October 11, 2007: Giant isopod

A lurker (? I guess?) turns my attention to the Giant isopod, a beast from the sea. I was not previously aware of this, so accept my apology if you've seen it before.

If lobsters are the giant cockroaches of the ocean, and king crabs the giant spiders, we have now located the watery giant roly-poly... I mean pill bug... potato bug... doodlebug... woodlouse!

Lurker was apparently inlighted by this thread, wherein the definitive isopod picture was identified:

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm...Isopod dip and chips....

I got one of those iSopods, but I was disappointed at how easily it would scratch.

They don't make a shopvac big enough to suck those puppies out of my basement corners like I do their cousins. Good thing they're sea dwellars!

Just wait for Steve Jobs to announce the big price drop.
And the inevitable ridiculous lawsuit.

no earbuds. no wonder he was pissed off.

I'm not plugging those things in my ear!

(visions of the creepy Star Trek Wrath of Kahn crawly ear bug. thing.)

Lobster Tails without the green part!

They look like trylobites.

This is dying for a lolcats treatment.

Somebody call Stephen King. His dogs are loose again.

TheMercenary;394053 wrote:

SNIP

They look like trylobites.

I thought that too, but they're not.
Probably just convergent evolution. Scuttling across the ocean floor, you'd get that way.

welcome corydodt!

I didn't mind the first picture - they do look like food.
But the second picture had me imagining they were in my kitchen, and not even I would dive in to save a packet of crisps if they were. Yuk.

bleah -- no amount of garlic butter would make that appetizing!

Seriously though, we were in Sitka, AK back in August, where I met one of the marine biology students at Sheldon Jackson College. He caught one of these on a fishing trip down near Mexico earlier this year. It was so odd (to him anyway), that he froze the thing, and brought it back to the small aquarium they have at the college. Nasty looking boogers, even frozen. Maybe they'd look better deep fried?

corydodt;394055 wrote:

This is dying for a lolcats treatment.

Or... Havin' uz a party!

I couldn't decide.

Or (in a non-LOL cats way):

Doritos help with the munchies, not the DTs

Damn, what did I do with my giant Popeye-size isopod stompin' boots?

OK....I'm weird....I think they are cute and would make an awesome pet!!

they look sort of like a balmain or moreton bay bug, which I assure you taste very nice on the bbq.

mmmm....bugs n garlic butter

My daughter and I are watching BBC's "Earth" (we call it "Urf") on DVD. They had these things two miles below the ocean surface eating every disgusting putrid dead thing that drifted down to the floor of the briny deep. Just like their dog poop eating "roly-poly" surface cousins! (By the way, "wooly boogers" is another good alternate name...)

On creatures shit is another creatures dinner...

.

Sowbugs.

I'd try one dipped in melted butter

I'm telling you those are walking lobster tails without the lobster!