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Mudbug Love

Started by Guest_Newt_* , Feb 06 2008 02:59 PM

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15 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 06 February 2008 - 02:59 PM

The crawdads were going at it during last night's rain! I was out looking for amphibians in a bottomland creek/ pond system and came across this:

Posted Image

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#2 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 06 February 2008 - 03:13 PM

Yeah, mudbugs, now you're talking.

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#3 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 06 February 2008 - 04:24 PM

Definately a cambarid....you're up on the nashville basin right? those are some sweet specimens...

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#4 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 06 February 2008 - 04:38 PM

Definately a cambarid....you're up on the nashville basin right? those are some sweet specimens...

I'm actually west of the Nashville Basin, on the Highland Rim, near the border of the Western Highland Rim and Pennyroyal Plain (Clarksville area). These guys were in the Cumberland floodplain, in a small mud-bottomed creek just above an old beaver pond. I saw another mating pair, looked like the same species, in the pond, and a lone male in the outflow. They were all pretty big, about 4 - 4.5" from tip to tip (not counting claws).

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#5 Guest_fishlvr_*

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Posted 06 February 2008 - 04:46 PM

Neat find! It's not everyday you get to see a couple of wild crawdads gettin' it on!

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#6 Guest_mikez_*

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Posted 06 February 2008 - 04:47 PM

What news of ambystomids?
We've had lots of rain and snowmelt. Vernal pools still have ten inches of ice with six inches of water on top, lots of melting around the edges. Another month to go. :roll:

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#7 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 06 February 2008 - 04:55 PM

What news of ambystomids?
We've had lots of rain and snowmelt. Vernal pools still have ten inches of ice with six inches of water on top, lots of melting around the edges. Another month to go.

The ambystomatids are out and about. I saw a couple of spotteds at this site, as well as a marbled on the road (she may have just left her clutch), but no egg masses; the peepers and chorus frogs were calling, and the southern leopard frogs, green frogs, northern cricket frogs, American toads, and eastern zigzag salamanders were all out wandering around in the warm rain.

Last week I found one ditch with spotted and tiger salamander egg masses in it, but every other pond I've visited has had spotted adults and spermatophores, but no eggs. I've seen a few freshly-hatched marbled salamander larvae, too, as well as last year's ranid tadpoles. I'm kind of surprised that everything seems to have survived so well; we've had some unusually cold weather this winter, and many of the shallower pools and streams have frozen solid (a rarity here).

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#8 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 06 February 2008 - 09:33 PM

I'm drawing a blank on what they might be exactly, Carl Williams at Region 4 would know. Ah I wish I kept more crayfish there....

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#9 Guest_netmaker_*

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Posted 07 February 2008 - 08:49 AM

Would you mind if I would forward the pictures to my old associate Dr. Jay Huner from the Crawfish Research center at USL ( now I think they call it ULL).
He might be able to ID???
He used to be the Pres. of the International Astocology Assoc.

nm

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#10 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 07 February 2008 - 11:54 AM

Would you mind if I would forward the pictures to my old associate Dr. Jay Huner from the Crawfish Research center at USL ( now I think they call it ULL).
He might be able to ID???
He used to be the Pres. of the International Astocology Assoc.

nm

That would be fantastic, Netmaker! If it helps, the lone male I picked up had slim, slightly curved, pointed copulatory swimmerets (gonopods? I can never remember the right term). Unfortunately, it was too rainy then for me to take pictures of him.

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#11 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 07 February 2008 - 11:57 AM

I'm drawing a blank on what they might be exactly, Carl Williams at Region 4 would know. Ah I wish I kept more crayfish there....

Carl's a great guy! I was an intern in Region 4's non-game program years ago. Do you know Pete Wyatt and Mark Fagg?

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#12 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 07 February 2008 - 01:10 PM

I can't say I know Pete but I know Mark. He and my graduate advisor are great friends.

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#13 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 07 February 2008 - 01:44 PM

I can't say I know Pete but I know Mark. He and my graduate advisor are great friends.

Mark was kind enough to let me board in his house during my internship. He's a swell guy. He tried to teach me to ID land snails while I was there, but not much of it stuck, I'm afraid.

Speaking of crayfish, though- I collected a nice big reddish one from a swamp near Wolf River a few weeks back. I dropped him in my rosy red tank and figured I would ID him later; I fed him sinking shrimp pellets, which he ate with gusto. Well, at some point he bit the bullet and the rosy reds ate all the soft parts overnight. Now all I have to ID him from is a pile of limbs and carapace fragments! :laugh:

I doubt it will go well.

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#14 Guest_Irate Mormon_*

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Posted 07 February 2008 - 10:16 PM

Do you know Pete Wyatt and Mark Fagg?

Talk about the "unfortunate names" department. That's right up there with "slimy sculpin"!

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#15 Guest_ashtonmj_*

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Posted 07 February 2008 - 10:23 PM

Actually one of his Mark's favorite quotes is "it's a last name not a life style". Really smart guy. That group of TN aquatic biologists/ecologists are some of the heaviest drinkers and funniest guys I've ever met.

Which Wolf River, the western one if it was a swamp...?

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#16 Guest_Newt_*

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Posted 07 February 2008 - 10:28 PM

Actually one of his Mark's favorite quotes is "it's a last name not a life style". Really smart guy. That group of TN aquatic biologists/ecologists are some of the heaviest drinkers and funniest guys I've ever met.

Ha, yeah they're a hoot; it's not just the aquatics guys either- the herpers are the same way. The mammalogists and ornithologists are a little more staid. You should come to one of the Tennessee herp society meetings- they're a blast!