Bathynellaceans: Bathynellacea

Bathynellaceans crawl through the sand with a combination of swimming and walking movements. Although they are very awkward swimmers in open water, they are extremely agile animals and move easily through the narrow spaces between grains of sand.

Although both male and female bathynellaceans are known, their mating behavior has never been observed. Unlike most crustaceans that carry their eggs or young, female bathynellaceans lay their eggs one at a time in the surrounding sand. The young animal hatches from the egg as a larva with only working antennae and mouthparts. Adulthood is reached through a series of molts, or shedding of the exoskeleton. Additional appendages are added with each molt. The number of molts varies among species.