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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Crustaceans (Crustacea) » Malacostracans (Malacostraca) » Marsupial Crustaceans (Peracarida) » Isopods (Isopoda) » Scutocoxifera » Valve-tailed Isopods (Valvifera) » Chaetiliidae » Chiridotea » sand isopod (Chiridotea coeca)
Photo#187710
Burrowing crustacean - Chiridotea coeca
Copyright © 2008 Charley Eiseman

Burrowing crustacean - Chiridotea coeca
Great Island, Cape Cod National Seashore County, Massachusetts, USA
June 3, 2008
Size: ~7 mm
I know this is destined for 'frass', but I'd be grateful if anyone could help me figure out what this is. Found many of them burrowing just below the surface of the beach.

Images of this individual: tag all
Burrowing crustacean - Chiridotea coeca Burrowing crustacean - Chiridotea coeca Burrowing crustacean - Chiridotea coeca
Contributed by Charley Eiseman on 4 June, 2008 - 3:38pm
Last updated 13 June, 2015 - 10:12am

Moved
Moved from Isopods.
Thanks!
… Charley Eiseman, 13 June, 2015 - 10:12am

We found them too!
We found these critters at Ocean Beach in Connecticut. I asked at Mystic Aquarium for identification: Mole Crab. They look like a shrimp without the long tail or fan. Very cool to watch them dig through the sand to bury themselves.
… inchargemom, 14 May, 2009 - 11:16am

 
Didn't realize there were any of these on the guide
This is Chiridotea coeca. Not at all a mole crab, Emerita talpoida.
… Aaron Hunt, 11 June, 2015 - 10:52pm

Isopoda.
Dorso-ventrally compressed body; large, triangular plate-like pleotelson (last abdominal segment) and posterior ventral gills (both are most visible in ventral image), and body divided into three zones - cephalothorax, pereon, and pleotelson - reminds me of a marine isopod. Quite a diverse group.
… Stephen Luk, 4 June, 2008 - 3:55pm

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