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Isopoda is an order of crustaceans.Members of this group are called isopods and include both aquatic species and terrestrial species such as woodlice.All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, and five pairs of branching appendages on the abdomen that are used in respiration.
Phreatoicidea is a suborder of isopod crustaceans.Extant species are confined to freshwater environments in South Africa, India, and Oceania. [2] This seemingly Gondwana-derived distribution belies the fact that the group once had a cosmopolitan distribution; fossils which can be assigned to the Phreatoicidea are the oldest isopod fossils, and are found throughout the world.
Giant isopods are a good example of deep-sea gigantism (cf. giant squid), as they are far larger than the "typical" isopods that are up to 5 cm (2.0 in). Bathynomus can be divided into "giant" species where the adults generally are between 8 and 15 cm (3.1 and 5.9 in) long and "supergiant" species where the adults are typically between 17 and ...
Their name is derived from being often found in old wood, [2] and from louse, a parasitic insect, [3] although woodlice are neither parasitic nor insects. Woodlice evolved from marine isopods which are presumed to have colonised land in the Carboniferous, though the oldest known fossils are from the Cretaceous period. [4]
This ability gives woodlice in this family their common names of pill bugs [1] or roly polies. [2] Other common names include slaters , potato bugs , butchy boys , [ 3 ] and doodle bugs . [ 4 ] Most species are native to the Mediterranean Basin, while a few species have wider European distributions.
It is a member of the giant isopods (Bathynomus), and as such it is related—albeit distantly—to shrimps and crabs. [2] It was the first Bathynomus species ever documented and was described in 1879 by French zoologist Alphonse Milne Edwards after the isopod was found in fishermen's nets off the coast of the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico .
The Socorro isopod was formerly endemic to the Sedillo Spring near Socorro County, New Mexico, USA. In 1947, the spring waters were diverted to provide the city of Socorro with drinking water. This forced the isopods to only live in a single old water pipeline in the city.
Phreatoicidae is a family of blind, freshwater isopods. They have survived apparently unchanged for 350 million years, and are only found in South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand. They were first found near Christchurch in 1882 by Charles Chilton. [2] The family Phreatoicidae now contains 13 genera: [1]