Guide to New Zealand's freshwater invertebrates
Crustaceans
Crustaceans have ten or more legs, which may include walking legs, chelipeds (pincers) or small paddling legs (sometimes hidden inside a carapace).
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Invertebrates resembling terrestrial “sand hoppers” (compressed from the sides)
Amphipods -
Small, swimming, comet-shaped invertebrates with no bivalved carapace
Copepods -
Freshwater crabs with round body and 10 legs including two with pincers, OR Estuarine crabs with rectangular body and 10 legs including two with pincers
Crabs -
Crayfish with10 legs; the first two supporting large pincers
Crayfish -
Slater-like invertebrates, some are active swimmers (estuarine and fresh water)
Isopods -
Shrimps with spiny rostrum between the eyes, some legs ending in tufts of hairs OR Shrimps with no rostrum and no tufts of hairs on the claws
Shrimps -
Other crustaceans