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Pill bugs in the family Armadillidiidae are able to form their bodies into a ball shape, in a process known as conglobation. Conglobation has evolved independently in several families; this behaviour is shared with pill millipedes (which are often confused with pill bugs), [ 7 ] armadillos , cuckoo wasps , and some extinct trilobites . [ 8 ]
Armadillidium (/ ɑːr m ə d ɪ ˈ l ɪ d i ə m /) is a genus of the small terrestrial crustacean known as the woodlouse. Armadillidium are also commonly known as pill woodlice, leg pebbles, pill bugs, roly-poly, or potato bugs, and are often confused with pill millipedes such as Glomeris marginata.
Additionally, pill bugs have a thorax consisting of 7 body segments, 5 abdominal segments, and a pleotelson, while Glomeris millipedes lack a visually defined thorax and have 12 body segments total. While the uropods of pillbugs are relatively quite small, flipping a pill bug over will reveal the small uropod overlapping the pleotelson. [41]
Armadillidium vulgare, the common pill-bug, potato bug, common pill woodlouse, roly-poly, slater, doodle bug, or carpenter, is a widespread European species of woodlouse. It is the most extensively investigated terrestrial isopod species. [ 2 ]
The giant isopods are noted for their resemblance to the much smaller common woodlouse (pill bug), to which they are related. [3] French zoologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards was the first [4] to describe the genus in 1879 [5] after his colleague Alexander Agassiz collected a juvenile male B. giganteus from the Gulf of Mexico.
Armadillidium nasatum, the nosy pill woodlouse, is a large, Western European-based species of woodlouse that has been introduced to North America, along with Armadillidium vulgare also found in other parts of Europe.
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Pill bugs and pill millipedes have evolved not only identical defenses, but are even difficult tell apart at a glance. [143] There is also a large ocean version: the giant isopod. [144] Silk: spiders, silk moths, larval caddis flies, and the weaver ant all produce silken threads. [145]