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Monday, May 11, 2020

Hidden but revealed

Here's a fun one.  Can you find the isopod hiding in this scene?




The isopod is very well camouflaged against the surrounding sand grains.  It's pretty much in the center of the image.

Here's a closer view:



Such a cool little crustacean!  I'm not sure which species this is, but it's one of the isopods in the Sphaeromatid family.  It's similar to a pill bug ("roly-poly") that you might find under a log, but this marine isopod was in a shallow sandy tidepool.

I love the little turquoise spotting at the posterior end.  And that's a neat little black-and-white design in the middle section.

P.S.  Here's a different individual from 29 June 2018.  You can see how these isopods can roll up into a "Little sphere."
 

1 comment:

James Rutherford said...

Looks similar to the one found in sand at Shell beach along with a shrimp of the same color pattern. We found them in 1974-1975 while doing 3rd edition of Light's Manual. I still have slides of them.