I took this pic of a fairly large woodlouse on 16th July at night, it seems to fit Philoscia muscorum which is said to be variable, and of course moulting stages will give different appearances.
It seems to have many Common names, including Fast Woodlouse, Moss Woodlouse, Common Striped Woodlouse.
The general description fits, but I would say mine was a reddish-brown rather than reddish grey. It did run very fast, I only managed two pics and got one good one. It was near a drain cover on liverwort moss, with several plant pots around, the location and 'moss' fits. There are 10 species of Philoscia in Europe, only this one seems to come up in a search.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosciidae
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/html/T78731.HTM
A UK specific search for Philoscia doesn't bring up any others, the following site states it is a brownish or reddish species and mottled. I can see there is a darkish line down the middle, but am struggling to see much mottling.
http://www.the-piedpiper.co.uk/th11c(3).htm
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Philoscia+&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB
Any experts that can confirm this for me?
Thanks for any help.
CLOSED: Woodlouse, Family Philosciidae?
Using the NHM key which is quite a simple key, if I include a stripe in the description the it's Philoscia muscorum,
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/woodlice/species4.html
With no stripe it's Oniscus asellus - common shiney woodlouse. (their spelling!)
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/woodlice/species6.html
The colour still fits Philoscia muscorum, unless it is another of course, there are 35 species in Britain of which few can be found pics of.
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