Nowadays only digital figures are accepted by the most important journals of taxonomy. These may be produced by scanning conventional drawings, made with high precision technical ink-pens, which normally use capillary cartridge and various line widths. Digital drawing techniques that use vector graphics, have already been described in literature to support scientists in drawing figures and plates for scientific illustrations; these techniques use many different software and hardware devices. The present work gives step-by-step instructions on how to make accurate line drawings with a new procedure that uses bitmap graphics with the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). This method is noteworthy: it is very accurate, producing detailed lines at the highest resolution; the raster lines appear as realistic ink-made drawings; it is faster than the traditional way of making illustrations; everyone can use this simple technique; this method is completely free as it does not use expensive and licensed software and it can be used with different operating systems. The method has been developed drawing figures of terrestrial isopods and some examples are here given.

ABSTRACT. A large collection of terrestrial isopods from different Brazilian regions was examined. Two new species of Amazoniscus Lemos de Castro, 1967 (Scleropactidae) are described: A. zimmeri Campos-Filho, Montesanto & Araujo sp. nov. from the state of Pará and A. schmidti Campos-Filho, Montesanto & Taiti sp. nov. from the state of Minas Gerais. Pseudotyphloscia alba (Dollfus, 1898) (Philosciidae) is firstly recorded from Brazil. The systematic position of Venezillo tuberosus (Budde-Lund, 1904) is discussed and transferred to Ctenorillo Verhoeff, 1942. Androdeloscia lejeunei (Lemos de Castro & Souza, 1986) and Diploexochus echinatus Brandt, 1833 from the state of Pará, are redescribed.

In a recent paper (2015) I proposed a method to draw accurate line drawings for taxonomic studies, using taxa from Oniscidea. To complement that work, this short communication proposes a free-hand way to quickly draw areas with small setae or hairs, such as in penicils of mouth parts. Th is method enhances the previous drawing procedure, it takes a brief practice time, and allows a bett er quality of scientifi c illustrations.

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The diversity of Oniscidean isopods was studied in Vendicari, a protected area in southeastern Sicily characterized by salty ponds separated from the sea by narrow bands of land. Samples were collected in pitfall traps placed in transects from the coastline to the ponds and from the ponds inland. Twenty-three species were identified, only seven of which were present at all sampling sites. Shannon's diversity and Pielou's evenness indices revealed higher values in the spring and autumn; activity indices were also calculated for each species for all months of the year. Similarity among sampling sites was evaluated qualitatively with Jaccard's index and quantitatively with Sørensen's index. The ponds seem to play the same role as the seacoasts regarding species zonation.

In the broader context of research on the Sicilian Porcellio imbutus-complex, the postmarsupial development of Porcellio siculoccidentalis Viglianisi, Lombardo & Caruso, 1992 was studied in detail. This research was conducted in the laboratory under controlled conditions, allowing us to follow the stages of development, from the formation of the marsupium in ovigerous females until the larval stages and development of the seventh pair of legs. The timing of developmental stages and the morphological modifications of appendages in the postmarsupial manca stages (M I–M III) are described. The manca stage M I had a duration of about one hour. Ovigerous females were collected and reared separately, and the number of parturial molts in the absence of males was counted. The results showed a maximum of four successive parturial molts. Fecundity and fertility were evaluated as the number of eggs and embryos, respectively, inside the marsupium of the ovigerous females. Both parameters were positively correlated with the size of the females. The maximum numbers of eggs and embryos in the marsupium were 113 and 141, respectively. Data describing the total number of postmarsupial mancas released per month indicated that the highest release occurred in April.

The capability of producing sounds and vibrations is well known in insects and is thought to be a form of intra-and interspecific communication. Sounds and vibrations are used and modulated for several aims such as interacting with conspecifics, getting information from the environment, and defending against predators. This phenomenon is less known but also present in other arthropods, including a few roller-type terrestrial isopods. In this study, we used a Y-shape test apparatus to investigate the behavior of adult individuals of Armadillo officinalis Duméril, 1816 (Crustacea: Isopoda: Oniscidea) when exposed to two particular vibrational stimuli, namely species-specific stridulations and non-specific substrate-borne vibrations. Our results showed that adults of A. officinalis significantly react to the presence of both types of vibrational stimuli, by moving away from the vibrational source as if they experienced these vibrations as a sign of danger or disturbance. A. officinalis can produce stridulations only when it rolls into a ball during the so-called conglobation, a possible defense mechanism against predators. Stridulation might thus be a secondary form of defense used during conglobation to deter a predator following contact with it and might be experienced as an alert by conspecifics nearby. The high sensitivity to non-specific substrate-borne vibrations might provide A. officinalis with the possibility to anticipate dangers and adverse conditions, giving it a better chance of survival.

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