Crayfish/ Crawfish

choi

Rachel Wolfe, Louisiana Crawfish Boil Lands Rookies in Hot Water; Boxes of live crawfish ship overnight, but many buyers don't what to do with them. Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2021 (front page).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/cra ... t-water-11622840790

Note:
(a) Well, surprisingly the subtitle lacks a verb.
(b) crayfish
(i)
(A) Alicia Fitzgerald (a student in Biology 220W, Spring 2006), Crayfish. In Species Pages. Penn State New Kensington
https://www.dept.psu.edu/nkbiolo ... spages/crayfish.htm   

(introduction "Scientific name: Cambarus sp. * * * freshwater * * * Their large anterior-most pairs of legs have powerful claws * * * Their four pairs of walking legs assist them in rapid locomotion across the bottom substrates of their aquatic habitats. Surprisingly, they are not really capable of swimming although they can use powerful thrusts of their tails to rapidly propel themselves (backwards) through the water. This latter movement is particularly effective when the crayfish is attempting to elude a predator.

"Distribution[:] Species of crayfish are widely distributed throughout the world and are found abundantly in most of the continental United States. They live in ponds, streams, rivers, and lakes most typically under submerged rocks and logs. Some species are also capable of digging burrows frequently topped with tall, distinctive 'turrets' that are often located some distance from the water's edge. * * *

"Environmental Tolerance Limits[:] Crayfish are extremely hardy animals that can tolerate wide ranges of water temperatures and salinities. They can even survive the drying up and loss of their streams and ponds. They respond to these extreme habitat disruptions by aestivation in burrows or other refugia or by migration to still intact water sources. Crayfish are very intolerant of pollution and other human-generated fouling of their environment. * * *

"Moulting[:] * * * Young crayfish moult 6 to 10 times during their first year while older crayfish moult 3 to 5 times during their second (and, typically, final) year of life.

"Mating and Reproduction[:] Crayfish mate in the early spring and females carry the fertilized, developing eggs inside their bodies for 4 to 6 weeks. These developing eggs are then transferred to the outside of the female's body and glued via an adhesive called 'glair' to the female’s tail. The eggs then hatch by the end of spring. * * *

(B) crayfish
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crayfish
(gill; section 1 Terminology: Modern French écrevisse)
(C) It turns out that Massachusetts has crayfish, too, but almost no Massachusetts residents know about it. See
Appalachian Brook Crayfish  Cambarus bartonii. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, Department of Fish and Game, Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, undated
https://www.mass.gov/files/docum ... mbarus-bartonii.pdf
("DESCRIPTION[:] The Appalachian Brook Crayfish is a mid-size a medium-sized (150 mm in total length) crayfish * * * Adults tend to be a uniform brownish-tan color * * * RANGE[:] The Appalachian Brook Crayfish is distributed throughout eastern North America except in coastal regions and interior New England. In Massachusetts the species is confined to Hoosie River drainage system in the northwestern part of the state")
(ii) French-English dictionary:
* écrevisse (noun feminine; from Old French [noun feminine] crevice [crayfish]): "crayfish"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/écrevisse

Compare English noun crevice (from Middle English [of the same spelling] from Old French [noun feminine] crevace [a crack], from [verb] crever to burst, from Latin [verb] crepare to rattle, crack")
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/crevice

(c) "One Montana family dumped their 10-pound bag of mudbugs into a plastic kiddie pool without realizing their escape artistry.  'Crawfish are like walking Legos,' Ms [Courtney] Frugé said [in Branch, Louisiana family farm]. 'They link together, and they'll flip themselves up and out of anywhere. The family was running around chasing them."

Well, I look everywhere for images or videos of crayfish linking together, form Legos, jumping or escaping -- and found nothing.

But crayfish, shrimp and lobster do swim backward (as described in Note(a)(i)(A) ). For the last, see the first several seconds of
Best Ever Swimming Lobster Catch!! YouTube.com, uploaded by SpearFin on Jan 21, 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gG5TWpdYxU

(d) "Crawfish has long been a popular dish in Louisiana and eastern Texas but not easy to find elsewhere."