Red swamp crayfish
Amazing fact
The red swamp crayfish burrows deep underground during molting.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The red swamp crayfish burrows deep underground during molting.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Red swamp crayfish
- Scientific name
- Procambarus clarkii
- Japanese name
- アメリカザリガニ
- Group
- Freshwater animals
- Class
- Malacostraca
- Order
- Decapoda
- Family
- Cambaridae
- Genus
- Procambarus
A crayfish originally from wetlands around the mouth of the Mississippi River in the southern United States. It lives in places such as wetlands and rice paddies.
Young crayfish are pale brown or yellowish brown, and they turn red or reddish brown when they grow up.
It has a habit of digging burrows, and during droughts or cold weather it goes down into a burrow to survive.
How the Red swamp crayfish lives
It is most active at night and often hides under rocks or logs by day. It eats insect larvae, tadpoles and snails. Eggs laid in autumn pass the winter and hatch in spring.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web国立環境研究所 侵入生物DBBasic data
- Size
- Body length: up to about 15 cm国立環境研究所 侵入生物DB
- Lifespan
- 4–5 years国立環境研究所 侵入生物DB
- Diet
- Insect larvae, tadpoles and snailsUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Range
- Southern United States, around the mouth of the Mississippi River国立環境研究所 侵入生物DB
Where the Red swamp crayfish has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- アメリカザリガニ
- 简体中文
- 克氏原螯虾
- 繁體中文
- 克氏原蝲蛄
- 한국어
- 미국가재
- Español
- Cangrejo rojo americano
- Français
- Écrevisse de Louisiane
- Português (Brasil)
- Lagostim-vermelho-do-Louisiana
- Italiano
- Gambero rosso della Louisiana
- العربية
- كركند المستنقعات الأحمر
- Русский
- Луизианский рак
- ไทย
- กุ้งแดง
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 国立環境研究所 侵入生物DB — アメリカザリガニChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Procambarus clarkiiChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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