Armadillidium, Armadillo & More!

A while back I got some Armadillidium vulgare "Magic Potion" from Roachcrossing, and I am happy to report they have established well for me! These are a large strain of A.vulgare from Savannah, Georgia, and a dalmatian morph to boot! This particular line has been bred for high yellow splotching over multiple generations, and it definitely shows! These get larger and are slower growing than a lot of other vulgare strains, and are definitely a must have for isopod enthusiasts!

I have them set up in a well ventilated enclosure with an inch or so of coco fiber, topped with leaf litter, bark and eggcrate hides. I am keeping them humid, and at around 75-80F, and am offering dog food as the supplemental diet.

Such a beautiful line of vulgare, it's a shame the good name of this line has been misused for other lines, like the Japanese Dalmatian vulgare line or other random Dalmatian strains, which has muddied the waters and led to these and other lines getting compromised in some people's collections. To be clear, this line from Roachcrossing is the OG Magic Potions, no other lines (at least other vulgare lines) should be labeled "Magic Potions" of any sort, to avoid further confusion.

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Quite a while ago I got some Armadillidium badium "Castledaccia", a beautiful and variable species that is quite similar to A.vulgare. These enjoy a more semi-humid environment, and seem to be slower breeders (though litter sizes can be quite large).

I am keeping mine in a well ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with bark and leaf litter. I am keeping them on a 50/50 humidity gradient, and have them at around 75F. I am offering dog food as the staple diet.

They are doing well for me now, though they were quite slow to establish! Here's hoping to continued success with them. 😁

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As I mentioned in a recent post, my Armadillo officinalis "OG Hobby Stock" have been throwing out orange individuals, which I have successfully isolated and am simply labeling as "Orange". They are quite pretty, and have really taken off over the past few months.

Now if only my colony could throw out some dalmatians, that'd be fantastic... 😂

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My Neoblattella detersa colony has been thriving, they crashed hard last year but I was thankfully able to recover the colony after a rehouse. I plan on moving them and several of my other Pseudophyllodromiids to 1 gallon jars here soon (most of them are in half gallon jars ATM), when I find the time to do so.

Hopefully they continue to stay on the up and up, I think I have them set up pretty well to avoid any further crashes.

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Lastly, my Porcellionides pruinosus "Melba, ID" have thrown out some dalmatian individuals here and there, which I have isolated successfully and labeled simply as "Dalmatian" (preceded by their locality info). These are proper dalmatians and seem to have more white on them and less grey than some of the other various pied pruinosus morphs like "Oreo Crumble". AND they come from a line with locality data, that has been examined by an expert and confirmed to actually be P.pruinosus as well, not mislabeled P.floria. So quite the pedigree, for a Porcellionides morph. 😜

I have just made these available to the public on my For Sale list, if anyone's interested! Actually, everything in this post is available ATM now that I think of it... 😂

Anyways, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

More Italian Bugs, & Other Odd Additions!

I have finally established a colony of what I believe to be Chaetophiloscia elongata from Trastevere, Rome, Italy. The founding stock was a mere two females, and this species seems to have relatively small broods. However they're finally in the dozens now, and I just moved them to a larger enclosure, which will hopefully help bump their numbers. 😄

I've got them in a moderately ventilated container with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with leaf litter and bark. I'm keeping them humid, at around 75-80F°, and am offering dog food as the supplemental diet.

Here's hoping they keep breeding and doing well for me, so I can eventually make them available!

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Earlier this year I got some Arcitalitrus sylvaticus, AKA "Lawn Shrimp" from Smugbug. These terrestrial amphipods are widespread in the coastal US states, and prefer moist conditions, but not soaking wet/stagnant. They can jump quite well, kinda like springtails, so care must be taken that their enclosure is tall enough that they can't leap out while you are doing maintenance on them. They spend much of their time underground and so prefer an organically rich substrate that they can feed from, though they will scavenge more protein rich foods from the surface of the substrate as well.

I keep mine in a minimally ventilated container with a couple inches of coco fiber, sphagnum moss, and sawdust mixed together with leaf litter. I'll top off the leaf litter and sometimes add more sawdust as well as they consume it all. I'm keeping them moist, at around 75F°, and offer dog food and fish food as the supplemental diet.

A very interesting, obscure invertebrate in culture, would love to get more terrestrial amphipod species in the future! And perhaps easier to care for freshwater species as well... 👀

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This summer I acquired two Blaps cf. mucronata localities, a single female from the Colosseum in Rome, and a group of adults from near the Pyramid of Caius Cestius, Rome. These are sometimes called "Graveyard Beetles", because of their affinity to living in old, less kempt graveyards and similar environments amongst urban areas, cellars of old houses, parks, etc.. 

Now I got larvae from both groups, however while they've proven easy to rear to a mature size, the pupae and teneral adults seem very picky about humidity levels, so I've had issues getting any to adulthood. I've reared one adult successfully of the Pyramid locality, I'm concerned I may lose the Colosseum locality though...

I've got both localities set up in well ventilated containers with an inch or so of coco fiber substrate mixed with a tiny bit of sand. I keep them on a 50/50 humidity gradient, at around 75-80F°, and feed them dog food as the staple diet.

I've been isolating larvae to minimally ventilated deli cups with moist substrate, as I do Eleodes, however I'm having to workshop the ventilation and moisture levels now to try and increase pupal survival... Hopefully I can figure that out relatively quickly. I'm going to aim for lower moisture and higher ventilation going forward.

Here's hoping I can figure out how to rear these more consistently, Blaps have been a dream of mine to work with and I'd really like to succeed with them!

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I got some Armadillidium gestroi "Zinger" earlier this year, also from Smugbug, and they bred and established themselves for me very quickly (as is standard for this hardy species). I really love the contrast on this morph, which features white spots on their backs instead of the normal yellow.

I have mine set up in a moderately ventilated container with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with bark and leaf litter. I'm keeping them at around 80-85F°, humid, and am offering them dog food as the staple diet.

Definitely a neat morph of a nice and hardy species, great for beginners and experienced isopod enthusiasts alike.

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Lastly, earlier this year I got a group of Armadillidium vulgare from Pisa, Province of Pisa, Italy. These are maybe the only strain of wild type, Old World vulgare in culture here in the states, and I gotta say they are pretty neat for wild types! Rather dark, sparsely mottled with yellow spots, and overall a bit smaller than most US stocks I have.

I have them in a well ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped in bark, sphagnum moss and leaf litter. I'm keeping them on a 50/50 humidity gradient, at around 75F°, and am offering dog food as the supplemental diet.

They've been breeding and slowly growing in numbers, and are overdue for a rehousing to a larger bin here soon to really bump those numbers up. 😅

Anyways, that does it for this post! Thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉 

New Isopods, Wide Horn Hissers, & Domino Roaches!

Alan Jeon graciously sent me a culture of Ctenorillo sp. "Boqueron, Puerto Rico" a few months back, and they're doing great and breeding quite well already! These are a small but heavily textured species, relatively recently introduced to the hobby.

I'm keeping them in a moderately ventilated container with a thin layer of coconut fiber and sphagnum moss substrate, topped with crushed leaf litter and bark. I'm keeping them pretty humid, and at around 75-80F°. I'm feeding them dog food and fish food as their supplemental diet.

A cute species with unique morphology, I'm really happy to have some in my collection now!

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I recently got some Gromphadorhina oblongonota from Russ Gurely, which he says came from the Philadelphia Zoo. He never mixed these with any other bloodlines, and so far they look quite pure to me, which is great since pure oblongonota are becoming harder and harder to find here in the states. The last group I had came from Roachcrossing, but I traded them back to him since his colony crashed (and unfortunately he was not able to save them even after getting those individuals back from me). So I've been on the lookout for this species for a bit, and I believe I've found good stock of them now. 😄

I have them set up in a well ventilated 5 gallon gasket bin with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with bark and eggcrates. I'm keeping two thirds of the enclosure humid, the rest dry, and have them at around 80-85F°. I'm feeding them dog food and fruits as the staple diet.

Here are some pictures of a nice, large male (not a *true* major though IMO):

Really hoping these breed well for me, I have several females that look ready to burst at the seams! 🙏 Would be nice to spread the love and make some pure oblongonota available myself! I also low-key wanna try some creative hybrid projects with these... 👀 Imagine what oblongonota to Aeluropoda would look like, the morphology (especially the pronotum shape of major males) couldn't be more different... 🤔

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I got some Ignamba sp. "Nigeria" from Smugbug earlier this year, and they have proven to be quite the hardy and prolific species! 

I have mine in a well ventilated enclosure, with an inch or so of coco fiber substrate topped with leaf litter and bark. I'm keeping them on a 50/50 humidity gradient, and at around 75-80F°. I'm feeding them dog food as their supplemental diet.

These are a nice little oddball species, one of very few African native isopods established in the US hobby!

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Lastly, after getting hybrid stock last year and having to destroy that culture after realizing that they were compromised, I have received pure Therea bernhardti stock from Zail Zavala (who got his from Roachcrossing, who got his from the EU hobby over a decade ago).

This stock is pure and seems to only throw out individuals with black hindwings. Supposedly there were two stocks of "bernhardti" in the EU hobby, those with black hindwings, and those with orange hindwings, and some keepers apparently mixed those stocks together... it's quite possible those were two different species, or at least two distinct localities of bernhardti (apparently both have very short hind wings, so I'm betting on the latter TBH). 

However, this stock is old, has not been mixed since they came to the US from Europe, and only throws out individuals with black, short hind wings. So they should be pure bernhardti, which were originally described from hobby stock with short black hind wings, with the locality info of "Tiruvannamalai, India". I can't speak for other stocks of this species available in Europe and the US, but at least this line appears to not have been contaminated by other bloodlines/species.

I've got several of them maturing ATM, so I should start getting lots of babies in a matter of months, and will hopefully have them available by Spring. 😄 So happy to now have pure stock of all 5 cultured Therea spp... I'll have to talk about the two spp. that are actually new to US culture here in a future post. 😜 

Anyways, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see y'all next time! 😉