Today’s Eye is looking at the roly-poly. Maw Maw and I decided that we know the following things about them: they roll up when you touch them, you just have to look in the dirt to find them and they never have “got on” anybody before.

Here’s what I learned from going outside and meeting them personally:

some are colorful

some are small

they have bad days too

And some fascinating facts from folks (online):

  • They’ve got seven pairs of legs.
  • They carry their babies in a pouch called a marsupium.
  • It takes them about a year to mature.
  • They are primarily nocturnal.
  • They are very useful decomposers.
  • And probably the most shocking fact…they are not “bugs” (insects) but are crustaceans, like crawfish.
The segmented plates of the crawfish closely resemble the ‘poly’s plates.

And if you’re in need of a chuckle, and in case roly-poly isn’t a funny enough name for this non-bug crustacean, Wikipedia has a great list of names of the woodlouse family, including “carpet shrimp”, “cheeselog” and “parson’s pig”.