Zomoi.com

Isopoda, First, what is an isopod? Here is one definition: “any freshwater, marine, or terrestrial crustacean of the order or suborder Isopoda, having seven pairs of legs typically adapted for crawling, and a dorsoventrally flattened body, and including wood lice, several aquatic parasites of crabs and shrimps, and numerous swimming or bottom-dwelling species.” Here are some interesting facts about this small creature: * they are distant relatives of trilobites; * they breathe through gills, in fact they live on land but their bodies are made for the water, sort of like being caught between evolutionary stages; * their blood is based on copper, not iron, so they must eat feces to replenish the copper. That last fact leads to an interesting piece of natural history. By eating feces, pill bugs open themselves up to parasitism. When they eat the feces of songbirds, they ingest a parasitic worm, the ancestor of which still lives in the ocean (in case you are wondering, this worm is the Spiny-headed Acanthocephalan). But to complete this cycle, how do the worms get into the bird? This is the interesting part. Pill bugs are normally very secretive, nocturnal animals. But songbirds feed during the day, so how would they be able to ingest the worm-laden pill bugs? Well, it turns out the parasitic worm alters the behavior of the pill bug and causes them to become extroverts, and fearlessly streak across your yard in the open, making an easy meal for the birds. Acanthocephalans change their host’s behavior by altering the amount of serotonin in the bugs, brain….sort of like a Pill Bug Prozac! “Adults grow to about 3/8 inch long, have a number of rounded body segments and seven pairs of legs. Pillbugs …..are capable of rolling into a tight ball when disturbed, a behavior that resulted in their common name, ‘roly-polies’." Habitat: “Mouthparts are for chewing and rasping. Pillbugs spend bright daylight hours in damp dark habitats such as underneath stones, logs, leaf litter and other debris. At night they venture out and feed on decomposing organic material, including mulch and grass clippings. They will feed on the tender foliage, stems and roots of young garden vegetable transplants, seedlings and bedding plants.” Range: Moist habitats worldwide. Life Cycle: “Females lay eggs that they carry in a pouch underneath the body. Eggs hatch into young pillbugs that resemble adults but are smaller. They remain in the pouch up to 2 months after hatching. Development to adults occurs in about a year and they breed mainly in the spring. They may live up to 3 years. Up to three broods may be produced annually.”