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.
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 not insects.
Trichoniscus is a genus of woodlice. It contains over 100 species, including the common pygmy woodlouse, Trichoniscus pusillus:
Ligiidae is a family of woodlice, the only family in the infraorder Diplocheta. Its members are common on rocky shores, in similar habitats to those inhabited by species of the bristletail Petrobius and the crab Cyclograpsus. The family contains these genera:
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.
Mesoniscus is a genus of woodlice, placed in its own family, Mesoniscidae, and section, Microcheta. It contains two species – Mesoniscus alpicolus and Mesoniscus graniger – that live in Central and Eastern Europe, mostly in and around caves.
Trachelipus is a genus of woodlice in the family Trachelipodidae, containing the following species:
Scleropactidae is a family of woodlice, with a predominantly Gondwanan distribution. It contains the following genera:
Alloniscus is the sole genus in the woodlice family Alloniscidae. There are more than 20 described species in Alloniscus.
Brackenridgia is a genus of woodlice in the family Trichoniscidae. There are about nine described species in Brackenridgia.
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.
Alpioniscus is a southern European genus of woodlice in the family Trichoniscidae. Alpioniscus consists of two subgenera: Alpioniscus s.s. and Illyrionethes. A 2019 study used molecular and taxonomic analyses to verify the validity of the current taxonomy, resulting in the redescription of several species and the description of two new species.
