Belly of a crawdad

This a photo taken on Groundhog Day. The weather was warm enough for groundhogs to be out sunning themselves or looking for green vegetation to eat, but I found none.

What you see pictured here is the underside of a small crawdad. It is about 1 1/4 inches long. I dipped him out of shallow water with a long handled minnow net. He was hiding in submerged leaf litter near at the edge of a small pond.

This crawdad was hatched from an egg about two years ago. You can see here that crawdads have pincers at the end of each leg. The tail on this little guy is nearly transparent. The crawdad, also called a crayfish, is designated as the Missouri state crustacean.