Painted pill woodlouse
The painted pill woodlouse is a small woodlouse that lives in forests. It is dark, with pale speckles arranged in lines along its back. It is a pill woodlouse, so it can roll itself up into a tight little ball.
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Fun facts
It sometimes climbs several metres up a tree and hides under loose bark or in holes in rotting wood.
In Britain it is found in only a few places, so some people call it Britain's rarest woodlouse.
It looks very much like a close cousin, but it is a little darker and a little bigger, up to 9 millimetres long.
Most asked questions about Painted pill woodlouse
?What does the painted pill woodlouse eat?
Dead leaves and rotting wood in the forest.
?How big is the painted pill woodlouse?
Up to about 9 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Armadillidium pictum
- Group
- Woodlice
- Family
- Armadillidiidae
- Classification
- Malacostraca > Isopoda > Armadillidiidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Armadillidium pictum (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Gilles San Martin. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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