About This Project
Native isopods of the US have been largely neglected with many species having not even been described or named. This is problematic as many isopods are useful indicator species of healthy environments. In addition, native isopods are also threatened by the introduction of invasive species and by global climate change. Our work to date has identified more than 15 new species, and this additional work has the potential to add several additional species and to identify key habitats.
Ask the Scientists
Join The DiscussionWhat is the context of this research?
Over the past year and a half we have been conducting ongoing research into native Armadillid isopods of California. Our previous Experiment.com campaign helped support our collections of several new species throughout the deserts of southern California, Arizona, and Nevada. We've identified more than 15 novel species of native Armadillidae and are working to describe these new species and assess their relationships phylogenetically. This project will support the collection of isopods from several additional localities, further contributing to our understanding of this understudied group. Historic specimens from these additional localities housed at the California Academy of Sciences are currently unidentified. There are only two known Venezillo on the West Coast and so our research has already increased that number by almost 10x. Adding specimens from these additional localities will allow us to develop a more complete understanding of this group.
What is the significance of this project?
The native Venezillo (Pill Woodlice) in the western United States are likely threatened by many factors. Global warming is causing major changes in our desert and forest environments. The lack of rainfall in major portions of California, including the Mojave Desert and transverse mountain ranges has been extreme in the past several years, leading to droughts and wildfires. Local researchers have reported long-living plant species dying at an alarming rate. In order to assess the impact on native isopods we first need to describe them to understand their range and native habitat.
What are the goals of the project?
Our previous work has already uncovered many more new species of armadillid than we previously expected. Phylogenetic analysis as well as the evaluation of addition literature sources and museum specimens have lead us to find many more previously unknown populations. The goal of the current project is to expand the number of species we will describe in our ongoing study to include populations recently identified through our ongoing collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences. This additional work will further contribute to our understanding of armadillid diversity, help to support the Cal Academy IZ collections by contributing additional specimens, and publish peer reviewed descriptions of these novel Armadillidae species.
Budget
The funds will primarily go to travel to collect specimens from 10 additional localities, along with costs for DNA barcoding of a subset of these specimens as well as some collected through our previous Experiment.com campaign. We estimated that the total travel for all trips will be around 2,600 miles (~$1000 in fuel). One trip will be ~5 days to Southern California. During this trip we planned 3 nights in a hotel, and 2 nights camping ($400). The additional 8 localities are closer, and will be visited on day trips. Food costs for all trips is estimated at $600 (~31 meals for 2 people at ~$20/meal). DNA barcoding we will use Cytochrome Oxidase 1 (CO1). CO1 is widely used for DNA barcoding and so substantial data exists for reference to related species. CO1 was also sequenced for the specimens that we've collected to date on our ongoing research therefore will allow us to compare to those samples.
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Project Timeline
The current populations we're targeting are highly seasonally dependent. We will be conducting field studies between now and May of next year in order to have the best chances of sampling all populations. Lab work will be conducted on a rolling basis as new samples are collected. Data will be combined with our existing data set to evaluate new species. Morphological assessment is ongoing now and will also continue on a rolling basis.
Dec 19, 2025
Project Launched
Feb 28, 2026
Complete collection of northern forest localities
May 31, 2026
Complete sampling of southern desert localites
Jun 15, 2026
Complete sequencing
Jun 30, 2026
Complete manuscript
Meet the Team
Team Bio
Oonagh and Jeremiah are a father/daughter team of naturalists who have been exploring the fauna of the western US for many years. We've contributed to several research studies through helping with field collections and are active members of the iNaturalist and bugguide communities. We have recently built a lab space to allow us to conduct our own basic research of understudied arthropod groups and have begun working to publish our research.
Oonagh Degenhardt
Oonagh is a student with experience in the biological sciences both professionally and from a hobbyist perspective. She specializes in work based around invertebrate and herpetofaunal subjects. Her skills include, but are not limited, to: field collection, husbandry, species identification, and morphological analyses. And is a guest researcher at the California Academy of Sciences.
In addition to these professional pursuits she also partakes in creative work in the form of wildlife photography and scientific illustration for the American Isopod and Myriapod Group (AIMG), and moderates their social media forum. Her work currently focuses on examining the biodiversity and phylogenetics of the native Armadillidae of western North America. And has began publishing systematic updates of isopoda.
Jeremiah Degenhardt PhD
Currently I work in biotech developing therapeutics, but my formal education spans organismal biology, molecular biology, computational biology, and population genetics/genomics. I have a PhD in Computational Biology and Population genetics from Cornell Universityand have worked on multiple genome sequencing projects. During undergraduate at the University of Idaho I worked on phylogeography of Pacific Northwest taxa, including multiple species of salamanders and xystodesmid millipedes in the lab of Professor Jack Sullivan. I learned millipede biology and ID of western Xystodesmids from Professor Rowland Shelley during this time. I have continued to expand my love and knowledge of arthropods and biology by being an active member of iNatuarlist and bugguide. I also help researchers with field collections whenever possible.
Recently I have started a different type of project. I have set out to photographically document all of the west coast xystodesmid species. I will be adding high quality images of each species with photos of the gonopods and other ID features on iNaturalist and bugguide to help others be able to ID these species. You can follow the project here: West coast xystodesmids
Lab Notes
Nothing posted yet.
Additional Information
Type specimens as well as voucher specimens will be deposited in the California Academy of Sciences. This research helps to inform statewide inventory of arthropods by conducting targeted field surveys. We will be tracking soil temperature, humidity, and species abundance during our field collections and will report this data. During collection trips of native isopods, insects will also be sampled following the ATBI collection protocol and sent to CalATBI for processing and sequencing.
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