Painted woodlouse
The painted woodlouse is a shiny woodlouse with two rows of yellow blotches on its back, as if someone had painted it. It can be grey, brown or yellowish, but its head and tail end are always dark. It comes out at night to munch dead leaves.
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Fun facts
The mother carries her eggs and babies in a pouch full of liquid under her body, like a tiny built-in pond.
It is busy at night and hides during the day.
Some people keep it as a pet, because it comes in so many colours.
Even though it lives on land, a woodlouse is not an insect. It is related to crabs and shrimps.
Most asked questions about Painted woodlouse
?What does the painted woodlouse eat?
Dead leaves, twigs and bark. It is one of nature's recyclers.
?How big is a painted woodlouse?
About 10 to 15 millimetres long.
?Is a woodlouse an insect?
No. It has 14 legs and is related to crabs and shrimps.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Porcellio spinicornis
- Named by
- Say, 1818
- Group
- Woodlice
- Family
- Porcellionidae
- Classification
- Malacostraca > Isopoda > Porcellionidae
- Lives on
- Europe, North America
Where the facts come from
- Porcellio spinicornis (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 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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