Common name
Status:
GB IUCN status: Least Concern
ID Difficulty
Identification
Our seven Armadillidium species and Eluma caelata (Family Armadillidiidae) are readily recognised in the field by their truncated 'square' uropods that end flush with the body and their ability to roll into a protective sphere (similar truncated uropods are also seen in the non-native Armadillidae species).
Armadillidium pulchellum is a small (to 5 mm body length) attractively mottled pill-woodlouse. It shares its distinctive mottling and the dark patch on the 7th epimera with A. pictum (a larger species). There is considerable overlap in the distribution and habitat preferences of A. pulchellum and A. pictum and the two are easily confused. The shape of the male first pleopods in diagnostic, but females are more tricky. A. vulgare immatures are never as attractively mottled and lack the dark patch on the 7th epimera.
A guide to identification of these three species is given by Gregory & Richards (2008).
