''Porcellio'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

woodlice A woodlouse (plural woodlice) is an isopod crustacean from the polyphyleticThe current consensus is that Oniscidea is actually triphyletic suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda. They get their name from often being found in old wood ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Porcellionidae. These

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

s are found essentially worldwide. A well-known

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

is the common rough woodlouse, '' Porcellio scaber''. 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 A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

species from

Baltic amber The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposit of amber, called Baltic amber or succinite. It was produced sometime during the Eocene epoch, but exactly when is controversial. It has been estimated that these forests created more than ...

. 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