| Woodlice/Millipedes/Centipedes
      Top l to r: common pill woodlouse, striped millipede; bottom l to r: flat-backed millipede, Oniscus asellus (a woodlouse)© Top l to r: Bob Gibbons, Roger Key/English Nature; bottom l to r: English Nature, Bob GibbonsThese three groups of animals are all arthropods: their bodies are divided into segments and their legs have several joints. This large group (the phylum, Arthropoda) also includes insects and spiders. The three groups are not very closely related but have similar habitat requirements, being found in damp areas such as rotten wood, under stones or leaf litter or beneath bark. Every garden - and even many window boxes - will have woodlice. Although they may nibble a few seedlings, they are not at all destructive to garden plants and perform the essential function of eating decaying or dead plant matter, and also (usefully if you have a dog!) animal dung. In turn, they are eaten by many other species including common toads, common shrews, ground beetles, harvestmen and by some spiders. Some female birds needing calcium to form their eggs may also eat woodlice, as well as fragments of snail shells. Like millipedes, centipedes are long, slender animals with numerous legs and many segments. They too eat woodlice but also spiders, mites, beetles, harvestmen, worms and slugs. Millipedes are not hunters although they will eat dead animal matter. More commonly they feed on decaying vegetation, fungi and in some cases plant roots. Among the animals which eat both millipedes and centipedes are common frogs, common toads, common shrews, harvestmen and, especially, in the case of millipedes, starlings. PreyFast woodlouse, Pink woodlouse, Porcellio scaber PredatorsCommon shrew, Cryptops hortensis, Dunnock, Great spotted woodpecker, Great tit, Green woodpecker, Grey wagtail, Jay, Leiobunum rotundum, Lesser spotted woodpecker, Marsh tit, willow tit, Nuthatch, Pheasant, Pied wagtail, Red ant, Robin, Slow-worm, Spotted flycatcher, Tree sparrow, Violet ground beetle, Woodlouse spider Woodlice/millipedes/centipedesBanded centipede, Common centipede, Common pill woodlouse, Cryptops hortensis, Fast woodlouse, Flat-backed millipede, Geophilus carpophagus, Oniscus asellus, Pill millipede, Pink woodlouse, Porcellio scaber, Striped millipede, White-legged snake millipede |
