Did you know rolly pollies could be white? I've seen plenty of grey ones and even some that were grey with yellow spots but never white. Well, never until now. I don't know how rare these are but check out these crazy pics.
This little guy (or gal) was the same size as a full grown rolly polly. You could see just a little color from it's internal organs and the black of it's eyes.
Some sources say they are white after molting. However arthropods apparently don't normally molt all at once and this little guy was completely white. From the tip of it's antenna to the end of ever tiny leg and it's entire underbelly as well.
Things you might not know about rolly pollies:
They are also called pill bugs, wood sow, wood louse
They are not insects
They are arthropods
More specifically they are crustaceans
They are more closely related to lobsters than any insect
They can live 2 to 3 yrs
They carry their eggs in a pouch like a kangaroo and lay around 100 eggs at a time
They have 7 pairs of legs for a total of 14
Ok so there are some random facts for you about roll pollies. Do you have any rolly polly facts I left out? Do you know how rare my all white rolly polly is? I'd love to know more. Especially with all the unusually colored crustaceans turning up elsewhere it would be interesting to find out if my "pill bug" is another abnormality or just a natural part of it's life cycle.
As far as games go when using this for a lesson plan. I suggest just letting the kids loose in the yard with jars and let them catch all they can. Who didn't love doing that as a kid? You could do a snack to go with it of "ants on a log" and just call it rolly pollies on a log. I think raisins look more like rollie pollies than ants anyway.
I think they must be rare. Im 60 years old and didn't know they also came in white until I saw one this morning. Thats what led me here. I've been an out doors person and never knew white ones existed. They are pretty cool I think.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right. This was the first and only time we had ever seen one and my kids play with them all the time. Maybe it's a blessing.
ReplyDeleteI just found a white one for the first time too. That is also what brought me to this page. I've never seen one before. The one I found was dead and I initially thought maybe it had been painted. Although I haven't been paining. But it wasn't. So I wanted to see how rare they were. Seems like there are a lot of white animals (albino) and bugs turning up these days. Weird.
ReplyDeleteI found 7 white ones today! I had never seen a white one before-and I've been a roly poly enthusiast since I was 4! I'm assuming they must also have the genes to produce albinos. I have seen very light colored ones in yellow and red tones, but these guys definitely did not have any of the color pigmentation except, like mentioned above, for the eye spots and internal organs(probably digestive matter if I were to take a guess). I did find them all within about 12ft under different logs from each other. It completely mystified me, and I'm so glad that others have seen them too! I really am curious how rare they are though? There isn't much of nothing to be be found except this post, but I'll take it and appreciate the fact that I got to see something brand new(to me)!
ReplyDeleteWow! You found 7? That is incredible. Maybe you should go buy a lottery ticket, lol. I made this post seven years ago and it seems to be the only thing anyone can find when they search for white rolly pollies. I think that's a pretty good indication that they are very rare indeed.
ReplyDeleteMe also just found my first white one. Also the reason I'm here.
ReplyDeleteThere like 100 dollars on a bug market
DeleteFound one hiking with my son today! There is no info on Google, but I found this page too! I was trying to see if it was rare. Or maybe a symbol of some kind? Looks like we are the blessed ones! 🤍
ReplyDeleteAww, absolutely. I love that you looked it up to see if it was a sign of something. A blessing is a great way to look at it.
ReplyDeleteI found a small vase of mine filled with thousands of white rolly pollies! I feed them to my fish and I have no idea if they are rare or not.
ReplyDeleteWow! Really? They do indeed seem to be pretty rare. I've had this post up for several years and it seems to be the only mention of them people can find online. You can look above to get an idea of how often people are encountering them. If all of the ones in your vase are white I would think one of two things. Either they had a genetic mutation that occurred and through inbreeding due to such a small habitat they have passed that trait along throughout the population. Or possibly they are ill. Sometimes dead rolly pollies lose their color. It's possible if they are very sick and on the verge of death they may have lost their color.
ReplyDeleteI would love to know more about your rolly pollies. If you have the ability to make a video, I would welcome a link to it being posted here.
So my friend found one and thought that it wasn't rare so we were playing and just threw it because we were looking for European ground beetles so it sucks that it's rare because he collects bugs and pins them
ReplyDeleteI don’t think they’re rare - probably just more awareness because of the color. I have hundreds of them in my yard and garden.
ReplyDeleteYou have hundreds of white ones in your yard? If so I wonder if there is either a very dominant trait being passed around in your garden among them. Or your yard is lacking some sort of nutrient that they use to produce melanin. There is also the possibility that you found a large amount of unhealthy rolly pollys that were knocking on deaths door. It is also possible for them to turn white when they are dead or dying. There is definitely a different look to a healthy white one and one that has turned white due to health though.
ReplyDeleteI can assure you that in most areas where rolly pollys are prevalent, it is rare to find a white one. Over the 9 years that this blog post has been up I have received a handful of comments from people who have found them. They all immediately went online to find out more about them and this is the only relevant page that comes up in their searches. If white pill bugs were common there would be some more information online to help quell people's curiosity.
If your garden really is full of a healthy population of white rolly polly then you should consider documenting it and putting them on youtube. You are more than welcome to post a link to said video here. You'll be one of the only online sources regarding their existence and you might even find someone who would like to purchase a few specimens for research.
Guess I'm here for the same reason as everyone else. Found a group of white ones in central Texas
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Welcome to the strange rolly polly club. I made this post a while back and it seems like over the years people are finding more and more of them. Or at least they are finding them in larger and larger groups. It's very interesting.
ReplyDeleteSouthern California here. My search led me to this page. My 3 year old is really into catching them. We have hundreds of them in our yard. Tiny to fully grown. Anyone know why they are clear/white? We have the normal black and gray ones too.
ReplyDeleteI found a dead one all rolled up.
ReplyDeleteI have no albinos but some are so pale/diluted they have almost no pigment left, and a wide variety of oranges and browns and tans and creams and different spotting patterns even on the silvers and greys, and some are purple/blue-tinted because they are grey/red mixes, few blacks since I favor the light ones. But my pretty ones keep dying before fully grown so I wanted to see if this is actually a genetic color or a disease (or a slightly different species), but Google only wants to talk about the "blue virus" and pest-control.
ReplyDeleteAll of mine are always born pure-white and get their colors as they age, and they have a LOT of babies that outnumber the adults, so I suspect the people saying they saw hundreds/thousands of "albinos" were looking at juveniles. It is rare that they keep their "baby colors" into adulthood.
As for your flower pot issue, I don't know why the internet keeps saying they only eat dead wood and stuff. Mine do eat old dry leaves, tree bark, twigs, charcoal/burnt wood, cardboard, dead insects (and cocooned caterpillars ;.;), and raw potting soil, but they LOVE fresh clover, cornmeal, and live plants. They like cucumber peelings but not so much the cucumber part, and also eat flowers and birdseed (the corn kernels are their favorite). Molted skins are rare because they immediately eat them as soon as they come off. They absolutely love pine cones and hide in the little crannies like a bug parking garage and over time I have to find new ones because they slowly eat those too lol. They do eat dead stuff, but will always go for the live plants, fresh clover and cornmeal first (and specifically demand clovers, especially the large tall kind, and especially during the winter when I can't get any).
I love them so much! They're so calming for me that I use them for emotional support pets. I pick out three or four of my favorites and put them in a tiny jar with fresh clovers, take them along in my pocket to stressful appointments, and dump them back in the tank with everyone else when I come home. I love how they sleep in little group snuggle-piles and take so much interest in anything new that I put in for them. They remind me of tiny mice. I discovered they can carry things and it's so adorable when they try to pack off stuff bigger than they are, then have no idea where to put it. I could gush about them forever.
Wow! It sounds like you could write a book about them. I suspect you know more about them through your first hand observations than most entomologists. Thank you for taking the time to share so much interesting information about them.
ReplyDeleteI suspect you may be correct about the other commenter observing juveniles. That hadn't occurred to me.
I've seen grey ones and suspect that some of them as they become elderly lighten in color. Not turning all the way white but rather just getting a light grey color. Or perhaps those are the ones ready to molt. I've never seen the rainbow of colors you've seen though. That sounds amazing. I'd love to see pictures. If this is primarily in juveniles who do not reach adulthood then I think your hypotheses of it being a disease (perhaps even a fungal growth) is a logical conclusion.
I would encourage you to reach out to a local entomologist and possibly even bring your jar with a few for them to observe.
Today my 8 year old found a white rolly pollie. I’m 40 and have never ever seen such an astonishing discovery!
ReplyDeleteThey are pretty amazing. It feels like good luck or a good open when you find one.
ReplyDeleteI can’t believe there is not any info on them online. I was turning my compost of leaves the other day and there was a whole village of them in my bin. Like all of them. I was thinking maybe from a lack of sunlight.but i do know they are jusy having a little albino pill bug party in there. Haha!
ReplyDelete