Ligia oceanica

Ligia oceanica, the sea slater, common sea slater or sea roach, is a littoral woodlouse, living on rocky seashores of the european North Sea and Atlantic coastlines.

Ligia oceanica
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Subphylum:
Crustacea
Class:
Malacostraca
Order:
Isopoda
Family:
Ligiidae
Genus:
Ligia
Species:
L. oceanica
Binomial name
Ligia oceanica
Synonyms [1]
  • Oniscus oceanicus Linnaeus, 1767
  • Ligia belgica Ritzema Bos, 1874
  • Ligia granulata Frey & Leuckart, 1847
  • Ligia oniscoides Brébisson, 1825
  • Ligia scopulorum Leach, 1814
  • Ligydia oceanica (Linnaeus, 1767)
  • Oniscus assimilis Linnaeus, 1767

L. oceanica is oval, twice as long as broad and may reach up to 30 millimetres (1.2 in) in length, making it one of the largest oniscid isopods.[2] Its colour may vary from grey to olive-green, and it has large compound eyes and long antennae, ⅔ as long as its body.[3]

L. oceanica is found in temperate waters from Norway to the Mediterranean Sea,[4] and from Cape Cod north to Maine.[5] It is a common species, occurring wherever the substrate of the littoral zone is rocky, and is especially common in crevices and rock pools and under stones.[3] It is a nocturnal omnivore,[6] eating many kinds of seaweed, diatoms[3] and debris, with a particular fondness for bladder wrack (Fucus vesiculosus).[2]

L. oceanica individuals live for 2​1⁄2–3 years and usually breed only once.[6]

Genome
Ligia oceanica, Fort-la-Latte, Plévenon, Bretagne, France

The mitochondrial genome of L. oceanica was sequenced in 2006. It is a circular double-stranded DNA molecule, with a size of 15,289 base pairs. Although gene order is not conserved among isopods, L. oceanica shows a similarly derived gene order to Idotea balthica, compared to the arthropod ground pattern, but the positions of three tRNA genes differ in the two isopod species. [7]

See also

References
  1. Helmut Schmalfuss (2003). "World catalog of terrestrial isopods (Isopoda: Oniscidea) — revised and updated version" (PDF). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie A. 654: 341 pp.
  2. "The Care of Woodlice (Crustacea, Isopoda, Oniscidae)". November 11, 2005.
  3. Susie Ballerstedt (2005). "Common sea slater - Ligia oceanica". Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub-programme. Archived from the original on May 15, 2011. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  4. Juan Luis Menéndez (July 3, 2005). "Ligia oceanica (Linnaeus, 1767)" (in Spanish). Naturaleza Cantábrica.
  5. Richard Fox (2001). "Invertebrate zoology laboratory exercises". Lander University. Archived from the original on 2006-09-03.
  6. "Sea slater (Ligia oceanica)". ARKive.org. Archived from the original on 2006-05-17. Retrieved December 9, 2006.
  7. Kilpert, Fabian; Podsiadlowski, Lars (2006). "The complete mitochondrial genome of the common sea slater, Ligia oceanica (Crustacea, Isopoda) bears a novel gene order and unusual control region features". BMC Genomics. 7: 241. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-7-241. PMID 16987408.
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