Smooth slater
Porcellio laevis Latreille, 1804
Status not recordedcrustaceans
The smooth slater (Porcellio laevis) is a species in the family Porcellionidae, order Isopoda.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the smooth slater
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Resting metabolic rate
- 0.252 mW – 0.331 mW
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the smooth slater live?
Not recorded
Where has it been introduced?
The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the smooth slater as introduced in 8 countries, and flagged as invasive in 1 of them.
- Canary Islandsinvasive
- Brazil
- Ecuador
- Germany
- Japan
- South Africa
- Spain
- United States
Introduced means brought by people and now present; invasive means the country's checklist records an impact. A species can be native to one part of a country and introduced in another. Source: Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (CC BY 4.0).
Is the smooth slater endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the smooth slater classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classMalacostraca
- orderIsopoda
- familyPorcellionidae
- genusPorcellio
- SpeciesPorcellio laevis Latreille, 1804
Synonyms Porcellio aztecus, Porcellio bombosus, Porcellio calmani, Porcellio chevalieri, Porcellio cinerascens, Porcellio cotillae, Porcellio cubensis, Porcellio degeeri, Porcellio dubius, Porcellio eucercus, Porcellio flavipes, Porcellio imbutus trinacrius, Porcellio laevis, Porcellio laevis flavovirescens, Porcellio laevis longicauda, Porcellio laevis maculatus, Porcellio laevis trinacrius, Porcellio laevis var. flavovirescens, Porcellio laevis var. maculatus, Porcellio mexicanus, Porcellio obtrusifrons, Porcellio obtusifrons, Porcellio ovatus, Porcellio parvicornis, Porcellio poeyi, Porcellio ragusae, Porcellio sumichrasti, Porcellio troschelii, Porcellio urbicus
Other names and names in other languages (19)
- Dairy cow isopodEnglish
- Dooryard sowbugEnglish
- Smooth woodlouseEnglish
- Swift woodlouseEnglish
- Egte HoutluisAfrikaans
- Glat grå bænkebiderDanish
- Flinke LandasselGerman
- Cochinilla suaveSpanish
- Cloporte lisseFrench
- טחבית אפורהHebrew
- クマワラジムシJapanese
- 양쥐며느리Korean
- glattskrukketrollNorwegian Bokmål
- gladde pissebedDutch
- Gladde HoutluisAfrikaans
- Flinke KellerasselGerman
- Flinke KörnerasselGerman
- Cloporte lisse (Le)French
- Porcellion lisseFrench
Relatives of the smooth slater
Other species in the same genus Porcellio.

Common rough woodlouse
Porcellio scaber
Brickwork isopod
Porcellio spinicornis
Giant Spanish isopod
Porcellio expansus
Titan isopod
Porcellio hoffmannseggii
Yellow-bordered woodlouse
Porcellio flavomarginatus
High yellow isopod
Porcellio haasi
CompareSmooth slater vs Common rough woodlouseSmooth slater vs Brickwork isopodSmooth slater vs Giant Spanish isopodSmooth slater vs Titan isopod
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
Is the smooth slater an invasive species?
In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the smooth slater as invasive in 1 country: Canary Islands. It lists it as introduced in 8 in all.
What kind of animal is the smooth slater?
The smooth slater (Porcellio laevis) belongs to the family Porcellionidae in the order Isopoda.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-14. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AnimalTraits: a curated animal trait database for body mass, metabolic rate and brain size · CC0 1.0 · 1.0.7
Herberstein, M.E., McLean, D.J., Lowe, E. et al. (2022) AnimalTraits: a curated animal trait database for body mass, metabolic rate and brain size. Scientific Data 9: 265. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01364-9. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6468938 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI): interpreted data products · CC0 1.0 · 0.11
Poelen, J.H., Simons, J.D. & Mungall, C.J. (2014) Global Biotic Interactions: an open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics 24: 148–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2014.08.005. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22691479, with each record's original reference. - Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-11-13
Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group. - LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Shirey, V., Larsen, E., Doherty, A. et al. (2022) LepTraits 1.0: a globally comprehensive dataset of butterfly traits. Scientific Data 9: 382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01473-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.19874602.v1 - Northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits (raw datasets) · CC BY 4.0 · 2024-12-17
Logghe, G., Batsleer, F., Maes, D. et al. (2025) An in-depth dataset of northwestern European arthropod life histories and ecological traits. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e146785. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e146785. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13379714 - Palmer Archipelago penguin measurements (Palmer Station LTER) · CC0 1.0 · 0.1.0
Gorman, K.B., Williams, T.D. & Fraser, W.R. (2014) Ecological sexual dimorphism and environmental variability within a community of Antarctic penguins (genus Pygoscelis). PLoS ONE 9(3): e90081. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090081. Data: Palmer Station Antarctica LTER, via Horst, A.M., Hill, A.P. & Gorman, K.B. (2020) palmerpenguins. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3960218 - ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles · CC BY 4.0 · v1-2
Oskyrko, O., Mi, C., Meiri, S. et al. (2024) ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03079-5. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24572683.v4 - Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits · CC BY 4.0 · 1.0-2022-06-17
Mull, C.G., Pacoureau, N., Pardo, S.A. et al. (2022) Sharkipedia: a curated open access database of shark and ray life history traits and abundance time-series. Scientific Data 9: 559. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01655-1. Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6656525 - SquamBase 1.0 - a dataset of squamate species traits · CC0 1.0 · 1.0-dryad-v5
Meiri, S. (2024) SquamBase - a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography 33(4): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13812. Data: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.76hdr7t3b - TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe · CC BY 4.0 · 2.0
Chauvier, Y., Adde, A., Bergamini, A. et al. (2025) TraitCH: a multi-taxa functional trait dataset for Switzerland and Europe. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15063844 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision). - Sex-specific median life expectancies from ex situ populations for 330 animal species · CC BY 4.0 · 2018-07
Che-Castaldo, J.P., Byrne, A., Perišin, K. & Faust, L.J. (2019) Sex-specific median life expectancies from ex situ populations for 330 animal species. Scientific Data 6: 190019. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2019.19. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7539968.v1
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Smooth slater (Porcellio laevis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/smooth-slater
“Smooth slater (Porcellio laevis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/smooth-slater.
@misc{smooth_slater_2026,
title = {Smooth slater (Porcellio laevis)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/smooth-slater},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-14}
}