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Photo#438646
Jumpers at the tide line - male

Jumpers at the tide line - Male
Schoodic Point, Acadia National Park, Hancock County, Maine, USA
July 31, 2010
We were collecting bees using bowls with soapy water. The bowls just above the tide line, on the vegetation, were full of these little creatures. Why do they jump out of the water?

Images of this individual: tag all
Jumpers at the tide line - male Jumpers at the tide line

Moved
Moved from Uhlorchestia uhleri. So sorry about the mistaken ID. I became suspicious of my identifications of Uhlorchestia uhleri when I noticed a few days ago after finding an amphipod I identified as Platorchestia platensis that the only two amphipods I'd found that I identified as that species (a species superficially similar to U. uhleri and probably tough to tell apart in the field) were both male, and that it seemed all my U. uhleri finds were female (though your image is a male, interestingly). That fact naturally made me wonder whether all the amphipods I identified as either species were in fact the same species – which one, I wasn't sure. My mistake was made clear when I looked at Bousfield and Heard, 1986 and learned that U. uhleri is only found as far north as Cape Hatteras (though Uhlorchestia spartinophila occurs as far north as central Maine) and that both species known only from salt marshes, whereas the amphipods I'd been identifying as that species were mostly from exposed sandy beaches. I now suspect that all the dark colored (i.e. not Americorchestia) amphipods I've found are Platorchestia platensis. I'm planning on collecting a number of amphipods on exposed beaches (Clay Head and West Beach) and from a salt marsh (at the northern end of the Great Salt Pond) and examining them under a microscope to compare to a description of Platorchestia platensis to confirm what I now suspect about their identities. I'm moving all Uhlorchestia uhleri to the family page for now. Sorry again about the error.
-Aaron

Moved
Moved from Beach Hoppers.

Possibly
Uhlorchestia uhleri. ID from A Practical Guide to the Marine Animals of Northeastern North America.

Moved
Moved from Amphipods.
Thanks

These are talitrids
Which live near or above the high water mark. During the day they mostly shelter in burrows in the sand or under seaweed washed ashore but at night they hop around in search of detritus. And this one is male, judging by the large second gnathopod.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

I don't know
maybe Amphipods are crazy

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