STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

SEA SLATER - Meet the giant woodlouse that can only survive in the damp zone between land and sea

- Nick Baker

I have a childhood seaside memory of my first one – a monster of a thing scuttling over a crumbling sea wall. It resembled the woodlice found under the stones in my parents’ rockery, but this one was so big I could see its twinkling compound eyes with ease. Was it a freak of nature? Gigantism in a crustacean? Nope, this animal, at up to 3cm long (without the antennae!), was a sea slater (Ligia oceanica), the UK’s largest woodlouse.

The sea slater doesn’t turn up in the average garden compost heap or under a woodland log, because it’s a specialist of rocky coastal locations. Still, it is relatively widespread in the UK, living under boulders, cliffs and rip-rap (human-placed rocks that prevent erosion). If you’re planning a late-summer trip to the beach, it’s well worth looking out for them.