''Pentidotea wosnesenskii'' is a marine

isopod Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, an ...

which lives on seaweed on rocky shores along the

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

coastlines, as far south as

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. It can often be found hiding under rockweed (''

Fucus gardneri ''Fucus gardneri'' is a species of seaweed, a brown alga living on the littoral shore of the Pacific coasts of North America. It has the common names of rockweed and bladderwrack. Description ''Fucus gardneri'' is olive brown in colour and s ...

i'') in the

intertidal zone The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species o ...

, and can be found in depths up to . It was described as ''Idotea wosnesenskii'' in 1851, by

Johann Friedrich von Brandt Johann Friedrich von Brandt (25 May 1802 – 15 July 1879) was a German-Russian natural history, naturalist, who worked mostly in Russia. Brandt was born in Jüterbog and educated at a Gymnasium (school), gymnasium in Wittenberg and the Humboldt ...

, and is named after the Russian biologist

Ilya G. Voznesensky Ilya Gavrilovich Voznesensky (russian: Илья́ Гаври́лович Вознесе́нский, also Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ilia or Il'ia Voznesenskii or Wosnesenski, June 19, 1816 – May 18, 1871) was a Russian explorer and na ...

. The isopod grows up to 4 centimetres in length and is usually green in colour. It is preyed upon by the

surf scoter The surf scoter (''Melanitta perspicillata'') is a large sea duck native to North America. Adult males are almost entirely black with characteristic white patches on the forehead and the nape and adult females are slightly smaller and browner. Su ...

References

Valvifera Crustaceans of the eastern Pacific Ocean Crustaceans described in 1851 {{isopod-stub