On the Crayfishes Collected from the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River in Tennessee During the Summer of 1938

Hobbs, Horton; Shoup, C

During the course of the summer work of the first stream survey party of the Tennessee Division of Game and Fish, an attempt was made to collect crayfishes from all streams examined in the watershed of the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River in the Tennessee area. So far as we have been able to ascertain, prior to 1938 the only collections of crayfish made in this drainage were those of Dr. A. E. Ortmann on August 13 and 14, 1923, at Burnside,Pulaski County, Kentucky, and on August 13, 1924, at New River, Scott County, Tennessee. At the former locality he collected Orconectesju-venilis and Cambarus bartonii bartonii, and at the latter Cambarus extraneus and Cambarus bartonii bartonii. From June 8 to September 15, 1938, in the course of the stream survey work the junior author and J. H . Peyton collected approximately 60 crayfish from 18 stations in Morgan, Pickett, Scott, Anderson, and Campbell counties, Tennessee. Approximately 90 localities were examined on the various streams of this watershed, including a station on a tributary of Jellico Creek, Scott County, somewhat to the east of the Big South Fork drainage. The crayfish were not actively searched for, but were taken incidental to the fish collection work in progress, generally in hauls with the seine. Subsequent collecting by the same method (Shoup, Peyton and Gentry, 1941), revealing larger numbers of crayfish in other watersheds, would seem to indicate that the crayfish fauna of the Big South Fork is somewhat impoverished. It has already been pointed out (Shoup, 1940; Shoup and Peyton, 1940) that this drainage is for the most part rather barren so far as aquatic life is concerned.

On the Crayfishes Collected from the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River in Tennessee During the Summer of 1938

Series