Isopod Zoology is an updated reference guide to the biology and husbandry of isopods in the terrarium.

A look at isopod systematics and evolution, topics confronted include the influence of genetic and extrachromasomal factors on their population rate and a comparison of different species in different habitats.

Oniscids are wonderful model organisms for studies addressing more general biological questions, and they arguably demonstrate the best evolutionary progression in any extant group of organisms. Their unique properties as terrestrial crustaceans living in a wide range of habitats from coast to desert offer great advantages to study physiological and behavioural adaptations, ecological, phylogenetic, and biogeographical patterns, and evolutionary processes. This volume contains contributions, which were presented at the 5th International Symposium on the Biology of Terrestrial Isopods that took place on Crete, May 2001, and which was dedicated to the memory of the late Marie Flasarova. All papers have been peer-reviewed before inclusion in the book. The contributions give a well balanced account of current research on all aspects - covering systematics, ecology, biogeography, morphology, physiology, immunology, endocrinology, behaviour, and hostparasite relationships - of biology of the remarkable creatures included in the Isopoda suborder Oniscidae, the only crustaceans that have conquered almost all terrestrial habitat types. This book will prove useful to all crustacean researchers, working on either terrestrial, freshwater or marine organisms.

Terrestrial isopods (woodlice) are the only group of crustaceans fully adapted to life on land and with about 3,700 species known at present represent the largest suborder of Isopoda. They occur in almost any kind of terrestrial habitat, from littoral to high mountains, from forests to deserts, with some species adapted to live in subterranean environments and others secondarily having returned to water. Woodlice are particularly important from a biogeographical and an ecological point of view, since they have limited dispersal ability, are often endemic to small geographic areas, and are extremely diverse ecologically.ÿThey also represent en excellent model group of animals to study the physiological adaptations related to the transition from an aquatic to a terrestrial way of life. This special issue of ZooKeys includes a collection of 20 papers presented during the 8th International Symposium on Terrestrial Isopod Biology, which was held at Bled, Slovenia from 19th to 23rd June 2011. Contributions address a wide range of topics related to terrestrial isopods, such as systematics, biogeography, morphology, physiology, molecular biology, microbiology, and ecology. Two contributions are related to the state of the art and future perspectives on biomineralizations in crustaceans and ecotoxicology in soil fauna. This special issue will be of great value for anyone interested in the biology of crustaceans in general and of terrestrial isopods in particular, stimulating future research on this unique group of animals.

The deep-sea Isopods, a diverse and ecologically successful group of crustaceans, are the subject of this monograph. The author provides detailed descriptions and geographic distributions for one subfamily (Lipomerinae) in a larger group (Munnopsidae) that have secondarily evolved the ability to swim. Their evolution is illuminated by character studies and numerical phylogenetic analyses. A rationale for grouping the diverse subfamilies of the Munnopsidae into one family (as opposed to three separate families) concludes this work.

This text contains the papers of a meeting on American isopods, the only crustacean group with representatives in all terrestrial ecosystems ranging from the sea shore to the desert. Due to such adaptibility, this group can be seen as a model for the successful transition on land. The text deals with two main subjects: the effects of stressful conditions on the individual animal as reflected by its survival or by the disruption of its normal reproductive pattern; and the distribution of the isopods and their selection of microhabitat.

This second volume in the Natural History of the Crustacea series examines how crustaceans-the different body shapes and adaptations of which are described in volume 1-make a living in the wide range of environments they inhabit, and how they exploit food sources. The contributions in the volume give synthetic overviews of particular lifestyles and feeding mechanisms, and offer a fresh look at crustacean life styles through the technological tools that have been applied to recent crustacean research. These include SEM (scanning electron microscope) techniques, micro-optics, and long-term video recordings that have been used for a variety of behavioral studies. The audience will include not only crustacean biologists but evolutionary ecologists who want to understand the diversification of particular life styles, ecologists who follow the succession of communities, biogeochemists who estimate the role of crustaceans in geochemical fluxes, and biologists with a general interest in crustaceans.