Common pill-bug

Armadillidium vulgare · The common pill-bug is a small terrestrial woodlouse native to Mediterranean Europe but now naturalized almost worldwide.

Also called Common pill woodlouse, Carpenter, Doodle bug, Potato bug, Rolly-polly.

Common pill-bug
Photo: Franco Folini, CC BY 2.5
Common pill-bug
Photo: Magnefl, CC BY-SA 4.0
Common pill-bug
Photo: SentienceIsAnIllusion, CC BY-SA 4.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumArthropoda
ClassMalacostraca
OrderIsopoda
FamilyArmadillidiidae
GenusArmadillidium
SpeciesArmadillidium vulgare

Where it lives

Gardens and grasslands; native to the Mediterranean, now nearly worldwide.

Fun facts

  • In North America these little crustaceans can pack together at densities of up to 10,000 individuals per square metre.
  • A single female can raise up to 40 babies per brood and produce as many as 3 broods in one season.
  • Its mitochondrial DNA is unusually huge, 42 kB and partly circular, partly linear, compared to the tidy 15-17 kB loop most crustaceans carry.
  • When truly desperate, it will play dead completely motionless, hoping a hungry predator loses interest.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).