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Photo#614915
beach jumper

beach jumper
Crystal River , Citrus County, Florida, USA
February 14, 2012
Found on a man-made beach in slightly damp sand on the Gulf of Mexico not far (100 feet?) from woods and salt marsh and about 50 feet from the water. Jumped about a foot in the air. Only one seen. Somewhere around 1 cm in length (much larger than the globular springtails I've seen). Looked a lot like a skinny woodlouse in size and appearance, except for that amazing jumping. Could it be a lawn shrimp? Any other ideas?

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Maybe
Amphipoda (Amphipods)

 
definitely
It's definitely an amphipod, but I'm not familiar with marine/intertidal species so I can't help you further unfortunately.

 
Talitridae?
The locals on the beach called them sand fleas, but thought they were biting (that would have been the no-see-ums I'd assume). There are a few pictures on bugguide that seem to match, and i found a website that describes a very similar thing in California, here: http://www.marinebio.net/marinescience/03ecology/sblife.htm

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