A survey of Cambarus crayfish and their symbiotic branchiobdellidans, Sinking Creek, Newport, VA, USA 2017-2018

Crayfish throughout the holarctic are found in association with an order of worms known as branchiobdellidans. This relationship has been confirmed as a cleaning symbiosis in several species. The Conhaway crayfish, Cambarus appalachiensis, is a species of crayfish endemic to the New River Basin in Virginia and West Virginia. We studied a population of C. appalachiensis in Sinking Creek in Newport, VA from March 2017 until February 2018. We collected morphological data and quantified the branchiobdellidan communities on 986 individuals, and kept note of egg brooding and young of year throughout the study period. The life cycle of C. appalachiensis was found to be similar to other large-bodied species of Cambarus crayfish. Molting occurred throughout the year, peaking in the months of April and September. This molting served as a disturbance effect to the symbiotic branchiobdellidan community and reset community assembly. The worm communities on larger, recently molted crayfish more close..., We sampled the crayfish Cambarus appalachiensis, previously C. sciotensis (Loughman et al. 2017), bimonthly in Sinking Creek at the Newport Recreation Area in Newport, VA (37.303096°N, 80.485522°W) from March 2017 until February 2018. The stream reach we chose to sample had multiple riffles and pools, and covered a broad range of crayfish habitats. We sampled crayfish from these varied microhabitats across the stream reach using dip nets, totaling 986 crayfish captures during our study. Our monthly sample sizes ranged from 53 to 104 crayfish. After measuring the physical properties of the crayfish and symbiont identification (detailed below), crayfish were returned to the stream and deposited downstream of the collection site to reduce the chance of resampling the same crayfish.
Crayfish were separated from each other at the stream to prevent symbiont dispersal between sampled crayfish, transported from the stream to a laboratory, and stored live in the refrigerator separated from each ..., , # A Survey of Cambarus crayfish and their Symbiotic Branchiobdellidans, Sinking Creek, Newport, VA, USA 2017-2018

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qjq2bvqqq](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qjq2bvqqq)

## Sampling Methods

The location of each branchiobdellidan symbiont on the host crayfish was also noted. They are described as follows, including the letter used to denote a branchiobdellidan found at that location in the dataset: the ventral margin of the crayfish carapace, or within 5 mm of the ventral margin (**a**); the dorsal surface of the chelae (**b**); the walking legs (**c**); the anterior section of the carapace including the rostrum (excluding a), defined as the section anterior to the primarty transverse structure on the cephalothorax (**d**), the posterior section of the carapace (excluding a and f), defined as the section behind the primary transverse suture on the cephalothorax (**e**); within the margins of the areola (**f**); the dorsal surface of the abdomen (**g**), the ...,