Armadillidiidae is a
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus...
of
woodliceA woodlouse , is a crustacean with a rigid, segmented, long exoskeleton and fourteen jointed limbs...
, a
terrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land, as compared with aquatic animals, which live predominantly or entirely in the water , or amphibians, which rely on a combination of aquatic and terrestrial habitats . Terrestrial animals evolved from marine animals...
crustaceanCrustaceans are a very large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles...
group in the order
IsopodaIsopods are an order of peracarid crustaceans, including familiar animals such as woodlice and pill bugs. The name Isopoda derives from the Greek iso meaning "same" and pod meaning "foot"...
. Unlike members of the family
PorcellionidaePorcellionidae is a terrestrial family of the order Isopoda. The species classified here cannot roll into a ball, as opposed to the species of family Armadillidiidae, which can....
, members of this family can roll into a ball, giving them their
common nameA common name is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with a scientific name...
of "
pill bug", or the more recent and increasingly popular terms, "doodlebug" or "roly poly" which have been used regionally as early as 1968.
The best known species in the family is
Armadillidium vulgareArmadillidium vulgare, the pill-bug or pill woodlouse, is a widespread European species of woodlouse. It is the most extensively investigated terrestrial isopod species .-Description:...
, the common pill bug. These arthropods commonly feed on decaying vegetation and are found under logs, under animal excrement, garbage pails or any other place where moisture can be found.
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Armadillidiidae is a
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus...
of
woodliceA woodlouse , is a crustacean with a rigid, segmented, long exoskeleton and fourteen jointed limbs...
, a
terrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land, as compared with aquatic animals, which live predominantly or entirely in the water , or amphibians, which rely on a combination of aquatic and terrestrial habitats . Terrestrial animals evolved from marine animals...
crustaceanCrustaceans are a very large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles...
group in the order
IsopodaIsopods are an order of peracarid crustaceans, including familiar animals such as woodlice and pill bugs. The name Isopoda derives from the Greek iso meaning "same" and pod meaning "foot"...
. Unlike members of the family
PorcellionidaePorcellionidae is a terrestrial family of the order Isopoda. The species classified here cannot roll into a ball, as opposed to the species of family Armadillidiidae, which can....
, members of this family can roll into a ball, giving them their
common nameA common name is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with a scientific name...
of "
pill bug", or the more recent and increasingly popular terms, "doodlebug" or "roly poly" which have been used regionally as early as 1968.
The best known species in the family is
Armadillidium vulgareArmadillidium vulgare, the pill-bug or pill woodlouse, is a widespread European species of woodlouse. It is the most extensively investigated terrestrial isopod species .-Description:...
, the common pill bug. These arthropods commonly feed on decaying vegetation and are found under logs, under animal excrement, garbage pails or any other place where moisture can be found. Moisture is essential to pill bugs due to their breathing organs, which are like gills. Although they often thrive in damp areas, pill bugs have often been known to live in dry beds. Their defensive posture is curling up into a ball to present their armored exterior. They are the unique prey of the
woodlouse spiderThe woodlouse spider is a species of spider that preys exclusively upon woodlice.-Appearance:Female specimens are 11-15 mm long whilst males are 9-10 mm.They have a dark-red thorax and legs, and a yellow-brown abdomen...
and play host to specialized
parasitoidA parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism which it ultimately kills in the process. Thus they are similar to typical parasites except in the certain fate of the host. In a typical parasitic relationship, the...
s in the fly family
RhinophoridaeRhinophoridae are a small family of flies with around 500 species. Rhinophoridae are found in all zoogeographic regions except Australasia and Oceania but mainly in the Palaearctic and Afrotropical regions....
.
Genera include:
- Alloschizidium
- Armadillidium
Armadillidium is a genus of the small terrestrial crustacean known as the woodlouse. Armadillidium are also commonly known as “pill woodlice”, “pill bugs”, “potato bugs” or “roly-poly”, and are often confused with pill millipedes such as Glomeris marginata. They are characterised by their ability...
- Ballodillium
- Cristarmadillidium
- Cyphodillidium
- Echinarmadillidium
- Eleoniscus
Eleoniscus is a genus of the small terrestrial crustaceans known as woodlice. It includes one species, Eleoniscus helenae, which is endemic to Alicante province, Spain , where it is known from two caves . It may have been extirpated from one of the two caves through the increasing...
- Eluma
- Paxodillidium
- Platanosphaera
- Schizidium
- Trichodillidium
- Troglarmadillidium
- Typhlarmadillidium