As the sun sets, hordes of tiny crustaceans called beach hoppers –– also known as sand hoppers –– emerge from underground burrows to frolic and feast. They eat so much decaying seaweed and other beach wrack that by morning all that’s left are ghostly outlines in the sand.

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Night falls, and the beaches come alive with sand hoppers – hungry, jumping shrimplike creatures that look a lot like giant translucent fleas. No, it’s not a horror movie, and these animals “don’t bite or suck your blood. They’re much more than fleas,” says Jenny Dugan of the Marine Science Institute at UC Santa Barbara. Through her research on sandy beach ecology, Dugan has spent years developing a respect for beach hoppers and their underappreciated ecological role.

The small crustaceans, sometimes as large as two inches, are remarkably in tune with the tides. The mature adult beach hoppers only emerge from their burrows at night when the tide is retreating – which is the best time to find fresh kelp, and less of a risk being seen by predators.

Researchers refer to these animals as shredders because they do the necessary work of breaking down and recycling nutrients in beach wrack and kelp, the first step in sending nutrients into the food chain. The presence of sustainable populations of beach hoppers is an indicator of the overall health of a sandy beach ecosystem.

Where do beach hoppers live?
Beach hoppers – also known as sand hoppers – live on sandy beaches in subtropical and temperate zones all over the world. North and South America, Europe, Africa, New Zealand and Australia all have a variety of native species of beach hoppers. On beaches with large amounts of kelp, seagrass and seaweeds washing ashore, you are bound to find sand hoppers too.

Do beach hoppers bite people?
No. Beach hoppers do not bite! They might look like a giant flea, but they aren’t fleas. They are a type of crustacean. Their favorite food is kelp, but they will eat anything that makes up beach wrack – the piles of organic matter that wash ashore on sandy beaches.

How do beach hoppers know where they are going?
Research indicates that some species of beach hoppers use cues from the moon and the sun to orient themselves, and to stay in sync with the ebb and flow cycles of the tides.

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