Isopod

Isopods are animals that belong to an order of peracarid crustaceans. This order is called Isopoda. The name Isopoda derives from the Greek roots (iso-, meaning "same") and (podos, meaning "foot"). Some isopod species live in water, like the tongue louse. Others live on land, like woodlice and pill bugs.

Isopoda Temporal range: Carboniferous (300 – 0 Ma)
Eurydice pulchra (Cirolanidae)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Crustacea
Class:	Malacostraca
Subclass:	Eumalacostraca
Superorder:	Peracarida
Order:	Isopoda Latreille, 1817
Suborders
Asellota Calabozoida Cymothoida Limnoriidea Microcerberidea Oniscidea Phoratopidea Phreatoicidea Sphaeromatidea Tainisopidea Valvifera

Description

Isopods can be half an inch long. They are usually gray, brown or black, with an oval-shaped body. They have seven armor plates, called "pereonites," which protect them. They also have seven pairs of short legs. Isopods have two pairs of antennae; one pair feels along the ground.

Isopods have gills and need water to breathe. Because of this, the isopod species which live on land must stay in moist places.

Isopod Media

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  The woodlouse Oniscus asellus showing the head with eyes and antennae, carapace and relatively uniform limbs

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  Numbers of marine Isopoda (except Asellota and crustacean symbionts) in biogeographic regions

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  Representative marine isopod forms

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  Anilocra (Cymothoidae) parasitising the fish Spicara maena, Italy

Related pages

• Cymothoa exigua

Other websites

• Media related to Isopod at Wikimedia Commons
• Data related to Isopod at Wikispecies