Insect Picture of the Day

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A hundred tons of armored devastation! That is what this critter would be if it, well, if it weighed a hundred tons, I guess. This little critter is actually less than 5mm long.

Playing with a sowbugs is a quintessential component of childhood: when you pick them up they roll into a little ball. They have many nicknames, such as pill bugs, potato bugs, and “roly polies”. They belong to order isopoda, which means “balanced foot”, and family Oniscidea, or wood lice.

A few species of Oniscidea may damage garden plants, but by and large they are content to mulch dead leaves in the soil, and are generally considered beneficial–and that’s not counting the cool roly poly factor.

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This little bug really worked the macro feature on my camera as hard as possible. I noticed I had a gnat on my hand after taking some photos down in the grass, and took a picture of it.

Turns out it’s not a gnat at all, but a bark louse. Bark lice are not part of order mallophaga, or chewing lice, which means this little critter was not interested in my hand (or hair) as a food source or nesting site. I think it was just taking a rest. When you’re that small, the world is a very big place!