Arthropods

Researchers and volunteers collected and identified hundreds of arthropods like these spiders during BugBlitz 2016 at the Barataria Preserve. Remember that collecting any plant or animal at the preserve requires a permit.

 

These large and colorful lubber grasshoppers are just one of the hundreds of species of arthropods found at the Barataria Preserve.

Over your head, under your feet, on your plate...arthropods are everywhere! What's an arthropod? It's an invertebrate with an exoskeleton---a creature without a backbone that wears its skeleton on the outside. Arthropods include insects, spiders, scorpions, crawfish, shrimp, and crabs.

South Louisiana is an arthropod's paradise, and one of the goals of BioBlitz 2013 was to inventory the arthropods of Jean Lafitte's Barataria Preserve. The Louisiana State Arthropod Museum took on this enormous task, and so far 700 specimens representing 462 species have been identified. For more information, check out BugGuide, an online community-based identification resource that the LSAM team used to help identify all those arthropods.