Family Cirolanidae

This isopod family contains around 500 species in 61 genera and is almost exclusively marine or stygiobiont (a fancy name meaning living in permanent darkness). Some of the stygiobionts live in caves as far as 200 km from the ocean which begs the question as to how they got there.

The family includes the biggest of all the isopods - the giant, deep sea Bathynomus species which can reach 50 cm in length and 1.3 kgs in weight. Most are built on the typical isopod body plan - that is they look like woodlice (also known as slaters or rolly-pollies).

Bathynomus species Giant isopod