Venezillo parvus (Budde-Lund, 1885)
Status:
GB IUCN status: Not applicable (non-native)
ID Difficulty
Identification
Venezillo parvus is a small ball-rolling woodlouse, reaching 5 mm in length. It looks rather like an immature Armadillidium vulgare, with which it shares the truncated 'square' uropods, but is readily identified by the characteristic ‘hour-glass’ shape of the telson (also seen in Reductoniscus costulatus), the equally characteristic ‘spectacled’ pigment pattern occurring on each pereionite.
A brief description of this species, with figures, is given in Gregory (2014).
Distribution
Between 2004 and 2010 large numbers of Venezillo parvus were collected from the Eden Project (Rainforest Biome), Cornwall. It was still present in 2020.
Habitat
Specimens were found beneath dead wood and stones and among accumulations of leaf-litter.
In the wild it occurs widely across tropical and sub-tropical regions.
References
Gregory, S. (2014) Woodlice (Isopoda: Oniscidea) from Eden Project, Cornwall, with descriptions of species new to Britain, and poorly known British species. Bulletin of the British Myriapod & Isopod Group 27: 3-26.
Links
World List of Marine, Freshwater and Terrestrial Isopod Crustaceans: https://www.marinespecies.org/isopoda/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=264073
BRC code
80