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Woodlice (with color variation)
Trachelipus rathkii
40.7015, -73.3517
Field Notes
Description:
A woodlouse is a crustacean with a rigid, segmented, long exoskeleton and fourteen jointed limbs. A female woodlouse will keep fertilised eggs in a marsupium on the underside of her body until they hatch into small, white offspring. The mother then appears to "give birth" to her offspring. Woodlice are gray or black in color and are less than a half-inch long, although one in this picture is orange instead.
Habitat:
Woodlice need moisture because they breathe through gills, called pseudotrachea, and so are usually found in damp, dark places, such as under rocks and logs.
Notes:
They are usually nocturnal and are detritivores, feeding mostly on dead plant matter, although they have been known to feed on cultivated plants, such as ripening strawberries and tender seedlings. Woodlice then recycle the nutrients back into the soil.
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