Gammarus
Gammarus pulex · Crustacean
A small grey crustacean, 10 to 20 mm long, that lives on the bottom of the running fresh waters of most of Europe, from the Atlantic to the Volga: streams, rivers, springs, and lakes with a current, over stony beds rich in oxygen. It eats dead leaves and the fungi on them, hides in the shade by day and forages in the open at night, and is food for fish and birds. It suffers from pollution and lack of oxygen, so it serves to judge the health of a stream; a parasitic worm turns the infected ones bright orange and draws them towards the light and the smell of fish.
- Danger
- Harmless
- How it is met
- In colonies, by night
- Size
- Tiny
- In winter
- Active in winter
Where it lives
Sources
Open it in Biomes — MGS Toolbox