Amazing insect  (crustacean)Facts

 Isopods have adapted to live on every continent except antartica. One species, Hemilepistus Reaumuri, live in the Sahara Desert of Africa. The hottest and driest place on earth! This is amazing for a crustacean! Its amazing any animal can live in the extreme conditions of the Sahara, but a crustacean? Wow! This is the driest environment any isopod species has concoured, and they had to adapt to achive it. One adaption is that they walk on their tippy toes to avoid the hot, dry sand.

They are awesome parents as well. They look after their babies. A solitary female will start digging a burrow.  Eventually her mate will join her and help with the excavation of their new home. The female will give birth to around 80 live young who will be cared for by both parents. Only one parent will go out at a time to collect food while the other stays to protect their babies and home from invaders. When feeling vulnerable, the babies will crawl into their mothers marsupial pouch on her abdomen, just like a kangaroo! So cool! After a few weeks, the babies are old enough to forage for food on their own, but they still return to the burrow once a day for a snack from the family pantry. It is several months before the young can totally be self reliant and fend for themselves. If the intolerable heat of summer approaches before they are 4-6 months old, they will return home to their parents and siblings to spent the hottest months in their underground family burrow. Snug as a bug in a rug.