Contrary to popular belief, roly-polies are not even technically bugs. But they do play an important role in ecosystems. Roly-poly bugs are actually crustaceans. Their job in ecosystems is to decompose materials from dead plants and animals. Even though their name implies that these little guys are bugs, they're not actually insects, but crustaceans. They're in the isopod meaning same pod or foot family and have seven pairs of legs that are all similar in size and shape.
Roly-poly bugs also have three main body parts — head, thorax and abdomen — as well as simple eyes, uropods, a pair of prominent antennae, gills and lunglike adaptations. As terrestrial creatures related to marine animals, they need moisture to survive but cannot live submerged in water. Female roly-poly bugs may have one to three broods of young per year.
When the eggs are formed, the female places them into a brood pouch where she may carry up to 50 eggs. In approximately two months, the young roly-polies emerge. They look like small roly-poly bugs, and if it is a species that can roll, it can do so at birth. These isopods molt up to a dozen times in their lifetime, and the average lifespan of a roly-poly is between two and five years. Roly-poly bugs have many unique adaptations. They have an exoskeleton with plates.
Pill bugs, sometimes also referred to as roly-pollies, primarily consume plant matter that is either decaying or is already dead and decomposed. Their preferred foods are soft decaying plants like grasses and leaves, but they may also eat mulch used in landscaping around the house.
Although pill bugs may infrequently eat garden or other plants around a home, they rarely do so to the extent they cause damage. Should a gardener see pill bugs in the garden and suspect them of damaging their plants, while that is possible, more likely it is a slug or some other garden pest doing the damage.
Pill bugs do have some rather peculiar feeding habits since they are known to eat their own feces, as well as feces from other animals. Additionally, sometimes pill bugs will feed on decomposing animal flesh. Pill bugs are also known to consume heavy metal deposits during their feeding activities in the soil, and during this process they may help remove soil deposits of metals such as copper, lead and zinc.
A number of other critters such as birds, toads, spiders, some wasp species, centipedes and millipedes prey upon pill bugs to help support their nutritional needs. These are called roly poly bugs Armadillidium vulgare , also known as pill bugs, wood lice, armadillo bugs or sow bugs. Although people refer to the roly polys as bugs, they are not insects. They have a head, thorax and abdomen but have seven pairs of legs. Insects have only three pairs of legs. They are found across most of the U.
In areas with freezing winters, they dig down into the soil to wait out the cold. Because they breathe through gill-like membranes at the rear of their abdomens, roly poly bugs require a constantly moist environment. Roly poly bugs breed in early spring. Instead, the female carries her eggs in a fluid-filled abdominal pouch until they hatch.
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