what type of bug is this i found?
March 5, 2010
hi i found this bug 2 nights ago at the oakland airport in california in the building. it is very fast and has 14 legs 7 on each side and 2 feeler things in the front and what look like 2 legs that stick stright out of the back but it looks like both of them have 2 long spikes (forming the shape of a v) on each of th e2 legs it also has 2 big black eyes in the front of it.
it is pictured inside of a soda bottle (i had to get it back out side before some one killed it) .
thanks
Nick
oakland california

Sea Slater

Hi Nick,
This is a Sea Slater or Rock Louse, Ligia occidentalis.  There are photos on the UC Irvine natural history website.  It is normally found on beaches with rocky shores.  It might have stowed away on the belongings of a tourist who spent time at the shore before catching a plane.

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Sky Shrimp?
October 25, 2009
After a recent rain storm in the Los Angeles area, a friend of mine reported that there were thousands of the small insects(?) scattered all over her driveway and sidewalk. I’m usually pretty good at identifying the odd arthropod, but this one eludes me. They may be associated with a tall palm tree outside the house, but that can’t be verified.
It looks like a shrimp, or some larval form. Can you pinpoint this?
Sir Real
San Dimas, CA (East Los Angeles area)

Lawn Shrimp

Hi Sir Real,
These terrestrial amphipods are called Lawn Shrimp or House Hoppers.  They live in shrubbery and are most fond of ivy.  They ofter are not noticed until they enter homes in large numbers after a rain and promptly die.

Sky Shrimp Identified
I don’t know if my last retraction came through, so I’m duplicating the effort.
Very much like the last person who wrote-searched-found-wrote, I am in the same boat. Only after I wrote my question, I read through to another person searched after they wrote. So did I. Yes, your search engine is functioning well within parameters.
THANKS for the great site.
Sir Real

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This one’s new to us!
August 9, 2009
Generally we like to emulate Albert Schweitzer(sp?) who thought all life forms had a right to exist and would gently sweep or shoo even bugs out of his dwelling. (We draw the line at mosquitos.) Most others are captured and released. Our cats take a different view. This bug lost his anntena (sp) in a battle before we rescued him. We would like to know what he is, He is very camera shy. Took us MANY attempts to get even these two shots. Tried the scanner for his underside, but he wouldn’t hold still! He has 12 legs. They seem translucent and they hold him up off the ground like a spider (only my daughter says his knees go in towards his tummy). He’s got no particularly interesting colours, just a brown/grey all over. He’s about 7 or 8 millimeters long. We’ re not very knowledgeable about bugs in general although we have some that we’ve done a bit of research on. Our assumption is that this is a male bug because of those two spikes on his rear end. We think a girl would have a third one (ovipositor). We’re willing to take instruction if we have made an invalid assumption. Thank you.
Not all girls are afraid of bugs!
southern Alberta, Canada

Woodlouse

Dear Not All Girls …,
Thank you for your wonderful paraphrase of Albert Schweitzer’s world view.  We also believe in the Right to Life of the Lower Beasts, and this is getting us much heat lately from litigious readers who threaten to sue us after we provide them with free information.  We have a right to free speech, and we try to be courteous and respectful while making our beliefs regarding the Unnecessary Carnage of insects known.  Like you, we draw the line with certain species, including mosquitoes, but Argentine Sugar Ants are probably the one species we would love to eliminate from our Los Angeles home.  We also show no mercy with Aphids on our plants, meal moths and pantry beetles in our stored grains, and cutworms in our garden.
Your creature is a Woodlouse or Terrestrial Isopod in the suborder Oniscidea.  We hesitate to attempt any more specific identification that that.  According to BugGuide:  “Woodlice need organic matter, which can be found in most soils, and they need cool moist conditions. Many places that might seem too hot and dry have cool hiding places where they can wait out the dryness and heat.“

Woodlouse

Update
August 15, 2009
Thank you most kindly for the information.  He/she appears to have been a sowbug.  Or at least that’s what he most resembled in the pictures provided.  We released him outside that same day so we hope he is doing okay even with his missing antenna.  We live in what is normally a very arid part of Canada, but we have had some unusually wet weather this summer.  That would explain why we hadn’t ever seen one before.  I agree that some bugs must be ruthlessly, albeit mercifully, eliminated.  But my list is also very short.  Even carpenter ants can be of some benefit as long as they remain FAR from my house.  In 5 years they had almost completely reduced to compost a trio of stumps in my front yard.  But when they attempted to set up residence under my steps I felt no compunction in exterminating them–as mercifully as I knew how.  My children were also taught (and my husband retrained) not to be mean to bugs.  I’ll have little success with my grandson, though.  His mother, alas, considers anything with more than 4 legs to be anathema. I sometimes feel like I have very little support in my view so it is wonderful to discover a site like yours.
Sincerely,
Not all girls are afraid of bugs! (or snakes, frogs, lizards, etc)

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an aquatic lawn shrimp?
Wed, May 6, 2009 at 3:11 PM
hi, i have found these swimmers in a stray cat’s drinking bowl that someone has set up in the woods, not far from a busy road. ill take it as the bowl is never dumped out if these lived in them. fortunately i had a big ziploc bag and collected the specimen, and was kind enough to wash their bowl and poured bottled water in it, and was greeted by two grateful beautiful longhaired cats. i was able to collect 11 of them but some died in transit, i placed the little guys in my fishtank and its been a few hours and theyre still okay. i took pictures and a couple videos with my fujifilm camera aided with a 10x triplet magnifier with the intent to send in the photos here, i am actually surprised that on the frontpage was a photo of dead lawn shrimps and they looked very similar to what i have found, except i found my little guys a live and swimming in a kitty bowl.
dogafin
pensacola, fl

Freshwater Shrimp

Dear dogafin,
Your observation that your specimens resembled the Lawn Shrimp was quite astute. We are certain that your specimens are also Crustaceans, quite possibly Freshwater Shrimp in the genus Gammarus. Gammarus and Lawn Shrimp are both in the order Amphipoda. We located a fishing website that has information on Gammarus which are also known as Scuds. The The Backyard Arthropod Project A Field Guide to the North Side of Old Mill Hill, Atlantic Mine, MI also has some good information. We might be way off base here with the genus ID because the location was so odd. We can only guess that at one point the cat bowl was filled with water from a pond inhabited by the Crustaceans. We gladly welcome a professional identification on this somewhat odd sighting.

Freshwater Shrimp

Fri, May 8, 2009 at 6:34 AM
Dear WTB,
I’ve worked on benthos of the Great Lakes and inland lakes in Michigan for close to ten years now and have seen a few amphipods in that time. From these pictures its difficult to say much more than an amphipod. If there’s a pond or lake near by its possible that these could, at the very least, be in the family gammaridae but the could also be Hyallela. The way to determine this is to see if there are accessory flagella (small segmented appendage) on the 4th segment of the first (top pair) of antennae. If there’s no flagellum its Hyallela; if there is a flagellum its more likely to be Gammarus or at least in the family gammaridae.
carterg,
Ann Arbor, MI

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