Common Pill Woodlouse vs Orca común

Armadillidium vulgare compared with Orcinus orca

Key Differences

• Common Pill Woodlouse is Near Threatened while Orca común is Data Deficient.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Common Pill Woodlouse	Orca común
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum	Arthropoda (artrópodos)	Chordata (cordados)
Class	Malacostraca (Crustaceans)	Mammalia (mamíferos)
Order	Isopoda (Isopoda)	Cetacea (Whales & Dolphins)
Family	Armadillidiidae	Delphinidae (Oceanic Dolphins)
Genus	Armadillidium	Orcinus (Orcas)
Species	Armadillidium vulgare	Orcinus orca

Evolutionary Relationship

Common Pill Woodlouse and Orca común share a common ancestor at the Kingdom level: Animalia. (Animals)

Conservation Status

Common Pill Woodlouse

NT — Near Threatened

Orca común

DD — Data Deficient

Population: ~50.0K

Trend: Unknown ?

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Common Pill Woodlouse	Orca común
Diet	—	Carnivore
Average Lifespan	—	50 years
Average Length	—	8.0 m
Average Weight	—	5.4 t

Habitat & Geographic Range

Common Pill Woodlouse

Habitat

Typically found in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (South Africa), Asia (Japan), Europe (6 countries), and North America (United States). Listed as Near Threatened, this species requires ongoing monitoring to prevent population decline.

Orca común

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, and tropical and subtropical grasslands and savannas, among 11 distinct biome types. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Asia (Taiwan), Europe (4 countries), and South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela).

Common Pill Woodlouse

<em>Armadillidium vulgare</em>, the common pill woodlouse, is a terrestrial isopod crustacean in the family Armadillidiidae, widely recognised for its ability to roll into a tight sphere when disturbed, a defensive behaviour that gives it the common name "pill bug" or "roly-poly." Unlike most crustaceans, it is fully adapted to life on land, breathing through modified gill-like structures that must remain moist. The species inhabits a broad range of environments, typically occurring under rocks, leaf litter, decaying wood, and in gardens and agricultural land, where it feeds on decomposing organic matter, playing an important role in nutrient cycling. <em>Armadillidium vulgare</em> is distributed across Europe, parts of Asia including Japan, South Africa, and North America including the United States, reflecting its success as a cosmopolitan species often transported inadvertently by human activity. It is assessed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. Biological traits such as average lifespan, precise body dimensions, and detailed dietary composition across its range remain poorly documented in the scientific literature. Females brood their young in a marsupium, and the species is capable of parthenogenesis under certain conditions, contributing to reproductive flexibility.

Orca común

El mayor miembro de la familia de los delfínidos, la orca (Orcinus orca) puede alcanzar hasta 9 metros de longitud y 6 toneladas de peso, y se encuentra en todos los océanos desde el Ártico hasta el Antártico. Es un depredador apex que vive en grupos matrilineales con dialectos distintos, estrategias de caza y tradiciones culturales que difieren entre poblaciones. Algunas poblaciones se especializan en peces, otras en mamíferos marinos. Sin depredadores naturales, las orcas ocupan la cima de todas las cadenas tróficas marinas que habitan.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 4 countries:

🇩🇰 Denmark 🇳🇴 Norway 🇵🇹 Portugal 🇸🇪 Sweden