New Crayfish Species 
67 
Lumber-Little Pee Dee basins. These three species of very limited 
distribution constitute a ‘‘disjunct enclave” whose nearest relatives — 
Procambcirus ( Ortmannicus ) hybus Hobbs and Walton, Procambarus 
( Ortmannicus ) mancus Hobbs and Walton, and Procambarus ( Ortman- 
nicus ) planirostris Penn — inhabit elements of the Gulf drainage in 
Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida Parishes of Louisiana (Hobbs 
and Walton 1958:11; Hobbs 1975:15). 
The new species of Orconectes described below is yet another 
Neuse and Tar-Pamlico endemic whose range is widely disjunct from 
the ranges of its closest relatives. It “is only the third, and southern- 
most, species of Orconectes recorded from anywhere on the Atlantic 
seaboard” (Cooper and Cooper 1977:199), and has its closest affinities 
with species found in and west of the Blue Ridge rather than with 
its geographically close congener, Orconectes ( Crockerinus ) virginiensis 
Hobbs, of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. 
First reports of an Orconectes in the Tar-Pamlico River appeared 
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but the animal was assigned 
to Bundy’s Cambarus (= Orconectes) spinosus (Bundy 1877; Faxon 
1884, 1890; Harris 1903; Ortmann 1905, 1931), a creature of the Ten- 
nessee and Coosa river basins. Bundy’s specimens, which came from 
the Tar River at Rocky Mount, Edgecombe County, apparently were 
the only ones on which the several subsequent reports were based. 
Later papers (e.g., Hobbs 1972, 1974, 1989; Hobbs and Peters 1977) 
did not comment on an Orconectes in this Atlantic drainage river, 
although Hobbs (1981:294) repeated Ortmann’s (1931) statements 
(based on Faxon) that “C. spinosus ” occurred in the Tar River. 
Over 200 specimens of this crayfish, from 43 localities, have 
now been collected. Examination of this material verifies our opinion 
that the animal is quite distinct from other members of the genus 
Orconectes. 
Orconectes ( Procericambarus ) carolinensis, new species 
Figure 1 
Cambarus spinosus Bundy. — Faxon, 1890:632 [p.p.: “Tar River Rocky 
Mount, North Carolina.”]. — Harris, 1903:180 [p.p.: “North Carolina. 
1. Tar River, Rocky Mount (Nash County). F., ’90”]. — Ortmann, 
1905:115 [p.p.: “Atlantic drainage ... North Carolina”]. — Hobbs, 
1981:294 [p.p.: quoting Ortmann 1905]. 
C. spinosus Bundy. — Ortmann, 1931:87 [p.p.: “Tar River, Rocky Mount, 
Edgecombe Co., North Carolina, according to Faxon”], 88 [p.p.: 
“(from ... North ... Carolina)” ...]. — Hobbs, 1981:294 [p.p.: quoting 
Ortmann, 1931:87]. 
