Tuesday, July 28, 2009

A crustacean with many names

Crayfish.
Crawfish.
Crawdads.
Mudbugs.
Yabbies. (apparently that's what they call them in Australia, so says the Wikepedia)
écrevisse. (in French)

What do you call them? We called them crawdads when I was little... but I think I lean toward the crawfish or crayfish camp these days.

Regardless of the name, I ran into quite a few of these crustaceans while on the lake in Michigan. The last time I recall seeing one was when I was quite young, after a heavy storm had blown through our urban neighborhood and flooded our street. There are no bodies of water near my childhood home, so I don't know if he floated in through the storm drains or what.

This guy, unfortunately, had very little life left in him, making for a good photo subject. I found one the next day that was a little more spirited, and he startled me by giving a good thrashing when I picked him up.









6 comments:

Creative Cards said...

Wow Heather I learned something new today. I didn't know that a crayfish had so many names. I remember as a child snorkeling and picking them off the lake floor to cook up and eat. They are rather tasty....especially with butter. Yummmy :)

Heather said...

Crista - Ah, it's good to hear from someone who has eaten them. I'm afraid I've never had an opportunity to try them.

Kelly said...

They are crawdads in my book. I think when we were little, we used to call them crawdaddies! I used to look for them all the time in the creek behind our house! Awesome photos!

Heather said...

Kelly - Thanks. "Crawdad" must be the slang term most generally used in Ohio.

NW Nature Nut said...

He kind of has a so-ugly-he-is-cute thing going on.

RuthieJ said...

Crawdads are what we called them here too when we were growing up. Although I definitely wouldn't want to eat one!