Subject: Strange bug found near dam
Location: Southern NSW, Australia
September 12, 2013 2:40 am
Hi from Down Under,
My husband was planting bushes with some colleagues near a dam in Southern NSW when they saw this very strange bug. He said that it is approximately 7 centimetres long and as you can see from the photos has a type of helmet shell on it’s back.
Signature: Regina Knight
Hi Regina,
This primitive crustacean in the genus Triops is commonly called a Shield Shrimp in Australia, and in other parts of the world including North America it is called a Tadpole Shrimp. The Project Triops Australiensis website is still active and has some local information for you, though incorrectly it seems to use family and genus names interchangeably.