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Exploring Higley - floating shrimp?

Posted by Linda Davis,
North Country explorer from Smithtown, NY
June 19, 2013 —

Carcasses of shrimp-like animals are floating alongside my kayak. What are they? Fresh water shrimp?

Comments

Erika Barthelmess

Hi Linda -

Thanks for sharing these!  What is the scale?  

Posted:

Erika Barthelmess

Hi Linda,

I did a bit of poking about and think you may have seen "Mississippi Grass Shrimp" (Palaemonetes kadiakensis) which is the only freshwater shrimp native to New York.  You can find more information on taxonomy at http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search… and on distribution in NYS at http://www.nybiodiversity.org/summaries/decapods/index.html

Good discovery!

Posted:

Linda Davis

Hi, Erika. 

Thanks for the links to the Mississippi Grass Shrimp.  I've been seeing these for years and have wondered what they were.  They're floating in the stiller water near the shoreline.

All the best--Linda Davis

Posted:

Charles Davis

Appears to be a species range extension.  This is worth notifying the NY State Museum about.  They might be able to confirm the sighting from good photos.  It is a range extension for the species and the most northeastern occurrence known for this species based on the USGS distribution maps:

http://nas2.er.usgs.gov/viewer/omap.aspx?SpeciesID=2620

Two other freshwater shrimp are native to New York, but this is the only one known from the St. Lawrence River drainage.  See this list:

http://www.nybiodiversity.org/summaries/decapods/nydecapods_table1.pdf

If it's another species, then that would be even more interesting!

 

 

 

 

Posted:

Kendrick Fowler

Hi Linda. I was poking around on the site and came across your post. The "carcasses" that you posted pictures of are the discarded exoskeletons of mayfly nymphs. It's hard to see all of the details necessary for a more precise identification in your photos, but the exoskeletons in the pictures that you posted look very much like those of mayflies in the family Ephemeridae, the burrowing mayflies. In case you're interested, here's a link to the BugGuide page on the family: http://bugguide.net/node/view/13468.

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