While pruning the Concord grape plants the other day I came across the remains of blue crayfish. Some animal maybe a raptor or raccoon tends to leave remains near the grape arbor (usually a pile of feathers). I guess it could be a cat killing the crayfish and then a bird bringing the remains to the grapes to finish eating it. The tail, internal organs, and legs were missing from these crayfish. I think there were at least three crayfish and the remains were within a meter radius of each other. I estimate the crayfish could have been 6 inches (15-18 cm) long.
What really caught my attention was the blue color of the pincers and parts of the shell. I will have more detailed pincer images tomorrow. Doing a little research I found this nice website on blue crayfish. I also found this website on Indiana crayfish. Maybe this species is a Procambarus alleni, P. clarkii or Orconectes rusticus. I wonder if these crayfish are naturally blue or something in the environment is turning them this color. Should the water be tested? These remains were found in Clark County, Indiana.
One last thing, these are burrowing crayfish. Their mounds are all over the yard where water runs through from an irrigation pond. They are probably nocturnal.
UPDATE: Thanks to the nice people from www.bluecrayfish.com for identifying these pieces. They identified it as a Cambarus diogenes and it is blue because the sun bleached it.
CLICK ON IMAGES TO SEE MORE DETAIL.
Dig them up. I will buy them all day long. email me at amorning1 (at)yahoo
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