RARE Orange Morph Woodlouse! (With "normal" Grey one) - Philoscia muscorum Basking Ridge, Somerset County, New Jersey, USA April 14, 2013
Since this past fall, I've been focusing much more on bugs that live on the ground, and have been flipping over logs, rocks, wooden boards, ect in search of cool species. Woodlice are extremely common in my area, especially this species, although I usually ignore the 30 that go running for cover whenever I flip something over. Last month, I found this bright orange one, which caught my eye. I had NEVER seen a neon orange one like this before. Yesterday, I found another individual, which is extremely exciting (but the pictures of it didn't come out as well). Both were found in my yard.
After doing some research, this is the best information I found (I think it's from a scientist/researcher located in New Zealand.)
"This orange form appears to be rare in this region. The example here is the only one found in a collection of over 400 from the same compost heap - it is also the only one, of two, that I have observed over the last 10 years. The red forms of woodlice are genetically determined but their rarity suggests that this form is not as well adapted to the habitat as the darker gray forms."
http://www.porcellio.scaber.org/woodlice/wliceod.htm
I contacted him to see if I could find any more information about them.
Contributed by Sean McVey on 21 May, 2013 - 9:04am Last updated 2 December, 2014 - 9:28pm |