Suborder Oniscidea - Woodlice

Classification · Numbers · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · Internet References · Works Cited

Mating? - Armadillidium vulgare - male - female

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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