Ratzeburg's woodlouse
Trachelipus ratzeburgii
Ratzeburg's woodlouse is a little grey armoured crawler with fourteen legs. It is not an insect at all. It is a cousin of crabs and shrimps that lives on land.
Fun fact: woodlice are not insects. They are crustaceans, cousins of crabs and shrimps, that live on land.
Lives in
Much of Europe, including Estonia and the other Baltic states
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Woodlice cannot bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
Like other woodlice, it eats dead leaves and rotting plant bits, and helps turn them back into soil.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
Ratzeburg's woodlouse about 0.15 km/h (0.09 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It lives in many European countries, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
2
It is found in Scandinavia too, but not in Finland.
3
Scientists split it into three subspecies that live in different places.
you asked
Most asked questions about Ratzeburg's woodlouse
?Is a woodlouse an insect?
No. Woodlice are crustaceans, cousins of crabs and shrimps. Insects have six legs, and a woodlouse has fourteen.
?Does Ratzeburg's woodlouse live in Estonia?
Yes. It lives in the Baltic states, which include Estonia.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Trachelipus ratzeburgii
- Named by
- Brandt, 1833
- Group
- Woodlice
- Family
- Trachelipodidae
- Classification
- Malacostraca > Isopoda > Trachelipodidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Trachelipus ratzeburgii (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 Marino Linić. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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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