Re: Re: pillbugs
From: Dennis Kramb <dkramb@badbear.com>
>From: Bill Shear <BILLS@hsc.edu>
>
>Pillbugs are crustaceans, related to shrimp and lobsters. They are members
>of the order Isopoda, about the only group of really diverse and successful
>terrestrial crustaceans.
So are they good sauteed in butter? <g!>
>Isopods eat dead or decaying plant matter, and except for a few tropical
>forms, are not considered plant pests. But some people are disturbed by
>their numbers, which can build up quickly in favorable conditions.
They LOVE setting up home in my pots & containers which are scattered
throughout the backyard. And they are always under rocks & stuff too.
(Better them than rattlesnakes though!)
>I don't think any of our species have "color-coded" males and females.
Thanks for bursting my (childhood) bubble. <g!> just kidding!
>complete, at which time they can mate. Another name for them is "sow-bug"
>because the young develop and are carried in a pouch under the female's
>body and bear a fancied resemblance to piglets suckling a sow.
Fact is stranger than fiction! I grew up calling them pill-bugs,
rolly-pollys (roley-poleys?), and sow-bugs....but never knew why they had
those names (except for rollie-pollies, that one was obvious...however it's
spelled).
Dennis Kramb; dkramb@badbear.com
Cincinnati, Ohio USA; USDA Zone 6; AIS Region 6
member of AIS, ASI, HIPS, SIGNA, SLI, & Miami Valley Iris Society
primary interests: ABs, REBs, LAs, Native SPEC and SPEC-X hybrids
(my gardening URL: http://www.badbear.com/dkramb/home.html)
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