Armadillidiidae
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Armadillidiidae | |
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| Armadillidium vulgare | |
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| Armadillidium vulgare in its hiding posture | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Isopoda |
| Suborder: | Oniscidea |
| Family: | Armadillidiidae Brandt, 1833 |
| Genera | |
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Armadillidiidae is a family of woodlice, a terrestrial crustacean group in the order Isopoda. Unlike members of the family Porcellionidae, members of this family can roll into a ball, giving them their common name of "pill bug", "doodlebug" or "roly poly".
The best known species in the family is Armadillidium vulgare, 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 spider and play host to specialized parasitoids in the fly family Rhinophoridae.
Genera include:
- Alloschizidium
- Armadillidium
- Ballodillium
- Cristarmadillidium
- Cyphodillidium
- Echinarmadillidium
- Eleoniscus
- Eluma
- Paxodillidium
- Platanosphaera
- Schizidium
- Trichodillidium
- Troglarmadillidium
- Typhlarmadillidium
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