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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Crustaceans (Crustacea) » Malacostracans (Malacostraca) » Peracarida (Amphipods and Isopods) (Peracarida) » Isopods (Isopoda) » Woodlice (Oniscidea)

Suborder Oniscidea - Woodlice

Classification · Numbers · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · Internet References · Works Cited
Sowbug - Porcellio scaber Woodlouse - Porcellionides pruinosus Woodlouse - Porcellio scaber One of my favorite CA endemics - Brackenridgia heroldi - female perhaps Armadillidium vulgare - Armadillidium vulgare Sea Slater - Ligia Rock Slater, Ligidium cf gracile - Ligidium gracile Isopod
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Crustacea (Crustaceans)
Class Malacostraca (Malacostracans)
Superorder Peracarida (Peracarida (Amphipods and Isopods))
Order Isopoda (Isopods)
Suborder Oniscidea (Woodlice)
Numbers
~100 spp. in 37 genera of 15 families in our area, incl. 27 adventive spp. in 20 genera of 12 families(1), close to 4,000 spp. total(2)
Identification
In Armadillidiidae, the uropods are shorter than the last abdominal segment(3); members of most other families cannot roll into a ball and have uropods longer than the last abdominal segment. Compare Porcellio scaber (Porcellionidae) and Armadillidium nasatum (Armadillidiidae) here:
Range
worldwide
Habitat
wherever cool, dark, moist places are available to shelter woodlice from dryness and heat during the day
Food
Plant material, usually dead. If live plants are soft and moist enough on the outside, they will eat them and sometimes do damage.
Internet References
Taxon profile & key to littoral spp. (Brusca et al. 2001)
so. CA spp. checklist(4)
Works Cited
1.Checklist of the terrestrial isopods of the New World (Crustacea, Isopoda, Oniscidea)
Leistikow A., Wägele J.W. 1999. Rev. Bras. Zool. 16: 1-72.
2.World catalog of terrestrial isopods (Isopoda: Oniscidea)
Schmalfuss H. 2003. Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie A, 654: 341 pp.
3.Spiders and Their Kin: A Golden Guide from St. Martin's Press
Herbert W. Levi, Lorna R. Levi, Nicholas Strekalovsky. 2001. St. Martin's Press.
4.Wright J. (yyyy) Southern California Oniscidea
Contributed by Lynette Elliott on 30 April, 2005 - 10:51am
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, Chuck Entz, v belov, edanko
Last updated 17 March, 2017 - 2:17pm

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