Field Guide

The virile crayfish is large, reddish brown or green, and lacks prominent markings. The pincers are green with orange tips and are studded with whitish knobs. Paired dark blotches run along the abdomen. This species is widespread.

Hubbs' crayfish is powerfully built, olive tan or reddish brown, with a narrow blackish band where the carapace and abdomen join. It has a limited range within the Ozarks of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.

The Salem cave crayfish lives in caves in the Missouri Ozarks. Its localized distribution makes its populations vulnerable to catastrophes that might pollute or damage their cave environment.

The spothanded crayfish is moderately large and usually has a noticeable black spot on each pincer near the base of the movable finger. In Missouri, it is found mostly in Ozark waterways in the southeastern quarter of the state, from Callaway, Montgomery, and Warren counties south.

The coldwater crayfish has a very localized distribution in the Eleven Point River system. It is stout, with a blue-green head and pincers and dark, rust-brown carapace. It is an imperiled species.

These small mussels use darters, a type of fish, as hosts for their young.

The fatmucket was a favorite species harvested for the button industry in the early 1900s.

The Arkansas brokenray only occurs in streams that flow south off of the Salem and Springfield plateaus, so it is found only in about the southern quarter of Missouri.

The butterfly is one of the most beautiful of Missouri’s mussels.

A common mussel in some areas, deertoe have decorative green markings.