100 Species #28: Pill bug

[urbpan]

There are nearly 200 species of pill bug, but in the absence of any smarty-pants to tell me otherwise, these are probably Armadillidium vulgare, found under the same rock with the flat-backed millipede.

Pill bugs are those woodlice with the ability to roll up into a ball to defend themselves. Pill bugs and other woodlice are harmless terrestrial crustaceans that feed on fungi and fungus-affected plant material. Occasionally this includes water-damaged wood indoors, which accounts for the times that these creatures and their specialized predators are found in buildings.

This animal is noteworthy in human culture for its ability to generate common names and discussions about them.

The pill bug was previously encountered on this blog as 365 Urban Species #152, and also I wrote a paper about the woodlouse suborder, Oniscidea.

Comments

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Dude. Most comments I ever got on a post, I swear, was the what-do-you-call-the-little-bugs-that-roll-up-in-a-ball post.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

That's saying something! You routinely get a hundred comments per post.

[shellynoir.livejournal.com]

This woman breeds them at home for rare colors

http://www.sylvanusservices.com/resources/Woodlice_Info.pdf

[mandy-moon.livejournal.com]

Isopods! I love them. I just went back and reread the post where you ask what people call them, and found that you'd never seen them up until a trip to San Francisco and then Easter Island. I was shocked. I thought the same thing as you- "What gives?" I couldn't imagine how someone in New England could have never encountered one for the first few decades of his life, especially someone like you, who flips over rocks all the time. It's not a rural/urban thing either, since I've seen them regularly all growing up.

But it reminds me how I've come across several "new" species in Georgia that I'd never seen before in my life, even though Massachusetts is definitely in their range. I guess sometimes you beat all the odds by not having seen a particular species before.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

It's still a mystery to me. Just the pillbug kind, not regular non-rolling isopods, which I was very familiar with. Your latest posts have been really fun additions to the Russian spam desert that LJ has become. Thanks for keeping up with it!

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

I'm fond of them. And speaking of their common names Northern Irish people call them slaters. We don't have a nickname for them in the South that I'm aware of.