Sea-slater
Ligia dilatata
Eats: Leftovers and dead thingsWoodlicePonds, rivers and shores14 legsNot an insect, but a bug cousin
The sea-slater is a big woodlouse that lives on the seashore. It has large bulging eyes and long feelers. Lots of them gather together on piles of seaweed washed up on the beach.
Fun fact: woodlice are not insects. They are crustaceans, cousins of crabs and shrimps, that live on land.
Lives in
Rocky shores of southern Africa
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
It feasts on big kelp seaweed that the waves wash up onto the shore.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
Sea-slater 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
Huge crowds of sea-slaters gather on washed-up kelp to eat it.
2
It lives for about 2 years.
3
It grows slowly in summer but faster in winter, when there is more seaweed to eat.
4
Its feelers are so long that they reach the end of the front part of its body.
you asked
Most asked questions about Sea-slater
?What does a sea-slater eat?
It eats kelp seaweed that is washed up on the beach.
?Is the sea-slater dangerous?
No. It is a harmless seashore woodlouse.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Ligia dilatata
- Group
- Woodlice
- Family
- Ligiidae
- Classification
- Malacostraca > Isopoda > Ligiidae
- Lives on
- Africa
Where the facts come from
- Ligia dilatata (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 Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE. CC BY-SA 2.0, 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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