Surface water inhabiting crayfish are well-known for the impact on their surroundings. This impact has been related to loss of biodiversity and deteriorating water quality for invasive crayfish. Crayfish dig burrows for various reasons like lack of natural shelters, avoiding an upcoming drought, or high crayfish density and this may lead to increased sediment transport and accelerated bank instability. All crayfish are considered to have burrowing capability, but not all species have been observed burrowing. Studies comparing this behaviour among different species in standardized ways are scarce. Crayfish burrowing was investigated under standardized laboratory conditions to reveal differences among species and their sex. All studied species occur in the Netherlands and were the native Astacus astacus (Linnaeus, 1758), the Eurasian Pontastacus leptodactylus (Eschscholtz, 1823) and the invasive North American Faxonius virilis (Hagen, 1870), F. limosus (Rafinesque 1817), Pacifastacus leniusculus (Dana, 1852), Procambarus acutus (Girard 1852), and P. clarkii (Girard, 1852). As burrowing triggers were evaluated presence of shelter, increased light intensity, increased water temperature, and increased crayfish density. Results showed species-specific and sometimes sex-specific differences in burrowing behaviour among crayfish. The response to burrowing triggers was also species-specific and no two species reacted identical to all triggers. Absence of shelter was a strong driver to burrow for A. astacus, F. limosus and F. virilis, while increased light intensity triggered burrowing behaviour in P. leptodactylus, P. acutus and P. clarkii and lowered activity of F. limosus. Burrowing behaviour of P. clarkii was mostly influenced by increased water temperature. Significant differences between females and males were observed for P. leptodactylus, P. leniusculus and P. acutus in the shelter, increased density and increased water temperature treatment, respectively. Understanding the triggers that invoke burrowing may help managing populations of these invasive species.

生活在地表水中的小龙虾因其对周围环境的影响而闻名。这种影响与生物多样性丧失和入侵小龙虾的水质恶化有关。小龙虾挖洞的原因有多种，例如缺乏自然庇护所、避免即将到来的干旱或小龙虾密度高，这可能会导致沉积物运输增加并加速河岸不稳定。所有小龙虾都被认为具有挖洞能力，但并非所有物种都被观察到挖洞。以标准化方式比较不同物种之间这种行为的研究很少。在标准化实验室条件下对小龙虾的洞穴进行了研究，以揭示物种及其性别之间的差异。所有研究的物种都出现在荷兰，并且是本地Astacus astacus(Linnaeus, 1758)、欧亚Pontastacus leptodactylus (Eschscholtz, 1823) 和入侵的北美Faxonius virilis (Hagen, 1870)、F. limosus (Rafinesque 1817)、Pacifastacus leniusculus (Dana, 1852)、Procambarus acutus (Girard 185) 2）和克氏对虾（吉拉德，1852）。当评估挖洞触发因素时，有庇护所的存在、光照强度的增加、水温的升高以及小龙虾密度的增加。结果显示，小龙虾的挖洞行为存在物种特异性，有时甚至是性别差异。对穴居触发因素的反应也是特定于物种的，没有两个物种对所有触发因素的反应相同。缺乏庇护所是Astacus、F. limosus和F. virilis挖洞的强烈驱动因素，而光照强度的增加会引发P. leptodactylus、P. acutus和P. clarkii的挖洞行为，并降低F. limosus的活动。穴居行为克氏对虾主要受水温升高的影响。在避难所、增加密度和增加水温处理下，雌性和雄性之间的P. leptactylus、P. leniusculus和P. acutus分别观察到显着差异。了解引发穴居的触发因素可能有助于管理这些入侵物种的种群。