Morphological variability and sexual dimorphism of noble crayfish Astacus astacus from the Balkana Lake

Abstract

This paper presents the first information about the morphological variability and sexual dimorphism of the stone crayfish Austropotamobius torrentium in the area of Marjanovića Stream in Čelinac (Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina). The crayfish were caught by hand-made made baited traps from October 2018 to May 2019. A total of 67 specimens were caught, out of which 33 males and 34 females. The eight morphometric characteristics - body weight (W), body length (TBL), claw length (CLL), carapace length (CPW), carapace width (CPW), abdomen length (ABL), rostrum length (ROL) and rostrum width (ROW) were analyzed for all specimens and the results were partially matched into the already known range of variations. Also, the body condition was determined for all individuals. By using the t-test, the significant differences between the sexes for W, TBL, CLL, CPW and ABL were registered, which could be explained by the sexual dimorphism of the stone crayfis.