posted on 2023-05-25, 22:58authored byRichardson, AMM, Doran, N, Hansen, B
The geographic ranges of the 34 native species of freshwater crayfish known from Tasmania are mapped and described from extensive museum collections. Extents of occurrence range from over 30,000 to about 5 km E-2 and species in the open water genus Astacopsis have significantly greater ranges than the burrowing species in one of two undescribed genera within Parastacoides. Species living in Type 1 burrows associated with open water have significantly larger ranges than those found in Type 2, water table, burrows. Many species show mosaic istributions with either parapatric boundaries, or narrow zones of geographic overlap, or sympatric contact zones. In most cases, closely related species are also geographically close; exceptions to this trend may represent older clades, some members of which have suffered range contractions. The Tasmanian crayfish fauna presents a useful opportunity to examine questions about geographic ranges.