North Carolina Crayfishes 123 



Neuse River — The Neuse is a second major drainage system 

 that heads and debouches in North Carolina (for a brief description 

 see Cooper and Ashton 1985:6-7). It includes Long, Little, and Ellis 

 lakes of Croatan National Forest, Craven County. Ellis Lake has a 

 direct connection with Southwest Prong Slocum Creek. 



Cambarus reduncus is confined to the Piedmont Plateau and 

 Fall Line zone of this basin, where the southeasternmost known 

 localities are in central Wake County. Cambarus latimanus, C. diogenes, 

 C. sp. C, and P. a. acutus occur throughout the system. Procambarus 

 medialis, F. fodiens, and O. sp. A are essentially Coastal Plain species, 

 with F. fodiens and O. sp. A both edging into the Fall Line zone at 

 least as far west as southern Wake County. Two localities for P. 

 plumimanus, including the type locality, are known in the lower Neuse 

 basin. The listing by Harris (1903:56) of C. b. bartonii in the Neuse 

 was in error, and was probably based on Faxon's (1885:61) erroneous 

 report of the species from Kinston, Lenoir County, which also was 

 repeated by Ortmann (1931:131). 



Tar-Pamlico River — Like the Cape Fear and Neuse rivers, the 

 Tar-Pamlico is confined to North Carolina (for a brief description see 

 Cooper and Ashton 1985:6-9). Lake Mattamuskeet, part of this system 

 in Hyde County, connects with the Alligator River of the Pasquotank 

 basin through drainage canals and the Intracoastal Waterway, which 

 also forms a direct connection between the Alligator and Pungo rivers. 

 Drainage canals also connect Pungo Lake of the Tar-Pamlico basin, 

 Washington and Hyde counties, with canals from New (Alligator) 

 Lake in the Pasquotank drainage of Hyde County. 



The crayfish fauna of the Tar-Pamlico is the same as that of 

 the Neuse basin, except for the apparent expansion into the latter of 

 P. plumimanus. During the Pleistocene, these drainages "would have 

 been conjoined to form the Greater Pamlico River" (Lachner and 

 Jenkins 1971:62). In the Tar-Pamlico, however, P. medialis appears 

 to be limited to the immediate area of the type locality, a pool in 

 a roadside ditch, 0.6 mi (1 km) south of Scotland Neck, on US 258, in 

 southeastern Halifax County (Hobbs 1975:13). In the Neuse basin its 

 known range is more extensive, occupying an area from Johnston 

 County downriver to Lenoir and Pitt counties. In addition, the Tar- 

 Pamlico range of Orconectes sp. A extends from headwaters in 

 Granville County to eastern Pitt County, whereas in the Neuse, despite 

 intensive sampling, this species has not been found any farther 

 upriver than southern Wake County. The report by Faxon (1914:367) 

 of "Cambarus blandingii" from Lake Mattamuskeet was undoubtedly 

 based upon P. a. acutus. 



