| Pill Bug (Armadillidium vulgare (Latreille, 1804)) |
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Scientific name: Armadillidium vulgare (Latreille, 1804) Common name: Pill Bug French name: Armadille vulgaire Order: Isopoda Family: Armadillidiidae Size: 15mm (can reach 21mm in the Mediterranean regions). Habitat : Needs constant moisture. Food: Decaying plants, rotting wood. Reproduction : Females carry eggs and babies inside a brood pouch located under the body. There are one or two broods of several hundred of eggs every summer. Geographic area: This species have originated in the eastern Mediterranean area. Humans have introduced it into many other countries. It prefers dry and sunny climates. |
Males are a uniform grey colour. Females are paler and marbled. The scutellum is not projecting above the head. The Pill bug is used to rolling into a ball when disturbed. You can distinguish it from Armadillidium nasatum and from Armadillidium depressum by the fact that these last ones do not form a complete ball (there is a remaining space gap) when they are rolled up. There is a possible confusion with Glomeris marginata, which is a millipede. You can differentiate them by the number of legs (7 pairs for the Pill Bug like all other woodlice), and by the size of the last segments (the very last segment is larger than the previous ones on Glomeris). |
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I have identified this Pill Bug form Glomeris by looking at the last segments of the body. |
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Here is a Pill Bug climbing on the foliage. |
André Bon August 2011