What is our yabbies true name; Ive heard that there are lots of different species of yabbies?
The everyday, or common, name yabbie (from an aboriginal word) is loosely used for several species of small freshwater crayfish in eastern Australia. The true, or scientific, name for our Yabby in WA is Cherax albidus. The first name is the group, or genus, of rather similar crayfish to which yabbies belong (over 30 species in Australia and PNG, including marron, koonacs and gilgies in WA). The generic name, Cherax, is thought to be a mispelling of the Greek word Charax, meaning a pointed stake – a thing that scratches. The second name (no capital letter) is the particular species, the white Yabby which was first named as Cherax albidus by a Victorian museum taxonomist, Dr Ellen Clark, in 1936. Our yabbies were introduced from the Wimmera farming district in western Victoria – the exact spot is known, Miram swamp near Nihil. It is an interesting coincidence that the species name for our yabbies is derived from the same Latin word (“albus” = white) which is used to describe the reflecti
