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INTRODUCTION
Isopods (singular Isopoda) are a type of crustacean that are found on land or in the seas.
The terrestrial isopods are mostly found in cool moist places on land while the aquatic species
which are the majority are found in the bottom of freshwater bodies or on seabed’s. Terrestrial
isopods are commonly known as pill bugs or sow bugs. Similar to their aquatic relatives they
breath with gills. Despite their similarities they have different defense mechanisms, sow bugs
will normally try to flee while pill bugs roll themselves into a ball as a defense mechanism or for
conservation of moisture.
PH is the measure of the hydrogen ions concentration in an aqueous solution on a
numeric basis to specify the acidity or basicity of the solution. The use of pH. indicators has for a
long time helped in obtaining of information in various fields therefore the use of bioindicators
in our case is very helpful in learning and understanding the preferences of terrestrial isopods.
However, it is risky to rely on bioindicators entirely, just because a certain species is in acidic
soil it does not mean it is acidophilus or the reverse whereby an acidophilus species is found in a
certain soil it does not necessarily mean the soil is acidic. Laboratory experiments will therefore
be very helpful in minimizing the risk of wrong conclusions because the allow independent
assessment of the species.
In response to the environmental changes terrestrial isopods have shown different trends
that are related with their behavior, physiology and ecology. For example, for the isopods that
are from the arid or semi-arid regions, they are hydrokinetic at low humidifies and do not
respond well to photoreaction at lower temperatures (SASKA, PAVEL). They are also
negatively thermoactivated, meaning they are inactive in places of high temperatures. The
change in soil pH. brought about by use of fertilizers has shown to cause a great change in the
