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Photo#356061
Potato eater - Porcellio scaber

Potato eater - Porcellio scaber
Alameda County, California, USA
December 2, 2009
Size: ~1/2 in., 13 mm
I went out at night and found out what's been eating the potato leaves. This was among the largest of several specimens.

Found on a potato leaf.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Hi, this is a Porcellio scabe
Hi, this is a Porcellio scaber, indeed. I haven't seen it on live plant before, interesting.

Bye,
F.

Live plant?
I didn't know that wodlice ate live plants. I thought that they stayed mostly underground or under bark. It seems like some do eat living plant matter occasionally.

 
Yep.
The Woodlice guide page says they sometimes eat live plants. Whatever's eating these leaves does it at night. Other leaf eaters may also work on the potato plants. I didn't catch these creatures in the act of taking a bite, but clearly they don't like light. Most of them evaded my strong flashlight.

 
Red light
Maybe they can't see red light. Cover your flashlight with a piece of red cellophane. At least that is what we did when we were tracking egg-laying turtles in Costa Rica.

 
Complications
It's a lantern-type flashlight, and it provided some of the illumination for photos--the rest was the flash. I may be able to enclose it in something red while skulking around looking for bugs, but the photos need white light.

Rough Sowbug?
Nice photo! Rough Sowbug is the common name for Porcellio scaber. Your photo is a dead ringer for the Rough Sowbug in one of my field guides, but I am no expert in this area, that's for sure.

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