Has anybody every seen these before??

Did a bit of digging and asked a few folks (thanks for the use of the pic Chuckaroo) and they seemingly are isopods of the genus Eurydice. Not sure which species yet.

Could be this guy

Eurydice pulchra
http://www.aphotomarine.com/isopoda_eur ... y_bug.html

Species is locally named the John Harvey Bug after a local swimmer, who had his private parts attacked by the species whilst swimming.

John Diamond bug it is then Think that must be him John, think the pulchra species knocks about the inter-tidal alright

Eurydice pulchra, the speckled sea louse, that seems to be our boy alright! nice 1
and they can occur in big populations too, that must have been a population boom that day when i was fishing
plenty of info online
heres more from MarLIN:
http://www.marlin.ac.uk/biotic/browse.php?sp=4385

Quote: "Eurydice pulchra is a highly predatory carnivore, its mouthparts are adapted for tearing and macerating animal tissue (Naylor, 1972)"
yip, thats definitely the species..

so, speckled sealouse, skinner, sucker, or John Harvey bug... take your pick, but just be careful the next time you go swimming they are hiding in the sand

or a harvey ball eater

i have sent all my pics off to MarLIN to see if they want to use any...

IMG_0918crop.jpg

IMG_0919rotated.jpg

or a harvey ball eater

indeed

i swear i wouldnt like a handful of those wee guys down there..
they can hold on! they held on as i retrieved my baits right through the strong surf and as i held the baits up to look at them out of the water
vicious ball eaters

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i got a response from the Biological Records Managers of MarLIN and DASSH in Plymouth
Heres what the experts had to say:

'We have looked carefully at the images and I’m afraid we can’t be sure of the identification. On the basis of the features we can see, such as pigmentation, the specimens are Eurydice pulchra but to be sure we would need to look at coxal plates 6 and 7. In E.p. the plates are extended posteriorly, but not in Eurydice affinis. There is a diagram of this in our seashore guide (3rd ed p. 322). The species occur in mixed populations (and E.a has been recorded in Ireland) so one has to be careful to examine all individuals.'

they were well happy with the quality of the pictures though and they posted them up on their Facebook Sealife Survey page

sealice indeed

My fish love em. I brought home a small handful of them and straight into the tank - carnage.