Giant canyon woodlouse
Porcellio dilatatus
The giant canyon woodlouse is a brown, striped woodlouse. Like all woodlice it has lots of little legs and a hard, bumpy back. It helps clean up by eating rotting plants.
Fun fact: woodlice are not insects. They are crustaceans, cousins of crabs and shrimps, that live on land.
Lives in
Europe, and it was carried to North America, often in greenhouses and flower pots
Length
1.5 cm (0.59 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
It eats rotting plant bits and other old, decaying stuff.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🍚as long as 2.5 grains of rice in a row🦶it has about 14 legs🍽️could run across a dinner table in 21 seconds
How big is Giant canyon woodlouse compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
Giant canyon woodlouse about 0.17 km/h (0.11 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
People call it a house pest because it turns up in greenhouses, seed boxes and flower pots.
2
It is not an insect. Woodlice are related to crabs and shrimps.
3
There are five different kinds of it in different places.
you asked
Most asked questions about Giant canyon woodlouse
?Is the giant canyon woodlouse harmful?
No. It is harmless to people, but it can nibble young plants in greenhouses and pots.
?How big is the giant canyon woodlouse?
It is about 1.5 cm long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Porcellio dilatatus
- Named by
- Brandt, 1833
- Group
- Woodlice
- Family
- Porcellionidae
- Classification
- Malacostraca > Isopoda > Porcellionidae
- Lives on
- Europe, North America
- Also known as
- Giant canyon isopod
Where the facts come from
- Porcellio dilatatus (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 This image is created by user Arp at Waarneming.nl , a source of nature observations in the Netherlands.. CC0, 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.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
Common pill bug
Tongue-eating louse
Giant isopod
Sea slater
Common rough woodlouse
Wharf roach
Footman moth
Common crevice-cricket
Bird nest carpet beetle
Fringed larder beetle
Civic meshweaver
Wandering house cobweaver