identify Florida Gulf Coast crustacean

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Bill - 28 Sep 2004 06:19 GMT

I was recently in the Tampa area (between Ivan and Jeanne!) and while
walking in the surfline on the beach noticed swarms of small
crustaceans burrowing into and out of the sand in time with the surf.
I managed to pick a few up, they were about an inch long, ovoid in
shape and burrowed very quickly. They resembled really big pill bugs,
I guess. Anybody know what these things were?

Thanks.

Bill

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Maurice Barnhill - 29 Sep 2004 12:53 GMT

> I was recently in the Tampa area (between Ivan and Jeanne!) and while
> walking in the surfline on the beach noticed swarms of small
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> Bill

Since no one who is more expert than I has replied, I'll have a
crack at this one. It might be a mole crab. Check out
<http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesSH.asp?curGroupID=8&shapeID=1063&cu
rPageNum=9&recnum=SC0015>.
[Watch out for line wrap; if you can't make this work, go to
<http://www.enature.com/guides/select_group.asp>, choose
"seashore creatures," then "crabs," then "Atlantic Mole Crab."]
They are sometimes called "sand fleas," a name which is also
applied to the completely unrelated gnats also called noseeums.

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Maurice Barnhill
mvb@udel.edu [Use ReplyTo, not From]
[bellatlantic.net is reserved for spam only]
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716

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Natural Science Forum / Biology / Biology / September 2004

identify Florida Gulf Coast crustacean