It Eats Flaky Skin! - Cyamus scammoni

One summer while teaching a course at Bamfield Marine Station on the West Coast of Canada our webmaster experienced a brief encounter with a rather large organism, which donated last month's unknown. The large organism was a Gray whale, and the unknown – one of its surface symbionts – the ¥whale louse. Not a louse at al l– not even an insect! – this animal is actually a type of amphipod crustacean adapted for hanging on the surface of whales where it feeds on sloughed skin. C. scammoni is the largest of three species of symbiont amphipods that live on Gray whales. Other amphipods are common in freshwater streams and ponds (the scuds) and on the beach (beach hoppers, or sand fleas).

For a concise and revealing teaching video about Arthropods, get our video/DVD: Branches On the Tree of Life: Arthropods. For a rich overview of marine intertidal ecology, see our program: The Biology of Seashores.