NC Physiographic Region(s): eastern piedmont plateau, coastal plain

River Basin(s): Waccamaw, Cape Fear, Northeast Cape Fear, White Oak, Neuse, Tar-Pamlico, Hiwassee (see notes below)

Adult Habitat: “small to moderately large streams and burrows” (Hobbs Jr. 1989); “small to medium size streams, in pools, under rocks, in leaf litter, and burrows (secondary burrower)” (Williams and Bivens 1996); clear or swampy streams or ditches and burrows along stream banks and in floodplain: in leaf debris along bank, in leaf and log debris in deeper runs and pools, in riffles and runs with gravel and cobble substrate

Juvenile Habitat: surface waters, especially along edges in debris and in vegetation

Reproductive Season: late fall, early winter

Species associates: many

Conservation status:  not protected

Identification references: Cooper 1999, Hobbs Jr. 1989, Hobbs Jr. 1991

Taxonomic Description:

body shape: cylindrical or subcylindrical
coloration: often (but not always) possessing double stripes (dark reddish or dark brown or green in color) on dorsal abdomen; other coloration in shades of brown and cream or tan and greenish; some mottling and saddle pattern; cobalt blue morph captured in 1982 (Cooper and Braswell 1995)
spines: cervical spines, branchiostegal spines, cephalic spines, and marginal spines present; most spines not terribly strong
rostrum: having marginal spines or notches at base of acumen; margins converging; squarish and broad in general with small acumen
areola: fairly narrow, having approx. 2-5 punctations across narrowest part
chelae: generally robust; with two rows of strong tubercles along mesial margin of palm; mesial margin of palm short; dorsal and ventral surfaces of palm with large tubercles; moderately developed dorsolongitudinal ridges on fingers
other characteristics: suborbital angle acute or nearly so
form I male gonopod: corneous central projection lacking subapical notch (or shallow, if present); mesial process tapered, tip rounded rather than pointed