Velvety pill woodlouse
Eluma caelata
The velvety pill woodlouse is a small, dark brown woodlouse with a rounded back. Its shell is covered with tiny dots. Each of its eyes is just one big lens, which makes it different from its cousins.
Fun fact: woodlice are not insects. They are crustaceans, cousins of crabs and shrimps, that live on land.
Lives in
Western Europe and north-western Africa
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a small woodlouse that cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Like other woodlice, it eats rotting leaves and other dead plant bits.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
Velvety pill 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
Scientists first put it in the same group as the common pill woodlice, then moved it to a group of its own.
2
The last part of its body is shaped like a triangle.
3
People have carried it by accident to faraway places, such as French Guiana in South America.
you asked
Most asked questions about Velvety pill woodlouse
?Is the velvety pill woodlouse dangerous?
No. It is a small woodlouse that cannot bite or sting.
?Where does the velvety pill woodlouse live?
In western Europe and north-western Africa, and it has also been carried to places like French Guiana.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Eluma caelata
- Group
- Woodlice
- Family
- Armadillidiidae
- Classification
- Malacostraca > Isopoda > Armadillidiidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, South America
Where the facts come from
- Eluma caelata (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 De Smedt P, Boerave P, Arijs G, Segers S (2018) Woodlice of Belgium: an annotated checklist and bibliography (Isopoda, Oniscidea). In: Hornung E, Taiti S, Szlav. CC BY 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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