''Ligidium whiteoak'' is a species of terrestrial

isopod Isopoda is an Order (biology), order of crustaceans. Members of this group are called isopods and include both Aquatic animal, aquatic species and Terrestrial animal, terrestrial species such as woodlice. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons ...

in the family

Ligiidae Ligiidae is a family of woodlice, the only family in the infraorder Diplocheta. Its members are common on rocky shores, in similar habitats to those inhabited by species of the bristletail '' Petrobius'' and the crab '' Cyclograpsus''. The famil ...

, found in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It is only known from a single location in Blount County,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. The species name ''whiteoak'' refers to Whiteoak Sink, a trail within

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in the southeastern United States, southeast, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline o ...

, where the species was first discovered. Its habitat consists of moist leaf litter in

deciduous forest In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flo ...

. ''Ligidium whiteoak'' can be distinguished from closely related species by the second male

pleopod The anatomy of a decapod consists of 20 body segments grouped into two main body parts: the cephalothorax and the pleon (abdomen). Each segment – often called a somite – may possess one pair of appendages, although in various groups these m ...

endopodite The arthropod leg is a form of jointed appendage of arthropods, usually used for walking. Many of the terms used for arthropod leg segments (called podomeres) are of Latin origin, and may be confused with terms for bones: ''coxa'' (meaning hip, : ...

showing a broad projection, rising dorsally and medially from the

caudal Caudal may refer to: Anatomy * Caudal (anatomical term) (from Latin ''cauda''; tail), used to describe how close something is to the trailing end of an organism * Caudal artery, the portion of the dorsal aorta of a vertebrate that passes into th ...

margin of the tip and projecting caudally and slightly outwards. The size of adult males ranges from in length and in width, and the size of adult females ranges from in length and in width.

References

Isopoda Endemic crustaceans of the United States Crustaceans described in 2025 {{Isopod-stub