The first known introductions of the red swamp crayfish into new locations took place in the 1920s: 1924 in California and 1927 in the Hawaiian Islands in United States, 1927 in Japan, and 1929 in China. In the mid-1960s, a batch of crayfish was sent to Uganda and Kenya, and soon afterwards, to other African countries. Simultaneously, these animals spread over Mexico and reached Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic in the 1970s, and Brazil in the mid-1980s. The red swamp crayfish was legally introduced into Spain in 1973 and 1974, first from Louisiana and probably later from Africa or south-east Asia. Currently, this species is present in at least 40 countries worldwide. As you can see, the red swamp crayfish has traveled a lot! By using this information and collecting crayfish from different places around the world, we were able to uncover its invasion process, describe its genetic variability, and understand its global invasion patterns.

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