Pill bugs, sand lice

Code OR259999

Flattened, pill-bug shaped isopods with five free abdominal segments each of which is narrower than the preceding segment. The head is rounded and in dorsal view the animal has a smooth anterior outline. The body is widest at the thorax and narrow at the telson. The uropods are relatively long (longer than the telson), cylindrical, and point backward. The flagellum of the antennae has three segments.

This family includes terrestrial and aquatic species. Haloniscus searli is regularly found in saline waters across inland southern Australia.

References:

Horwitz, P., Knott, B. and Williams, W.D. (1995) A Preliminary Key to the Malacostracan Families (Crustacea) found in Australian Inland Waters . Co-operative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology Identification Guide No. 4., Albury, NSW.

Williams, W.D. (1980) Australian Freshwater Life: The Invertebrates of Australian Inland Waters. The Macmillan Company of Australia, Melbourne.

Wilson, G. D. ('Buz'). 1999. Preliminary phylogeny of the Phreatoicidea. Webpage at