A Preliminary Survey of the Great Plains Mudbug, Lacunicambarus nebrascensis (Decapoda: Cambaridae) in New York

Zackary A. Graham^1,* and Zachary J. Loughman¹

¹West Liberty University, Department of Biological Sciences, 208 University Drive, West Liberty, WV 26074. *Corresponding author.

Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 32, Issue 4 (2025): 533–541

First published early online: 27 December 2025

Abstract
Freshwater crayfishes, particularly burrowing species, play vital ecological roles but face increasing threats from habitat loss, invasive species, climate change, and other anthropogenic forces. Documenting the distribution of burrowing crayfishes is challenging because they spend most of their lives underground, complicating population monitoring and making comprehensive distributional studies difficult. Recently, burrowing crayfishes in the genus Lacunicambarus have undergone significant taxonomic revisions, with several newly described species, and additional species being redescribed. Lacunicambarus nebrascensis (Great Plains Mudbug) was redescribed in 2022 and is known to have a large range across much of the midwestern US and around the Great Lakes. Despite recent taxonomic revisions confirming the Great Plains Mudbug as a distinct species, its distribution, especially at the extreme ends of its range, remains poorly understood, with few verified records in New York State since 1980s. Here, we report a survey of the most recently documented locations of Great Plains Mudbug in New York, which confirmed the presence of this species in 2 of 10 historic locations, and at 1 of the 9 newly surveyed sites. Although we identified 3 New York records of this species, a comprehensive conservation assessment is urgently needed due to the limited available habitat remaining for the Great Plains Mudbug in the state.

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