CREEPING CRAYFISH
Crayfish, crawdads, or mudbugs, whatever you call them, they are cool. Crayfish (I’m the author so I get to pick the common name used here), are animals in the Phylum Arthropoda. Arthropods literally refer to the presence of jointed (Arthro) appendages (pods). These jointed appendages are the result of having their skeleton on the outside (exoskeleton). It is like a wacky suit of armor, where the muscles attach on the inside of the armor. The armor serves as the hard structure that the muscles pull or relax against. CRAZY. The armor/exoskeleton is fabulous because it can provide protection against predators (hard to eat), camouflage, sensory structures, and more. The down side, is that if the arthropod is going to get larger, it must shed the old exoskeleton and form a new one. Rather like those times I outgrow my jeans (sigh.). When the arthropod has shed the old skeleton, it has a short period of time in which it is vulnerable because Its new exoskeleton hasn’t hardened yet. Soft shelled crabs (yummy with garlic butter) are a culinary example of this.
Crayfish have some cool appendages. They have a uropod (fancy name for fan on their butt) that they use to swim backwards, avoiding my clutches. You can’t help but notice the chelipeds (fancy name for big pinchers) which are used to handle food, deter predators, and attract the ladies. Once a romance has been established, the male crayfish uses their well-developed copulatory swimmerets to pry open the female’s gonopore (opening into the female reproductive tract) to deliver sperm. Copulatory swimmerets are also key to identifying which crayfish species you have. These are appendages found at the front of the abdomen. The males have well-developed ones that look like long, buck teeth. The females have soft copulatory swimmerets. Once mating has occurred, the female will lay the fertilized eggs. In some cases, she will carry the developing baby crayfish under her abdomen, and tucked in place with her uropod. TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW!
