The largest terrestrial isopod that I know of is from the same suborder of the one I studied in Tasmania. But it is much bigger and is adapted to life in shallow tunnels beneath the ferns, eucalyptus trees, and other vegetation of the cloud forest of the Ottway Mountains in Victoria, Australia.
I was trying to visit and collect specimens of the sub-order to which the isopod on Mount Wellington belongs. Nicholl's monograph on the Phreatoicoidea indicated the type locality from which the species (Phreatoicopsis terricola) had been collected was about 20 miles from where I left a bus the take the road in the picture. There was no public transportation along the road leading to Beech Forest where a small map on a postcard indicated a railroad existed. Halfway to Beech Forest the map showed the town Olangalah.
Before reaching Olangalah I thought I would check to see if maybe isopods would be in the rainforest pictured above. When I got down a short distance into it and dug with a trowel I found tunnels immediately about an inch deep. They were perhaps an inch or two in diameter and contained the isopods shown below. I had to be careful to keep my distance from the abundant fern fronds, many of which had terrestrial leeches perched on the fern tips and ready to attach for a meal of my blood.
The isopods had a little yellowish pigmentation on the head. The transparent body revealed a gut full of what I assumed was organic rich soil. I put some in a jar without much water but adequate airspace and they survived the trip back to Tasmania. But along the way I had some difficulties. When I got back on the road and came to an opening with empty fields, I was sure it had been Olangalah, I was relieved I only had a few more miles to go before I got to Beech Forest. I think maybe one car had gone past me before I thought I should try to hitch a ride. A couple more went by the wrong way before I got to Beech Forest. I found a hotel where I could get something to eat and asked about the train schedule to Melbourne where I had my ticket for a flight to Hobart the next day.
The only train was a weekly one that wasn't due for a few more days. So I started hiking along the road to Melbourne. It was dark when I passed the location by the Beech River where I had been hoping to collect the isopods. Attempts to hitch-hike had been unproductive, I'm sure I wouldn't have picked up a hiker as disreputably looking as I was with boots and knapsack. So I continued along the road winding up the mountain from the river valley. In the wee hours of the morning I lay down along the road to rest, there had been no traffic for a long time. I aroused with some hope as I heard a vehicle in the distance. After what seemed like at least twenty minutes a large truck pulling a trailer with an enormous eucalyptus log approached and stopped. When I asked if he could drop me of anywhere I could get transportation to Melbourne, he told me he was going to Melbourne. Wow, what relief.
The big terrestrial isopods are quite small compared to the largest known isopods that are found at great depths in the ocean. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago had some (Bathynomous gigas) on display the last time I was there. The marine isopod is in the suborder containing the pillbugs, or sowbugs, and the aquatic isopods of the Northern Hemisphere.
Joseph G. Engemann June 4, 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment