''Faxonius stygocaneyi'', the Caney Mountain cave crayfish, is a small, freshwater

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the infraorder Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. Taxonomically, they are members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea. They breathe through feather-like gills. Some spe ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

in the United States. It is a cave-dwelling species known from only one cave, Mud Cave in

Ozark County, Missouri Ozark County is a county in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Missouri. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,553. The largest city and county seat is Gainesville. The county was organized as Ozark County, named after the Ozark ...

. This cave is Protected as part of the Caney Mountain Conservation Area, which covers of public land administered by the

Missouri Department of Conservation The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and the Missouri Conservation Commission were created by Article IV Sections 40-42 of the Missouri Constitution, which were adopted by the voters of the state in 1936 as Amendment 4 to the constitut ...

References

Cambaridae Cave crayfish Freshwater crustaceans of North America Crustaceans described in 2001 Endemic fauna of Missouri Endemic crustaceans of the United States Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{crayfish-stub