Isopod ID (new species?)

MorbidTecolote

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 18, 2018
Messages
14
Okay, so I had bought these as a. dentiger off a seller on FB. While packing my order, however, he realized that these don't look like a. dentiger at all and asked if I was still ok with having them. I said of course, and I told him I had a microscope that I could use to take some close ups to help determine species. I originally thought they were t. pusillus, but others who have t. pusillus said that they're fairy smooth (and google images can back that up), whereas my isos have a distinctly hairy appearance. I also don't think they're costa rican purple, because a few other sellers that have them have both species and would have surely noticed if they were the same. Isopod.com and Roach Crossing both have this particular variety, mislabeled as a. dentiger. Isopod.com also has some good pics of them so you can get a better look. Any thoughts/suggestions is welcome and appreciated, and I did my best with these pics I took. I also unfortunately do not know who collected the original culture and from where. I have been referring to them as "Hairy Isopods" until positive ID can be made.

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Polenth

Arachnobaron
Joined
Sep 29, 2018
Messages
460
I agree that it doesn't look like Androniscus dentiger. Those are knobbly rather than hairy. They also have the characteristic stripes, which this one doesn't. I had noted before that the ones I'd seen on US sites didn't look right (so I guess the people I've seen with that species in their profile don't really have them... shame, as I was hoping to get some, so wild caught is the only way now).

It reminds me of Philoscia muscorum, only smaller and hairy, with a more general mottled pattern. Looking at similar related species, none seem to be hairy, though I couldn't find a direct comment on whether Burmoniscus meeusei (previously Chaetophiloscia meeusei) was hairy or not. This one seems about the right size (S.L. Sutton notes they're 8mm, not 1mm as originally described) and is described as mottled purplish (I don't find any "purple" woodlice look purple to me at all, but the zoomed out picture looks a bit like other purple species).

I couldn't get access to the article describing that species as I don't have academic access, but if anyone can: Holthuis, L. B. (1946) On a small collection of isopod crustacea from the greenhouses of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (11)13:122-137

That's about the best I've got. A lot of smaller woodlice are likely to be unknown to science, so this could be another one. "Hairy Isopods" seems like a good name to describe it.
 
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