Species group · Malacostracans

Isopods

WAnimals has 3 species of isopod, spread across 2 families (Cirolanidae, Sphaeromatidae).

3 species

2 families

51 countries

46 parks

Ranges calculated from the entries that record the figure, not from all 3.

All 3 species of isopods on WAnimals

Each one has its own full entry. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Speckled Sea Louse

Eurydice pulchra

Serrated Marine Isopod

Sphaeroma serratum

Giant Isopod

Bathynomus giganteus

3 Not Evaluated

No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.

Recorded in 51 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

It keeps its activity rhythm every 12.4 hours even when isolated in a laboratory without tides: it is one of the classic models for studying the circatidal biological clock.
From Speckled Sea Louse
As well as the tidal clock, it changes colour according to the time of day thanks to an independent circadian rhythm.
From Speckled Sea Louse
It has a tidal clock of its own: an endogenous circatidal rhythm of about 12.4 hours that brings it out of the sand on the flooding tide, keeps it swimming for five or six hours and sends it back into the sand.
From Speckled Sea Louse
When threatened it rolls into a perfect ball, like a woodlouse, leaving only its armour exposed.
From Serrated Marine Isopod
Its tolerance of salinity lets it live in seawater as readily as in brackish lagoons and salt pans.
From Serrated Marine Isopod
Like the woodlouse on land, it rolls into a ball when disturbed, a trait that gives its family, the sphaeromatids, its name.
From Serrated Marine Isopod
It can go several years without eating, on an extremely slow metabolism suited to how little food there is in deep water.
From Giant Isopod
A scavenger up to 40 cm long; in captivity it can go years without eating.
From Giant Isopod