2/27/2012
Found these little guys underneath an old frisbee if you'll believe that. They were all clustered on some pinestraw when I flipped it over and so I scooped them up onto the frisbee to get some pictures.
When I was a kid we used to play with them and call them roly polys.
They're small armadillo-like insects with 14 legs. They have 8 armor-like places across their back and two segmented antennae poking out from the front of their shells. each is only about a centimeter long and a half centimeter wide. They get their name from when they are startled, they roll up into a ball and completely protect themselves and their fragile underbellies with their outer armor.
^^ found this link describing and explaining the insect. They are also referred to as pillbugs.
"In the United States, sowbugs and pillbugs may be found in and around homes wherever there is a combination of excessive moisture and an abundance of decaying organic matter. The majority of isopods are aquatic forms, and obtain their oxygen through gills, but the sowbugs and pillbugs breathe by means of tubelike invaginations or pseudotracheae, enabling them to live on land. However, the pseudotracheae open to the exterior by a single pore which lacks the spiracular closing device possessed by other arthropods. Some respiration also takes place through the integument of the body"
(see picture to the right) It's definitely a pill bug, I have seen these before however. The specimen I found did not have bent antennae like the sowbug and they also did not have the uropod extending from the backside. Another obvious feature was the fact that the pillbugs I found rolled up into a solid ball with no visible head or legs.
The best identification I can apply is the genus Armadillidium. There are 178 species in the genus and a majority of them do not have any resources on the internet to assist me in correctly identifying the genus AND species. I'm fairly certain, however, that I'm correct in my choice of genus.
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