I found an animal on the trunk of a maple tree in my
garden (July-01, Montreal, Quebec). It looks like a woodlouse but is smaller
(about 6mm) and much more flattened and flexible than a typical
woodlouse. It is pale powdery gray in colour and has a rough surface and white
“whisker-like” protrusions from most of the segments (these are not
legs, they don’t move). When I touched it gently with a grass stem to see
if it would curl up it emitted a small droplet of bright red liquid
from about ¼ way down from the head; I think this is some kind of defense
because I was very gentle and cannot believe I touched it hard enough
to injure it. I then put it on a flat surface and instead of rolling up
as I expected if it was a woodlouse it arched its abdomen upwards so I
could see its lower surface, which was slightly pink. It has antenna
but they are not very obvious. It looked like a trilobite (or at least what I imagine one would look like). Unfortunately I didn’t think to count its legs, which would have told me straight away if it was a woodlouse or an insect. I am very puzzled by this animal, I haven’t seen it before and would really like to know more about it.