I currently (Apr 2011) work in Kabul at the airport. There are orange front black back bugs (appear to be called Isopods)where I work. Hundreds of them around the open fields. They appear to "battle" over tiny hole in the ground. The winner seems to be the new "owner" of the hole. When I hole is won the winner backs into the whole and pushes the orange part of there back, that is lined with points toward the top. It appears to be used as a shield to deter other Isopods from being able to pull them out. If anyone needs more information on this, I have plenty of time to "study" them. So far it has been observations as I smoke. I can be reached at bradon99@gmail.com.
Bradon: That is amazing. Could you possibly get some pictures of them as for some reason their behavior to me doesn't sound like an Isopod.
I've never heard of Isopods digging holes and battling over them. Sounds like something else entirely. Would love to see some pics so I can get to work on ID'ng these for you.
Picture 2,4,5 are actually species of Pill Millipedes. Their structure are similar to that of isopods, from evolving in response to certain environmental stimuli in a process called convergent evolution where unrelated organisms evolve in a similar manner. Pill Millipedes make fascinating pets, but are pretty tough to keep alive in captivity (Tropical species) whereas European ones are easier. I had the green species (2nd picture) from madagascar which is a enormous creature compared to isopods (tangerine sized when rolled up)
6 comments:
Do you know the latin name for the Afghanistan Herat isopod?
No I don't unfortunately. Have been trying to find out so I can research them properly.
I currently (Apr 2011) work in Kabul at the airport. There are orange front black back bugs (appear to be called Isopods)where I work. Hundreds of them around the open fields. They appear to "battle" over tiny hole in the ground. The winner seems to be the new "owner" of the hole. When I hole is won the winner backs into the whole and pushes the orange part of there back, that is lined with points toward the top. It appears to be used as a shield to deter other Isopods from being able to pull them out. If anyone needs more information on this, I have plenty of time to "study" them. So far it has been observations as I smoke. I can be reached at bradon99@gmail.com.
Bradon: That is amazing. Could you possibly get some pictures of them as for some reason their behavior to me doesn't sound like an Isopod.
I've never heard of Isopods digging holes and battling over them. Sounds like something else entirely. Would love to see some pics so I can get to work on ID'ng these for you.
I also can be reached at butterfly10f[AT]aol.com
Picture 2,4,5 are actually species of Pill Millipedes. Their structure are similar to that of isopods, from evolving in response to certain environmental stimuli in a process called convergent evolution where unrelated organisms evolve in a similar manner. Pill Millipedes make fascinating pets, but are pretty tough to keep alive in captivity (Tropical species) whereas European ones are easier. I had the green species (2nd picture) from madagascar which is a enormous creature compared to isopods (tangerine sized when rolled up)
O.o
Thank you
With foreign brightly colored species I cannot always tell. Do you know the names of some of these?
I want to research them. I've heard of Pill millipedes being hard to keep in captivity but no one's AFAIK been able to figure out why.
Are the European species available here anywhere? (I'm in NYC) Curious....would like to try them out one day.
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