Crawfish, or Crayfish? There are heated arguments about which is the correct name. The name crawfish was used in 1817 by Thomas Say, the first American zoologist to study these animals. Crayfish was coined by the English scientist, Thomas Huxley, about 50 years later. In this part of the country they are also commonly called "crawdad", "crabs" or, in the southern part of the state, "mudbugs ". Whatever you prefer to call them, there is hardly an acre of water in Illinois (unless it is the depths of Lake Michigan) or any acre of wet land, where these small freshwater relatives of the lobster are not found. About a hundred species are known in North America, of which a half dozen are abundant in this state.
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