Engaeus mairener
Engaeus mairener

I’m not familiar with the Tasmanian Engaeus but as per my Australian Engaeus bible (Horwitz, 1990) this species keys out as Engaeus mairener – if anyone has any other thoughts, please let me know as this is one of my first tastes of Tassie Engaeus.

The area (Tributary Little Pipers River, crossing Bridport Rd) was riddled with burrows
The area (Tributary Little Pipers River, crossing Bridport Rd) was riddled with burrows
Engaeus mairener Burrows
Engaeus mairener Burrows

This species is endemic to north-eastern Tasmania, and seemingly abundant. Burrows were close to each other (2-3/m2) with the areas where they occurred being riddled with burrows.

Dig the above burrow 600 mm and find this Engaeus mairener at the base
Dig the above burrow 600 mm and find this Engaeus mairener (18.75 mm OCL) in a small chamber at the base

Burrows tops were not the high chimney type but just a small mound of excavated material, we generally only excavated newly constructed burrows with fresh material at the burrow mouth (good chance of getting a crayfish). Most burrows had 2 surface entrances leading to a deep burrow that lead to either a small water filled chamber or just a water filled burrow with the crayfish crammed into the base.

Engaeus mairener burrows on the side of dry creek be
Engaeus mairener burrows on the side of dry creek bed
The burrow top
The burrow top
Take the top of the burrow off
Take the top of the burrow off
Dig 700 mm deep and find this Engaeus mairener crammed in the bottom
Dig 700 mm deep and find this Engaeus mairener crammed in the bottom

Most of the burrows I dug were in or along the sides creek beds, all were currently dry on the surface but there was water in all the burrow base excavated. Both clay and soil seemed to be suitable for the species and tea trees were typical in the burrow areas we collected crayfish from.

Reference

Horwitz, P. (1990). A taxonomic revision of species in the freshwater crayfish genus Engaeus Erichson (Decapoda: Parastacidae). Invertebrate Taxonomy 4 (3): 427–614. doi:10.1071/IT9900427

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