Orconectes

{{Short description|Genus of crayfish}}

{{Automatic taxobox

|image = Orconectes.jpg

|image_caption =

|image_alt = Unidentified Orconectes

|taxon = Orconectes

|authority = Cope, 1872

|type_species = Orconectes inermis

|type_species_authority = Cope, 1872

}}

Orconectes is a genus of cave dwelling freshwater crayfish, endemic to suitable habitats in the eastern United States. Surface dwelling species, formerly categorised here, were moved to Faxonius in 2017.{{cite web |url=https://academic.oup.com/jcb/article/37/5/615/4060680?login=false |work=The Crayfish and Lobster Taxonomy Browser |title=An updated classification of the freshwater crayfishes (Decapoda: Astacidea) of the world, with a complete species list |author1=Keith A Crandall |author-link1=Keith A. Crandall |author2=Sammy De Grave. |publisher=Oxford University Press}}

Due to their subterranean habitat, they are usually depigmented, often blind, and are long-lived. Ages of 176 years have been claimed for O. australis, though this was reduced to ≤22 years in a 2012 study.{{cite journal |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2427.2012.02812.x |title=Re-examining extreme longevity of the cave crayfish Orconectes australis using new mark–recapture data: a lesson on the limitations of iterative size-at-age models |journal=Freshwater Biology |author=Michael P. Venarsky|year=2012 |volume=57 |issue=7 |pages=1471–1481 |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2427.2012.02812.x |url-access=subscription }}