Presented research aimed at investigating the effect of short-term contact with petroleum-derived substances (PDSs) on life parameters of
Porcellio scaber
Latr. (Isopoda) and accumulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in its body. The influence of presence of
P. scaber
on the total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) content in soil was also determined. The following objects were established: control—unpolluted soil; soil polluted with petrol; soil polluted with diesel fuel and soil polluted with used engine oil. Every pollutant was used in the amounts equal to 6000 mg of fuel/kg d.m. of soil 15 months earlier. In the laboratory, survival and body mass change of
P. scaber
reared in investigated soils were observed. The delivered food was not contaminated with PDSs.
P. scaber
reveals a considerable resistance in a short (4 weeks) contact with PDSs, evidenced as high survivability (from 68% on the soil polluted with engine oil to 77% on the soil polluted with diesel fuel) and undisturbed increase in body mass (on the level similar to control). It indicates the potential usefulness of this animal as a monitoring organism. No positive correlation was observed between TPH depletion in the soils contaminated with PDSs and
P. scaber
presence during 4 weeks of the experiment. PAH level in
P. scaber
bodies was generally very low (with the highest level of anthracene 0.40 μg/g of wet mass—after 4 weeks of rearing on the diesel fuel–contaminated soil), which may confirm the thesis about considerable abilities of isopods for biotransformation of these pollutants and low susceptibility to these xenobiotic penetration through integuments. However, a tendency for accumulation for phenanthrene and anthracene in conditions of soil polluted with diesel fuel was observed respectively 0.07 and 0.21 μg/g of wet mass for phenanthrene and 0.22 and 0.40 μg/g of wet mass for anthracene, observed successively in the 2nd and 4th week of rearing.