Water Hog Louse (asellus aquaticus)

As their name suggests, these pond creatures are related to woodlice. The main difference is that they live their whole lives in water rather than on land.

Even though they live their whole lives in water, they are not great swimmers. They tend to move around by crawling from one water plant to the next and across the muddy bottoms of ponds. Just like woodlice, they eat any rotting material, such as leaves and wood.

Again, like woodlice, they are a kind of crustacean, which means they are related to crabs and lobsters. The four characteristics of crustaceans are exoskeleton (skeleton on the outside of body), jointed legs, four antennae and segmented body.