Ligia oceanica, the sea slater, common sea slater, or sea roach, is a woodlouse, living in the littoral zone—rocky seashores of the European North Sea and Atlantic coastlines.
Ligia oceanica | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Malacostraca |
Superorder: | Peracarida |
Order: | Isopoda |
Suborder: | Oniscidea |
Family: | Ligiidae |
Genus: | Ligia |
Species: | L. oceanica
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Binomial name | |
Ligia oceanica | |
Synonyms [1] | |
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L. oceanica is oval, twice as long as broad, and may reach up to 30 mm (1.2 in) in length, making it one of the largest oniscid isopods.[2] Its colour may vary from grey to olive green, and it has large compound eyes and long antennae, two-thirds as long as its body.[3] They are found in temperate waters from Norway to the Mediterranean Sea,[4] and from Cape Cod north to Maine.[5] It is a common species, occurring wherever the substrate of the littoral zone is rocky, and is especially common in crevices and rock pools and under stones.[3] It is a nocturnal omnivore,[6] eating many kinds of seaweed, diatoms,[3] and detritus, with a particular fondness for bladder wrack (Fucus vesiculosus).[2] Individuals live for 21⁄2–3 years and usually breed only once.[6]
The mitochondrial genome of L. oceanica was sequenced in 2006. It is a circular, double-stranded DNA molecule, with a size of 15,289 base pairs. Although gene order is not conserved among isopods, L. oceanica shows a similarly derived gene order to Idotea balthica, compared to the arthropod ground pattern, but the positions of three tRNA genes differ in the two isopod species.[7]