Common Shiny Sowbug (Oniscus asellus (Linnaeus, 1758))
Scientific name: Oniscus asellus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Common name: Common Shiny Sowbug
Other names: European Sowbug
French name: Aselle des murs
Order: Isopoda
Family: Oniscidae
Size: 15 to 18 mm long, 7 to 10 mm wide.
Habitat : Needs constant moisture. The Common Shiny Sowbug can be found under stones and logs.
Food: Decaying plants, rotting wood.
Reproduction : The female carries the eggs and the babies underneath in a brood pouch.
Geographic area: Western Europe except extreme North and South (South of Spain, Italy, Greece, …). Introduced to the Americas.
Sowbugs are land crustaceans, they breathe through gills on their legs.
They have a carapace made up of articulating plates. They have seven pairs of legs.
The Common Shiny Sowbug has a wide and flat body. It moves rather slowly.
There are sometimes yellow spots on the back.
There are three lobes at the front of the head. The flagellum of the antenna has three articles.
The sides of the body form a continuous line at the back (pleon and pereon).
Uropodal exopods, at the rear, are lance-shaped.
Porcellio scaber has a rougher back and the flagellum of its antenna has only two articles.

Common Shiny Sowbug (Oniscus asellus) - Yvelines, France - November 1st 2010
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Common Shiny Sowbug (Oniscus asellus)
All the criteria to identify the Common Shiny Sowbug species are visible on this picture.


Common Shiny Sowbug (Oniscus asellus) - Yvelines, France - July 9th 2011
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Common Shiny Sowbug (Oniscus asellus)
Just notice, in particular, the flagellum of the antennae with three articles.


Common Shiny Sowbug (Oniscus asellus) - Yvelines, France - April 29th 2006
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Common Shiny Sowbug (Oniscus asellus)
There is a possible confusion with Porcellio scaber, but this last one has a rougher back.
You just need to lift a stone to see many sowbugs running away.
Many of them are also working for me in the compost heap.


Common Shiny Sowbug (Oniscus asellus) - Saône-et-Loire, France - May 15th 2015
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Common Shiny Sowbug (Oniscus asellus)
The picture is not sharp enough to count the articles of the flagellum but all the other criteria to identify the Common Shiny Sowbug species are visible.

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