Most isopods, including pill bugs, have 7 pairs of legs. Utilizing pleopodal lungs creates a permanent respiratory constraint on land. Scientists discovered crustaceans successfully adapted to dry ...

When pill bugs roll into a tiny ball, the act looks far simpler than it actually is. Known as conglobation, a pill bugs’ “ball” involves a full-body engineering trick designed to protect them from ...

Mary Jo DiLonardo has worked in print, online, and broadcast journalism for 25 years and covers nature, health, science, and animals. The roly-poly, or pill bug, is a terrestrial crustacean that looks ...

Most people assume that pill bugs, which are more colloquially referred to as ‘roly polies,’ are insects. But while you might find these little critters hanging out under rocks with other bugs, they ...

Most people first notice pill bugs while lifting a flowerpot or turning over a log, then watching small gray roly polies curl into tight balls. Because they share space with ants and beetles, many ...

Conglobation protects certain pill bugs and also helps them retain moisture. Some predators have adapted to have specialized mouthparts that overcome this armored sphere defense. When pill bugs roll ...