Armadillidium is a genus of the small terrestrial crustacean known as the woodlouse. Armadillidium are also commonly known as pill woodlice, leg pebbles, pill bugs, roly-poly, or potato bugs, and are often confused with pill millipedes such as Glomeris marginata. They are characterised by their ability to roll into a ball ("volvation") when disturbed.
Armadillidiidae is a family of woodlice, a terrestrial crustacean group in the order Isopoda. Unlike members of some other woodlice families, members of this family can roll into a ball, an ability they share with the outwardly similar but unrelated pill millipedes and other animals. This ability gives woodlice in this family their common names of pill bugs or roly polies. Other common names include slaters, potato bugs, butchy boys, and doodle bugs. Most species are native to the Mediterranean Basin, while a few species have wider European distributions. The best-known species, Armadillidium vulgare, was introduced to New England in the early 19th century and has become widespread throughout North America.
Haplophthalmus is a genus of woodlice in family Trichoniscidae. It contains 47 described species, of which two are listed as vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List – Haplophthalmus abbreviatus and Haplophthalmus rhinoceros.
Porcellio is a genus of woodlice in the family Porcellionidae. These crustaceans are found essentially worldwide. A well-known species is the common rough woodlouse, Porcellio scaber.
Trichoniscidae are a family of isopods (woodlice), including the most abundant British woodlouse, Trichoniscus pusillus. Most species of woodlice that have returned to an aquatic or amphibian way of life belong to this family. Several species from the following genera live in water and on land: Titanethes, Cyphonetes, Alpioniscus, Scotoniscus, Bureschia, Brackenridgia, Mexiconiscus, Trichoniscoides, Cretoniscellus, Balearonethes and Cyphoniscellus.
Philosciidae are a family of woodlice. They occur almost everywhere on earth, with most species found in (sub)tropical America, Africa and Oceania, and only a few in the Holarctic.
A woodlouse is any crustacean belonging to the suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda. They get their name from often being found in old wood, and from louse, a parasitic insect, although woodlice are neither parasitic nor insects.
Trichoniscus is a genus of woodlice. It contains over 100 species, including the common pygmy woodlouse, Trichoniscus pusillus:
Androniscus dentiger, the rosy woodlouse or pink woodlouse is a species of woodlouse found from the British Isles to North Africa.
Porcellionides is a genus of woodlice in the family Porcellionidae. It includes the following species :
Ligidium is a genus of woodlice. It contains about 46 species, six of which are probably taxonomic synonyms of Ligidium hypnorum or Ligidium germanicum. Of the remainder, eight species are found in North America, six in Japan, two in Taiwan, four in China, 12 in Turkey, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, and six in Greece.
In the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, Carl Linnaeus classified the arthropods, including insects, arachnids and crustaceans, among his class "Insecta". Wingless arthropods were brought together under the name Aptera.
Trachelipus is a genus of woodlice in the family Trachelipodidae, containing the following species:
Armadillidae is a family of woodlice, comprising around 80 genera and 700 species. It is the largest family of Oniscidea, and one of the most species-rich families of the entire Isopoda. Most of the armadillidae taxa are not monophyletic. Armadillids generally have a strongly convex body shape, with some rather shallowly convex. Like members of the woodlice family Armadillidiidae, armadillids are capable of enrolling into a sphere (conglobation), and are commonly known as pill bugs. Some species, however, have secondarily lost their conglobation ability. For example, a species exist in which the males lack the inner face of the coxal plates and are therefore unable to conglobate. Armadillids differ from the Armadillidiidae in that the antennae are fully enclosed within the sphere.
Scleropactidae is a family of woodlice, with a predominantly Gondwanan distribution. It contains the following genera:
Cylisticus is a genus of woodlice in the family Cylisticidae. There are at least 70 described species in Cylisticus.
Helleria brevicornis, the sole species of the monotypic genus Helleria, is a terrestrial woodlouse endemic to the islands and coastal regions of the northern Tyrrhenian sea. H. brevicornis is of interest due to its endemism, unique ecology and basal position in the suborder Oniscidea.
Hyloniscus is a genus of woodlice belonging to the family Trichoniscidae. Its members are found accross Europe and North America.
Eluma is a genus of woodlice in the family Armadillidiidae. The members of this genus are native to the Iberian Peninsula, Morocco, the Atlantic islands of the Azores, Canaries and Madeira, and from the west of France to the British Isles.
