Rulowsky

hey there! i’ve been picking up bugs since my childhood, and i was wondering, do the green spots on isopods indicate age or different species? i’ve found super small white isopods, normal sized gray ones, and rather large gray with green spots.

also your art is super cool, and i think you’re pretty cool too :)

Hmm depends what you mean by "green spots"?

I don't know where you live so I can't speak for everywhere, but on the east coast of the US and parts of the west coast, the two most common species of the guys that full on roll into a ball are. Armadillidium vulgare (left) and Armadillidium nasatum (right)

The easiest way to tell them apart is that  A. nasatum look kind of semi-translucent and they nearly always have the stripey pattern. A. vulgare are much more smooth and shiny by contrast, and their exoskeleton is opaque. A. vulgare also come in a pretty wide variety of colors and patterns. These are all wild types, the patterns are genetic and aren’t determined by age.

There are a few other widespread species that may or may not have spots, like the striped woodlouse and the common shiny woodlouse, but hard to say anything more specific without knowing location.

Adult isopods might look a tiny bit more pale right before a molt, the super tiny babies are born white, and iridiovirus makes them turn bright blue before they sadly die, but otherwise unless I’m missing some other isopod-specific disease, if they’ve got spots they’re probably just special :)