the.com/sowbug
the crustacean that quit the ocean to haunt your damp basement instead
means A small, flat, oval land crustacean (an isopod) with a segmented gray shell that lives in damp places like soil, leaf litter, and basements, feeding on decaying plant matter.
from A plain English compound of 'sow' (the female pig) and 'bug,' likely from the way these little armored creatures cluster and root about in moist debris like miniature swine. The 'bug' part is a misnomer of habit rather than biology — sowbugs aren't insects at all but crustaceans, kin to crabs and shrimp, which makes the seaside relatives in the essence quite literally true. Closely related to the pillbug or 'woodlouse,' and sharing the folk fondness for naming small crawling things after barnyard animals.
- not insect
- It's a crustacean, kin to crabs and shrimp
- gill breather
- Breathes through gills, needs moisture to survive
- blue blood
- Its blood runs blue from copper-based hemocyanin
- can't roll
- Unlike pillbugs, sowbugs cannot curl into a ball
- soil hero
- Eats decay and recycles dead plants into dirt
porcellio scaber — common rough woodlouse species found worldwide in gardens and under logs
armadillidium vulgare — pill bug that can roll into a ball, native to mediterranean region
ligia oceanica — sea slater sowbug living on rocky shores of atlantic coasts