Nevermind all the buzz about Tide pods, get ready for…ISOPODS!
Here’s one for you to enjoy:
Pretty nice, right? I agree. Let’s learn about them!
Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. These are woodlice, often called roly-polies or potato bugs:
Woodlice mostly feed on dead plant material, and they are usually active at night, so we have a lot in common.
Several centuries ago when I was in high school, we raised them in science class. They are good, friendly fellows. Please don’t kill them.
Isopodscan also live in water! Wow!
There are almost 20 species ofgiant isopod in the genus Bathynomus. They are abundant in the cold, deep waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans and can be as long as 30 inches. Holy cow. That’s bigger than my dog.
They may look large and scary, but they are mostly opportunistic scavengers, feeding on dead whales, fish, and squid, and occasionally slow-moving live animals like sea cucumbers and sponges.
Food is scarce in the deep ocean, and giant isopods have adapted to long periods of famine; in captivity, they’ve been known to go five years without eating. I guess if I had to eat soggy dead whale blubber, I’d wait five years, too.
Just like Tide pods, I wouldn’t recommend putting these into your mouth. It’s just as horrifying as it sounds. Here, have this photo for your nightmares:
The tongue-eating louse is a parasitic isopod that enters a fish’s mouth through the gills, attaches itself to the tongue and severs the blood vessels there. The tongue eventually falls off and the isopod functionally acts as the fish’s new tongue, all the while sucking its sweet, delicious fish blood.
It appears that the parasite does not cause much other damage to the host fish, but I suspect any research scientists failed to ask the fish how they felt about it. I’m damaged just having seen the photos.
Anyway, there are over 10,000 species of isopod worldwide, so I’ll wrap this post up by sharing just a few more colorful varieties.
Thank you for reading about isopods! I hope you now consider them friends. Even the tongue-eating ones, who make some very questionable life choices. But who are we to judge, you know? Anyway, have a great day.
millipedes are just great bugs to accommodate people into being comfortable with them. they only eat plant matter, have lots of legs but theyre short and slow moving so not as intimidating as centipedes, are pleasant and smooth to the touch. really high quality animals
I agree wholeheartedly. Though I think saying that millipedes are “not as intimidating” as centipedes may be the understatement of the century.
Their faces are so kind though and their feets so gentle
This face?
These feets?
Millipedes are sweet and gentle little veggie-munchers. Centipedes are fast, venomous cobra-beasts that wish to devour the living. A centipede is exponentially more intimidating than a millipede.
I mean they will leave you alone if you leave them alone and most aren’t seriously dangerous to people, but they are not to be trifled with. Also, fun fact, their “fangs” are modified legs so a bite from a centipede is technically a hug.
ifesbob 