Cubaris rubber ducky sexing

[LizardStudent]

Does anyone here know of the sexual dimorphism traits between male and female rubber ducky isopods? I've tried looking this up and couldn't find any discussion on it or diagrams or anything like that

 

[Ponerinecat]

They don't have sexual dimorphism. Flip the adults over and check the pleopods(or put them in a transparent container and look from the underside/put them in a plastic bag and flip it while keeping it tight around the isopods.) Females have pleopods more or less even in size and shape, with few overlaps. The first few pairs of pleopods in males are greatly elongated and skinny, pointing downwards and overlapping with each other and the next few pairs. This applies for all oniscidea and can be used to sex any species within that group(unless males are absent, of course.)

 

[LizardStudent]

They don't have sexual dimorphism. Flip the adults over and check the pleopods(or put them in a transparent container and look from the underside/put them in a plastic bag and flip it while keeping it tight around the isopods.) Females have pleopods more or less even in size and shape, with few overlaps. The first few pairs of pleopods in males are greatly elongated and skinny, pointing downwards and overlapping with each other and the next few pairs. This applies for all oniscidea and can be used to sex any species within that group(unless males are absent, of course.)

Thank you for this information, I would still love to see a diagram of this (I'm a visual learner ) I'm guessing that one doesn't exist and so I will try to eventually make one myself and post here. I tried earlier but my ducks really didn't want to unroll for me

 

[Ponerinecat]

Thank you for this information, I would still love to see a diagram of this (I'm a visual learner ) I'm guessing that one doesn't exist and so I will try to eventually make one myself and post here. I tried earlier but my ducks really didn't want to unroll for me

Just google isopod anatomy and you should be able to find some gender based pleopod diagrams.

 

[LizardStudent]

Just google isopod anatomy and you should be able to find some gender based pleopod diagrams.

Yeah I already did, but all were kind of poorly drawn but still okay. What I meant was that I thought it would be useful for people to have a picture of an actual rubber ducky isopods underside with labeling of what to look for in females and males. There were also no diagrams specific to cubaris species

 

[Ponerinecat]

Like I said, you only need to know the general shape, which applies for all Oniscidea. Whether or not the lines are as crisp as in real life doesnt really matter. You can think of it as mammalian genitalia: once you know the basic difference you can reliably sex any mammal, regardless of how different they are from each other. But if you still want a genus specific reference, heres the pleopods of a male Nesodillo "red/phipun tiger." A female would have evenly shaped pleopods all throughout, so think of copy and pasting the bottom pairs over the top pairs.

 

[Xeroporcellio]

Yeah I already did, but all were kind of poorly drawn but still okay

A very beautiful, explanatory and detailed diagram can be found here. It concerns Armadillididae (Armadillidium & Co), but, as @Ponerinecat said, if you see and understand the genitals/appendices of a particular isopod species/genus/family, you have roughly seen them all!