Missouri
has at least 32 species of crayfish. Most of them live in the
Ozark region. I have found only one crayfish species in the Kansas
City area, this species is called the Northern Crayfish or Oronectes
virilis. The Kansas City area is located in the Prairie Region,
which unfortunately has the least crayfish species. The Northern
crayfish is the most numerous crayfish in Missouri.This crayfish
is called the Northern Crayfish because it livesas far
north as northern Manitoba. These crayfish are mostly stream dwellers.
They can be found in almost every river and creek in the Kansas
City area that has rocks in it. They hide under rocks most of
the day. The Northern Crayfishes' pincers are blue green the rest
of their body is reddish brown. This crayfish is the 3rd largest
species in Missouri, adults are 1.8 to 4.9 inches long. Only the
Longpincerd crayfish and the Red Swamp Crayfish are larger. They
eat almost any thing. They can be kept in large aquariums
but sometimes escape and die. There are several methods to catch
crayfish. one method is to set a giant seine across the riffles
of a stream and then disturbing the area near the seine by kicking
and turning over rocks. Hopefully the crayfish will be washed
into the seine. The method I use is to find an area of a stream
where crayfish might be and disturb them by turning over rocks
and then use a small aquarium net to catch the crayfish. This
method is fairly successful, although my catching percentage is
probobly less than 50%.
