Woodlouse
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Woodlice (known locally under many names; see below) are terrestrial crustaceans with a rigid, segmented, calcareous exoskeleton and fourteen jointed limbs. They form the suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda, with over 3000 known species.
Woodlice need moisture because they breathe through gills, called pseudotrachea, and so are usually found in damp, dark places, such as under rocks and logs. They are usually nocturnal and are detritivores, feeding mostly on dead plant matter. They should be considered beneficial garden organisms as they recycle nutrients back into the soil. In artificial environments such as greenhouses where it can be very moist, woodlice may become abundant and damage young plants.
In the United Kingdom there are 37 native or naturalised species ranging in colour and in size (3-30 mm) of which only five are common: Oniscus asellus (the common shiny woodlouse), Porcellio scaber (the common rough woodlouse), Philoscia muscorum (the common striped woodlouse), Trichoniscus pusillus (the common pygmy woodlouse) and Armadillidium vulgare (the common pill bug).
They have a shell-like exoskeleton. As the woodlouse grows, it must progressively shed this shell. The moult takes place in two stages. The back half is lost first, followed two or three days later by the front. Some woodlice are able to roll into a ball-like form when threatened by predators, leaving only their armoured back exposed. This ability explains many of the woodlouse's common names.
A female woodlouse will keep fertilised eggs in a patch on the underside of her body until they hatch into small, pink offspring. The mother then appears to "give birth" to her offspring.
Common names
Common names for woodlice vary throughout the English-speaking world. They include roly-poly, pill bug (usually applied only to the genus Armadillidium), sow bug, doodle bug, carpenter (Newfoundland), woodbug, potato bug, armadillo bug, slater, ball bug, bowling ball bug, chuggy pig, hardy back, butcher boy, daddy gramfer / daddy gampfer (West Country), Granny Grey (South Wales), cheesybug (Kent), pookie/pooky (Ireland), cheeselog, or parsons pig (Isle of Man).Woodlice in fiction
- Tuck and Roll were the woodlouse acrobats who appeared as supporting characters in the Pixar film A Bug's Life. They have been immortalized in a "Tuck and Roll's Drive'Em Buggies" ride in a bug's land at Disney's California Adventure Park.
- The giant creatures called Ohmu in Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind also resemble woodlice.
- Giant woodlice (larger even than a giant isopod) are infrequently featured in the webcomic WIGU.
- The Gustav, a mecha from the Zoids franchise, is similar in design to a woodlouse.
- In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, woodlice are fed to bowtruckles.
- Dink Smallwood includes the woodlouse as an enemy.
- In a Rugrats episode, Chuckie Finster kept one as a pet, but it died a few days after. Its name was Melville.
Gallery
See also
- Woodlouse hunter spider
- Giant isopod, the woodlouse's giant aquatic cousin
External links
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