I never thought I’d ever hear an isopod described as “precious”, but that day has come.
Who knew they could be spotted like crustacean Holsteins? The video this woman has put together is actually quite sweet. I’m a big fan of sticking up for and celebrating otherwise unappreciated organisms, as must be apparent to readers of this blog. Though I’m not personally an isopod afficionado, the fact this woman is makes me very happy.
This post was inspired by run-ins I had this week with isopods in my morels. I found several in which the isopods had chewed little entry holes and made themselves cozy little homes inside. They didn’t appear to be eating the morels, so I think they were looking for a high-humidity place to call home. Then I senselessly chopped down their homes like the Once-ler in a grove of Truffula trees. In my defense, I did not chop down the last one — I try to leave one or a few morels each time I hunt, and their homes would have shriveled up in a few days anyway.
As I released them back to the wild to frolic and make little isopods, I hummed the dulcet strains of “Born Free” and reminisced on our many seconds together. Where will they go? What will their lives be like? Will the herd re-accept them now that they’ve had contact with people? Alas. I will never know.
To see how crustaceans fit into Arthropods, click here. To get to isopods, go Crustacea –> Malacostraca –> Paracarida –> Isopoda
