Surprise isopods from the garden

[Farouche]

I just moved to a new city in another part of the country and I have a small garden, and it's just full of so many, many isopods. They look a lot like Porcellio scaber of various morphs, lots of lava, some other individuals are golden/yellow, and there's a stray that may be a different species that I scooped up along the rest - I took a few spoonfuls to put in a spare bin I had; there is still plenty in the garden, I can't stress enough how many colonies of them there is around and I only searched through 1/4 of the garden surface. They live huddled up together in bunches of +25 individuals of all ages every 20cm along the property.

I'll probably need a larger bin and some if I want to play around with breeding projects (although I believe Porcellio Scaber are often naturally polymorphic so I may not be able to isolate anything? In particular I've read the males tend to more often be grey and the females more often be in the beige range).

 

[coolnweird]

Super cool! I love living in areas where I can go outside and turn over rocks and find critters

 

[Farouche]

I got a better picture of the Porcellio lava I picked outside this week showing their nice colours, and today I also went to collect a few more cool looking individuals from the colonies I found in my garden. The yellow ones look like the ones sold as "Porcellio lava 'lemonade'" on the Internet.

Additionally, I took a couple shots of the "stray" that got scooped up along the rest, might be Porcellio spinicornis or Oniscus asellus, maybe? It doesn't look like the rest of my critters.

 

[Aquarimax]

I got a better picture of the Porcellio lava I picked outside this week showing their nice colours, and today I also went to collect a few more cool looking individuals from the colonies I found in my garden. The yellow ones look like the ones sold as "Porcellio lava 'lemonade'" on the Internet.

Additionally, I took a couple shots of the "stray" that got scooped up along the rest, might be Porcellio spinicornis or Oniscus asellus, maybe? It doesn't look like the rest of my critters.

The stray one does look like Oniscus.

I suggest checking for the pairs of white ‘lungs’ underneath the pleon…2 pairs, Porcellio scaber, 5 pairs, Trachelipus rathkii.

 

[Farouche]

The stray one does look like Oniscus.

I suggest checking for the pairs of white ‘lungs’ underneath the pleon…2 pairs, Porcellio scaber, 5 pairs, Trachelipus rathkii.

Thank you for the tip, if I can single out the individual again I will try to gently check it!

Trachelipus rathkii has not been recorded in the region so I figure it's unlikely to be that. Oniscus asellus is the most likely contender with the most recent sightings, while Porcellio spinicornis (and Porcellio monticola, which are vaguely similar) have been recorded here in the past but not in a while.

 

[Aquarimax]

Thank you for the tip, if I can single out the individual again I will try to gently check it!

Trachelipus rathkii has not been recorded in the region so I figure it's unlikely to be that. Oniscus asellus is the most likely contender with the most recent sightings, while Porcellio spinicornis (and Porcellio monticola, which are vaguely similar) have been recorded here in the past but not in a while.

with regards to the lungs, I was referring to the Porcelliio scaber…T. rathkii can sometimes be under the radar as they look so much like P. scaber, except for the lung pairs.

 

[Farouche]

with regards to the lungs, I was referring to the Porcelliio scaber…T. rathkii can sometimes be under the radar as they look so much like P. scaber, except for the lung pairs.

Ah, gotcha! I did check out the papers about local isopods and P. scaber is widespread here, while T. rathkii is not found in the region.

On that note, there are two species of isopods that have been sighted in the region that I'm excited about, I don't know if you've heard of them? One is Platyarthrus hoffmannseggii and feeds almost exclusively on ant droppings, so they would require a specific setup (and I'm not into ants yet at this point); but they looks really cute, tiny, chonky, with chonky antennae. And the other is Androniscus dentiger and they're RED. Or salmon. They just look fantastic but I think they live mostly in caves; they're also not big isopods.

Still, I'm excited about local species, can't wait to see what else lives around here.

 

[Farouche]

I haven't been able to look at the lungs, but I think the stray is indeed Oniscus ascellus; the flagella of the antennea seems to have 3 segments and not 2, from the look of it. It's been hiding under the cork bark for most of the time, interacting peacefully with the P. scaber just like it was in my garden. I wish I could find it Oniscus buddies but I haven't seen any during the day. Maybe I should try at night (my neighbours are definitively going to wonder what's up with me, watching me crouch in the garden to pick up more bugs)?

(don't worry about the mold thread in the upper corner, there wasn't much and a team of springtails was at work on it)

 

[Farouche]

I don't want to spam the forum with many threads so I'm just going to post here the picture of the little friend I found in my rosemary bush while I was gardening and hunting for isopods. Looks like some kind of Araniella orb-weaver, it was nowhere near a web and seemed to be hunting the spittlebugs (froghopper larvae) in the rosemary. Sorry for the poor photo quality, it was very small and moved a lot. (Of course I put it back in the garden after taking the picture.)

Also for the record, the Porcellio scaber from my garden are not just found in the clay-heavy substrate, grass, and leaf litter, but also chilling in the hortensias/hydrangeas up to 2 meter high off the ground.

 

[Farouche]

I have done more garden work in another area of the garden and! I have found many more friends! Possibly Oniscus ascellus buddies for my stray to hang with? (I need to set them up properly) They were hanging out in a fresher/more moist area of the garden and deeper in the substrate, in smaller colonies (than my garden P. scaber) with the occasional scaber stray chilling with the; pretty much the reverse situation than where I find the P. scaber.

I know these are common species for many people but I grew up in Southern France where there are mediterranean species and not these so I get excited. :')

 

[Farouche]

Sorry I'm just excited about these Oniscus asellus from my garden, I just think they're neat... Love their pattern and colours. I need to set them up properly, they're a little cramped in a temporary old tub at the moment.

 

[Farouche]

Hello there again, have you heard about Oniscus asellus (from the garden), the most underrated isopod in the hobby? Well I found a very orange individual in my colony today.



Also I now have Merulanella sp. 'Red Diablo', about 10 adults at the moment and 2 generations of youngsters.

 

[Isopods others]

Those are some pretty isopods and those 'Red diablo's wow how is their care requirements?
That's deeply interesting,I hope they continue to thrive

 

[Farouche]

@Isopods others


Oniscus asellus is a temperate species similar to Porcellio in general. This species likes its environment more moist than dry and preferably a little cooler than the usual popular isopods. In my garden they stick to the shaded and moist areas, especially under hedges where leaf litter accumulates, whereas Porcellio scaber is found all around but also in very dry corners, in cement cracks, and in broad daylight. O. asellus reproduce fine for me , no particular requirement (offer a good amound of decaying leaves and some white rotten wood, supplemental food is always good and welcome but in my experience they don't wolf it down like some other species would). They are somewhat timid during the day imho, especially when their number were lower.

Merulanella sp. 'red diablo' is a tropical species from Vietnam that lives on the forest floor. It likes warmer temperatures (but not overly hot) and a moist, but not soaking wet, environment. They are very surface active and can be seen during the day as well as at night. In my experience they are extremely fond of white rotten wood and bark, and accept very little else if at all. The supplemental food I have given that they ate the more readily were turtle pellet (high proteins) and rabbit pellets (hay and grass, high fiber) but even then, they still mostly stick to eating decaying wood and some leaves so I have given up offering it too often. Other than that I haven't kept them long enough to gauge how difficult a species it is, they don't reproduce extremely fast but they breed well enough for me and I'm waiting to see if the population grows satisfactorily enough or stagnate before pronouncing a judgement. Some other hobbyists have experienced colony crash and other issues with Merulanella species but I don't know the details; this is my first Merulanella species and so far so good... * knocks on wood *

 

[Purplepuffball]

Thank you for the tip, if I can single out the individual again I will try to gently check it!

Trachelipus rathkii has not been recorded in the region so I figure it's unlikely to be that. Oniscus asellus is the most likely contender with the most recent sightings, while Porcellio spinicornis (and Porcellio monticola, which are vaguely similar) have been recorded here in the past but not in a while.

I would actually argue that the stray individual is a Trachelipus rathkii. Just because it isn't documented on inat and other platforms doesn't indicate that it doesn't exist in the area- most of the time its the product of lazy iding and bad reporting.

 

[Farouche]

I would actually argue that the stray individual is a Trachelipus rathkii. Just because it isn't documented on inat and other platforms doesn't indicate that it doesn't exist in the area- most of the time its the product of lazy iding and bad reporting.

It turned out to be Oniscus asellus and now I have a thriving colony with a variery of colours as shown in the latest pictures (above the Merulanella pics). But thank you for the tip!

(Must add that I also have a colony of Trachelipus rathkii that I got since I opened this topic, and they look different than my Oniscus asellus.)

 

[Farouche]

Some recent pictures of the colours in my Oniscus asellus colony, which some of you may have seen on my Instagram perhaps. There's a couple of Porcellio scaber in there since I collected both in the garden and as babies it's hard to differentiate. As they grow up I sort them out but sometimes I forget about them.

 

[Farouche]

Storm Ciarán hit us last week, no big damage on my house but plenty of fallen trees in the region. Following that, a new species of isopod showed up in my garden today! I thought it was some kind of armadillo at first due to sheer size and lack of pattern, but the face threw me off. In the end it seems it is likely Armadillidium depressum (got help from other intertebrate keepers with this) which are native here but I had never seen in my garden.

Also it is a female individual with a full marsupium, I hope she'll deliver a healthy litter in the setup I'm preparing for her!

Here shown for comparison with one of my Armadillo officinalis 'Israel' on the left, and a solo picture:

 

[Farouche]

Another species washed up in my small garden after the storm from last month: Porcellionides cingendus. Here are some pictures of the individual next to Porcellio scaber, for reference.

Also happy to announce that the female Armadillidium depressum I found last month has released her babies and they're growing nicely. She's going to be the one founding individual for the whole colony...

 

[TLSizzle]

Beautiful pods! How are your merulanellas doing? I get my 1st ember bees soon and am quite nervous!