Sowbug killer
Dysdera crocata C. L. Koch, 1838
Status not recordedspiders
The sowbug killer (Dysdera crocata) is a species in the family Dysderidae, order Araneae. Recorded adults reach 1.5 cm in length. Source checklists list it for 6 countries, including Australia, Chile and Germany.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the sowbug killer
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- 9 mm – 1.5 cmsrc for Length
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Invertivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- forest, human_modified, rocky, wetlandsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)src for Active
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- 6 countriessrc for Countries on record
How big is the sowbug killer?
Where does the sowbug killer live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The sowbug killer is listed for 6 countries.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: WSC (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
Where has it been introduced?
The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the sowbug killer as introduced in 8 countries, and flagged as invasive in 1 of them.
- Canary Islandsinvasive
- Australia
- Austria
- Canada
- South Africa
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- 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 sowbug killer 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 sowbug killer classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classArachnida
- orderAraneae
- familyDysderidae
- genusDysdera
- SpeciesDysdera crocata C. L. Koch, 1838
Synonyms Dysdera australiensis, Dysdera caerulescens, Dysdera cretica, Dysdera crocota, Dysdera gracilis, Dysdera inaequuscapillata, Dysdera interrita, Dysdera magna, Dysdera maurusia, Dysdera menozzii, Dysdera palmensis, Dysdera rubicunda, Dysdera sternalis, Dysdera wollastoni
Other names and names in other languages (31)
- Dysderid spiderEnglish
- Long-fanged six-eyed spiderEnglish
- Pillbug hunterEnglish
- Slater spiderEnglish
- Sowbug spiderEnglish
- Woodhouse spiderEnglish
- Woodlouse hunterEnglish
- Woodlouse spiderEnglish
- Woodlouse spider [Dysdera crocata]English
- GrootkaakgrondspinnekopAfrikaans
- araña bermeyaAsturian
- šestiočka velkáCzech
- DjævleedderkopDanish
- Großer AsseljägerGerman
- Großer AsselfresserGerman
- Araña caza cochinillasSpanish
- Araña Cazadora de Bichos BolitaSpanish
- Diable rougeFrench
- Araignée des cloportesFrench
- Dysdère arméeFrench
- sárgás fojtópókHungarian
- イノシシグモJapanese
- 돼지거미Korean
- roodwitte celspinDutch
- komórczak okazałyPolish
- Aranha-TenazPortuguese
- Aranha-dos-bichos-de-contaPortuguese
- šesťočka veľkáSlovak
- Tespih Böceği AvcısıTurkish
- Tespih Böceği ÖrümceğiTurkish
- 野豬蛛Chinese
Relatives of the sowbug killer
Other species in the same genus Dysdera.
CompareSowbug killer vs Woodlouse spider [Dysdera erythrina]Sowbug killer vs Dysdera aberransSowbug killer vs Dysdera achaemenesSowbug killer vs Dysdera aciculata
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the sowbug killer?
An adult sowbug killer measures 9 mm – 1.5 cm long, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the sowbug killer live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the sowbug killer for 6 countries, including Australia, Chile, Germany, Greece and Libya. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the sowbug killer an invasive species?
In some places. The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species flags the sowbug killer as invasive in 1 country: Canary Islands. It lists it as introduced in 8 in all.
What kind of animal is the sowbug killer?
The sowbug killer (Dysdera crocata) belongs to the family Dysderidae in the order Araneae.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-13. How this page is put together.
- 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 - 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. - 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
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). Sowbug killer (Dysdera crocata). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/sowbug-killer
“Sowbug killer (Dysdera crocata).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/sowbug-killer.
@misc{sowbug_killer_2026,
title = {Sowbug killer (Dysdera crocata)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/sowbug-killer},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-13}
}