''Porcellio'' is a
genus of
woodlice in the
family Porcellionidae
Porcellionidae is a terrestrial family of the order Isopoda.
This family contains 530 species, found on every continent except Antarctica.
The ventral plate of the thoracic exoskeleton flare out slightly over the legs. This "flare" is called t ...
. These
crustaceans are found essentially worldwide. A well-known
species is the common rough woodlouse, ''
Porcellio scaber
''Porcellio scaber'' (otherwise known as the common rough woodlouse or simply rough woodlouse), is a species of woodlouse native to Europe but with a cosmopolitan distribution. They are often found in large numbers in most regions, with many spe ...
''.
Most of the hundreds of ''Porcellio'' species were described by 1950, and many were known by the end of the 19th century already. But occasionally, new species have been found even in recent times.
Species
There are approximately 191 species in the genus ''Porcellio'' :
''Porcellio cyclocephalus'' and ''P. notatus'' are
fossil species from
Baltic amber. They are placed in the present genus for lack of a better alternative, but whether this is correct is doubtful as the original descriptions are very brief and hardly diagnostic.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q660684
Porcellionidae
Isopod genera
Taxa named by Pierre André Latreille