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Mole crab/Sea louse

Hippidae

Photo by staccyh
Published on Project Noah
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-30.7992, 30.4153

Field Notes

Description:

This one is quite a big female you can see how she carries her eggs under her front legs in the second picture.

Habitat:

These little guys burrow just under the sand, usually around rocks near the surf. If you do enough digging around different rock pools along the beach you're guaranteed to find one - usually you spot them when they're floating away with the wave!

Notes:

Always fun to see if you can find these at the beach..it can be quite the challenge as they are rather 'shy' and don't much like being out of the sand.

Species ID Suggestions

Mole crab

Hippidae

Comments (9)

Thanks for the ID stho002 and for the kind words Meik and Tiz! :)
Oh thank you for the information! Very interesting reading! :) Nice new profile picture as well. Have a great day! Regards
Possibly Emerita austroafricana
I have never seen anything like this before :) Very interesting, 2nd picture shows a female with spawn? I would have loved if you had written something about your find, and the specimen in general... Best regards Tina
Photographed
PublishedSeptember 1, 2013

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