Roly Polies, Sow Bugs, Wood Lice, or What?

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

If you’re like me, you probably remember as a child picking up those little gray bugs with lots of legs and watching them roll into a ball.

Roly-polies, right?

Yeah, yeah, that’s what I called them.

But the funny thing is that one of our listeners, Lindsay Klaus, says she grew up calling them bowling ball bugs.

Bowling ball bugs.

Isn’t that great?

That’s a natural word, right?

Yeah, it is.

Of course.

It is.

But she thought that maybe her father made that up because that was the only place that she’d ever heard it.

So like anybody with a language question, Lindsay went to our Facebook page and asked what other names people use for these bugs.

And boy, did she get an earful.

Who knew there were so many names for those little creatures?

I had no idea.

I’ve never heard of sow bug, but Dirk says that they call them that in California.

S-O-W?

Yeah.

They have something to do with pigs?

I don’t know.

I don’t know.

And a fellow calling himself Oso-Walman.

Oso says that he calls them dillo seeds, which I guess is short for armadillo, right?

Oh, that would make sense.

That would make sense because the scientific name for these little creatures is Armadillidae vulgaris.

Because they look like tiny armadillos.

Yeah, but we also saw the names Wood Lice and Basketball Bug and Chiggy Pig.

There are just so many names for that one.

Pill Bug, let’s not forget that.

Let’s not forget Pill Bug.

That’s a common one.

Oh, there was such a long list of them.

And Grant, I tell you, I did not know until after we were talking about this on the Facebook page that there is a scientific word for what those little bugs do when they roll up.

When they protect the soft parts, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They just roll into those little bowling ball looking things.

What is it?

There’s a word for that.

The word for that is conglobulation.

Conglobulation.

Thank you.

Happy birthday.

There are mornings when I feel like conglobulating.

Yes.

Conglobulating.

I love that.

So armadillos, pangolins, which is a scaly anteater, and roly polies.

They all do this.

They all conglobulate.

Who knew?

Well, I love the fact that we have so many common names for common creatures, right?

These insects which are spread across the world, you’re drawn to them, right?

They’re the gateway drug to being an entomologist.

Or etymologist, yeah.

Give us a call, 877-929-9673.

Tell us about what you call the insects, where you’re from, or anything at all.

And send in an email to words@waywordradio.org.