First Grade
Worksheets
Pill Bugs
You may have played with a pill bug. Some people call it a roly-poly. Some people call them potato bugs or wood lice. A pill bug is about the same size and shape as a jelly bean. It is flat on the bottom. The pill bug is not a pill or a bug. Pill bugs have fourteen legs. Insects have three main body segments and six legs.
A pill bug has seven segments or parts. Each segment has a pair of legs. If you touch a pill bug, it rolls up into a ball or "pill" to protect itself. It covers up the soft underside of its body. That is how pill bugs got their name. But pill bugs are not "bugs" or insects. They are crustaceans. Crustaceans are a group of animals like shrimp, lobsters, and crayfish (or "crawdads"). Most crustaceans live in water. Pill bugs have found a way to live on land.
