Friday, July 10, 2015

Young Pillbugs

A few days ago a couple small explosions of tiny white bugs appeared. Zooming in shows what appear to be hundreds of tiny Pillbugs (Armadillidium vulgare, roly-polies : )! Action begins approximately 9 seconds in.

According to this article these young crustaceans have already spent 10 to 14 weeks riding around in the pouch of a female Pillbug. I wonder if we could look back at previous video and identify any of them?

The area represented in the video is approximately ~8.1cm x 4.5cm (3.2" x 1.8"). This puts the young Pillbugs at ~1.5mm (1/16") in length.

Most of the Pillbugs quickly disperse beyond the viewable area within a few seconds. A few slow down and some can be seen feeding, or being fed on.

So much happening in such little space, so much more happening that's barely visible, and I can only begin to imagine how much is going on that isn't visible at all at this level.

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