A New Species of Crayfish of the Genus Orconectes, 
Subgenus Procericambarus (Decapoda: Cambaridae), 
Endemic to the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico River Basins, 
North Carolina 
John E. Cooper 1 
North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences 
P.O. Box 29555 
Raleigh, North Carolina 27626 
AND 
Martha Riser Cooper 
209 Lynwood Lane 
Raleigh, North Carolina 27609 
ABSTRACT — Orconectes {Procericambarus) carolinensis is a new 
species in the Spinosus Group, and the only member of its subge- 
nus known from east of the Blue Ridge physiographic province. 
It is endemic to the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico river basins of North 
Carolina, where it occurs in the Coastal Plain and the eastern edge 
of the Piedmont Plateau. It is most closely related to O. ( P .) spinosus 
and O. (P.) putnami, but may be distinguished from these and other 
members of the Spinosus Group by: the greater length of the ter- 
minal elements of the form I male gonopod (first pleopod); the 
shorter and broader areola; the somewhat longer acumen and ros- 
trum; the occasional presence of multiple cervical spines and small 
spiniform hepatic tubercles; the smaller size; and various aspects 
of tuberculation and spination of the palm, dactyl, merus, and is- 
chium of the cheliped. The species is probably derived from an 
ancestral Procericambarus stock that inhabited the Tennessee and 
Teays river basins, gained access to the Atlantic versant follow- 
ing a breach of the Blue Ridge by headwaters of the young Roanoke 
River, and later entered the Greater Pamlico River from the Greater 
Roanoke by stream captures. 
The Neuse and Tar-Pamlico rivers rise in the eastern Piedmont 
Plateau of North Carolina, flow southeast across the Coastal Plain 
of the state, and debouch at saline estuaries of Pamlico Sound on 
the Atlantic coast. Throughout their lengths they are parallel ripar- 
ian systems that support nearly identical faunas and, although now 
separated, during much of the Pleistocene they undoubtedly were a 
1 Permanent address: 418 Wayne Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina 27608. 
Brimleyana 23:65-87, December 1995 
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