A Night of Devastation: Natural and Life-History Observations from an en Masse Collection of Fallicambarus devastator

Zackary A. Graham^1,*, Zachary W. Dillard¹, R. Katie Scott¹, Nicole M. Sadecky¹, Luke K. Sadecky¹, and Zachary J. Loughman¹

¹West Liberty University, Department of Organismal Biology, Ecology, and Zoo Science, 208 University Drive, West Liberty, WV 26074. *Corresponding author.

Southeastern Naturalist, Volume 23, Issue 1 (2024): 52–66

First published early online: 16 February 2024

Abstract
Since burrowing crayfish spend most of their lives underground, our knowledge of their biology, behavior, and natural history is limited. Herein, we report life- and natural-history observations of Fallicambarus devastator (Texas Prairie Crayfish) from a single en masse collecting event at night where we observed an unusually high degree of surface activity. Based on our observations and the environmental conditions, we hypothesize that the surface activity was triggered by hypoxic conditions within burrows that forced crayfish to the surface, although we do not present burrow oxygen measurements. Throughout the night, we repeatedly observed conspecific interactions between pairs of crayfishes that likely represents territoriality, although we did not observe injurious contests. These interactions were highly stereotypic, which matches reports from other burrowing crayfish observations. Further, the activity we observed was unlikely related to mating, as females were not reproductively active during our observations. Overall, these observations contribute to our understanding of the nature and degree of surface behavior in burrowing crayfishes. We encourage other researchers to attempt similar night-time observations to glean information on unknown aspects of burrowing crayfish behavior, like aggression and mating.

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