armadillo (plural los and loes)

[In Ger. armadill and armadilthier. From Sp. armadillo.] 1. The Spanish American name, now imported into English, of various Mammal i a belonging to the order Edentata, the family Dasypodidæ, and its typical genus Dasypus. [DASYPUS.] The name armadillo , implying IMG:content-0745.jpg:[graphic][merged small][merged small] back, and in some species a series of rings for the protection of their tail. Another peculiarity is the great number of their molar teeth; these amount in one species to more than ninety. There are five toes on the hinder feet, and four or five, according to the species, on the anterior ones. The fore feet are ad mirably adapted for digging, and the animal, when it sees danger, can extemporise a hole and vanish into it with wonderful rapidity. If actually captured, it rolls itself to a ball, withdrawing its head and feet under its strong armour. There are several species such as the Great Armadillo, or Tatu ( Dasypus gigas), the Three-banded Armadillo, or Apara (D. Apar ), the Six-banded Armadillo ( D. sex cinct us), and the Hairy Armadillo ( D. villosus ). They feed chiefly on ants and other insects and worms, and are peculiar to South America, where a giant-animal of similar organisation, the Glyptodon, lived in Tertiary times. "It is generally understood that the Armadillos bring forth but once a year."- Griffith's Ouv., iii. 286. 2. A genus of Crustaceans belonging to the order Isopod a, and the family Oniscidæ, the type of which is the well-known wood-louse. It is so called partly from its being covered with a certain feeble kind of armour; but chiefly from its rolling itself up into a ball after the fashion of the South American mammalian Armadillos.