Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia

by Edward Ellis Morris

<hw>Cray-fish</hw>, <i>n</i>. The Australasian <i>Cray-fish</i> belong to the family <i>Parastacidae</i>, the members of which are confined to the southern hemisphere, whilst those of the family <i>Potamobiidae</i> are found in the northern hemisphere. The two families are distinguished from one another by, amongst other points of structure, the absence of appendages on the first abdominal segment in the <i>Parastacidae</i>. The Australasian cray-fishes are classified in the following genera—<i>Astacopsis</i>, found in the fresh waters of Tasmania and the whole of Australia; <i>Engaeus</i>, a land-burrowing form, found only in Tasmania and Victoria; <i>Paranephrops</i>, found in the fresh waters of New Zealand; and <i>Palinurus</i>, found on the coasts of Australia and New Zealand. The species are as follows :—

(1) <i>The Yabber or Yabbie Crayfish</i>. Name given to the commonest fresh-water Australian Cray-fish, <i>Astacopsis bicarinatus</i>, Gray. This is found in waterholes, but not usually in running streams, over the greater part of the continent, and often makes burrows in the ground away from water, and may also do great damage by burrowing holes through the banks of dams and reservoirs and water-courses, as at Mildura. It was first described as the <i>Port Essington Crayfish</i>.

1845. Gray, in E. J. Eyre's `Expeditions into Central Australia,' vol. i. p. 410:

"The Port Essington Cray fish. <i>Astacus bicarinatus</i>."

1885. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' Dec. 2, pl. 29:

"They are commonly known about Melbourne by the native name of
Yabber or Yabbie."

(2) <i>The Murray Lobster or the Spiny Cray-fish</i>. Name given to the largest Australian fresh-water Cray-fish, <i>Astacopsis serratus</i>, Shaw, which reaches a length of over twelve inches, and is found in the rivers of the Murray system, and in the southern rivers of Victoria such as the Yarra, the latter being distinguished as a variety of the former and called locally the <i>Yarra Spiny Cray-fish</i>.

1890. F. McCoy, `Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria,' Dec. 8, pl. 160: "

Our plate 160 illustrates a remarkable variety of the typical <i>A. serratus</i> of the Murray, common in the Yarra and its numerous affluents flowing southwards."

(3) <i>The Tasmanian Cray</i>-fish. Name given to the large fresh-water Cray-fish found in Tasmania, <i>Astacopsis franklinii</i>; Gray.