Sunday, June 1, 2008

Basement (cave) crayfish in the Town Branch Neighborhood

Please click on images to ENLARGE photo of crayfish that comes from underground into the basement of an old home in the Town Branch Neighborhood. The house is on a wetland lot with a capped well and standing water after extended rain such as on the day this photo was made, June 1, 2008. The area is near the Aspen Ridge/Hill Place development site and in the same watershed of the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River.

Months, ago, the owner of the house with the basement often flooded and populated by crawdads, had said that his basement had white (albino) blind crayfish. I wish I had gone down there that day to check it out and visited often since. But today I went there and a pump was running to sent the excess water outdoors, but the only crawdad I found was not albino. It was, however, pale and almost clear in places. I hope someone will suggest a positive identification. Its situation suggests that it came up from the aquifer, from a cave, rather than from a shallow burrow typical of the indigenous Ozark or Osage crayfish. Maybe I'll get another chance to visit and spot one of the white, blind crayfish. Not many people have seen such endangered species. It would be a privilege to photograph one.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dem mudbugs be too little to botha cookin. Deh be fishbait! Got yo self a trotline and bait up.

Anonymous said...

Good Job! :)