Common name
Status:
GB IUCN status: Least Concern
ID Difficulty
Identification
The pygmy woodlice of family Trichoniscidae (and Styloniscidae) are readily distinguished from other woodlice by the shape of the antennal fagellum which comprises a tapered cone (of indistinct segments) bearing a terminal bristle.
Trichoniscoides is a difficult genus and only male specimens of Trichoniscoides saeroeensis (a predominantly coastal species) can be reliably distinguished from T. helveticus or T. sarsi (the latter has also been recorded from coastal habitats). All three are small (to 4 mm) creamy-white woodlice flushed with varying amounts of orange with the dorsal surface covered with weak tubercles. In T. saeroeensis the eye is composed of a single pinkish-orange ommatidium (typically dark red in T. helveticus and T. sarsi).
All eye and body pigments are rapidly lost in alcohol, thus making preserved specimens difficult to separate from Metatrichoniscoides celticus or M. leydigii.
Identification should be confirmed by microscopic examination of the male 2nd endopod, which is slender, elongated and tapers to a fine point (which can be seen without dissection).
