Woodlouse

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(Redirected from Sow bug)

{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Woodlouse | image = ArmadillidiumVulgare.jpg | image_width = 200px | image_caption = Armadillidium vulgare | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Arthropoda | subphylum = Crustacean | classis = Malacostraca | ordo = Isopoda | subordo = Oniscidea | subordo_authority = Latreille, 1802 | subdivision_ranks = Infraorders and Families | subdivision =

Infraorder Tylomorpha
- Tylidae
Infraorder Ligiamorpha
- Ligiidae
- Mesoniscidae
Superfamily Trichoniscoidea
- Buddelundiellidae
- Trichoniscidae
Superfamily Styloniscoidea
Superfamily Oniscoidea
Superfamily Armadilloidea
incertae sedis

}}

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 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, although they can be a destructive pest in the garden.

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. It is this ability which 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.

1 Common names
2 Woodlice in fiction
3 Gallery
4 External links
5 See also

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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, carpenter (in Newfoundland, Canada), woodbug, potato bug, armadillo bug, slater, ball bug, chuggy pig, hardy back, butcher boy, daddy gramfer / daddy gampfer (West Country, United Kingdom) and cheeselog.

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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.