ABSTRACT
The discovery of a parthenogenetic crayfi sh was a surprise, in part because it was not spotted by professional biologists, but amateurs. In 2000, an email from European hobbyist Kai Quante was forwarded to the CRUST-L email list. Moderator Jeffrey Shields called the email ‘an interesting one.’ Quante wrote:
“Since more than two years it is possible to buy a crayfi sh in Germany which origin is unknown. … In Germany it is called Marmorkrebs without a scientifi c name. The interesting thing is that there are reports that crayfi shes which were kept alone for their whole life had eggs and childs. All reports say that every crayfi sh ever kept had eggs once or more in their life.”
