Salt marsh is a home to some interesting arthropods =”joint
legs” referring to the movable appendages connected by joints. Insects,
arachnids (spiders ticks…), and crustaceans (shrimp, crabs..) are all part of
this big happy family. Amphipods are crustaceans with laterally compressed
bodies. They are most numerous in the oceans, but are found in all aquatic and
some semi-aquatic environments such as salt marshes. Their color is normally olive brown when
alive. Like crabs and lobsters, they molt, and the shed exuvia can acquire
reddish color as seen on the photo. The can run and jump on the surface of the
marsh, and generally resemble wolf spiders that occupy the same type of
habitat. When in water amphipods are fast swimmers. The female amphipods carry
their eggs and young in a pouch. This shed skin probably belongs to Gammarus species.
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