 roles the easternmost of these interbasin waterways might play in 

 crayfish distributions will not become clear until we have an under- 

 standing of the tolerance that various species display for the physico- 

 chemical features of their waters. Some crayfishes, notably P. a. acutus 

 and Fallicambarus (Creaserinus) fodiens (Cottle), and even C. diogenes, 

 are widely distributed in tidewater North Carolina. They often occur 

 in close proximity to saline estuaries and tidal creeks, and there is a 

 population of F. fodiens across Croatan Sound on Roanoke Island. 

 Interbasin connectors also are present in other coastal river basins 

 (see below). 



