How to Find Isopods

[blacksheep998]

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Hello! I found an awesome spot tonight under a rock next to some woods. IVE NEVER SEEN SO MANY ISOPODS IN MY LIFE! I would estimate that there were about 50-100 JUST ON THE SURFACE, with who knows how many in the soil.

Well then you should see some of my P. scaber colonies. Lol. here's a picture of one of the bark pieces from my dalmatian colony.

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Thank you! The P. scaber are the ones that appear to flare out at the bottom, right?

The best way I know to tell P. scaber and T. rathkii apart is to flip them over. Here's a picture about sexing P. scaber.

The one on the left is female, and the right one is a male. But what I'd like to point out is the white spots. Those are their gills. All isopods in the Porcellio genus have 2 pairs of gills, as in that picture. T. rathkii will instead have 5 pairs of gills.

 

[Chris52]

Well then you should see some of my P. scaber colonies. Lol. here's a picture of one of the bark pieces from my dalmatian colony.

The best way I know to tell P. scaber and T. rathkii apart is to flip them over. Here's a picture about sexing P. scaber.

The one on the left is female, and the right one is a male. But what I'd like to point out is the white spots. Those are their gills. All isopods in the Porcellio genus have 2 pairs of gills, as in that picture. T. rathkii will instead have 5 pairs of gills.

Wow.

Interesting. I will try to identify and sex them. Thank you!

 

[Chris52]

Placed an order with Peter Clausen this morning for 15 "bright orange" Porcellio sp. (scaber?), 8 Armadillidium maculatum, and 20 dwarf white isopods. Can't wait to get them!

 

[blacksheep998]

Nice!

Porcellio scaber is by far the species I have the most of because they breed insanely fast and have multiple color morphs. I posted the picture of my P. scaber 'dalmatian' container. That's just one of the bark chunks in there, there's several others. And that's all from the starter batch of 7 that I got from Peter back in spring 2014.

Also, I'm not sure if you've seen some of my other posts, but around spring 2015 I started a crossbreeding experiment between the P. scaber 'orange' (Same as the ones you're getting, though mine were isolated from a single wild-caught specimen a few years earlier) and the 'dalmatian' breed. The first generation of offspring were gray, but I let them inbreed and the second generation has produced a roughly 9:3:3:1 ratio of gray to orange to dalmatian to orange dalmatian.

I isolated the orange dalmatians which are breeding now and producing mostly more orange dalmatians. I just took this picture of them and their offspring.

 

[Hisserdude]

Nice!

Porcellio scaber is by far the species I have the most of because they breed insanely fast and have multiple color morphs. I posted the picture of my P. scaber 'dalmatian' container. That's just one of the bark chunks in there, there's several others. And that's all from the starter batch of 7 that I got from Peter back in spring 2014.

Also, I'm not sure if you've seen some of my other posts, but around spring 2015 I started a crossbreeding experiment between the P. scaber 'orange' (Same as the ones you're getting, though mine were isolated from a single wild-caught specimen a few years earlier) and the 'dalmatian' breed. The first generation of offspring were gray, but I let them inbreed and the second generation has produced a roughly 9:3:3:1 ratio of gray to orange to dalmatian to orange dalmatian.

I isolated the orange dalmatians which are breeding now and producing mostly more orange dalmatians. I just took this picture of them and their offspring.

Oh man these are gorgeous! Glad they have done well for you! My Pied Cylisticus convexus refuse to produce any pied offspring, I'm getting worried that I will lose the color morph...

 

[blacksheep998]

That's really strange. If pied were just a recessive trait like the dalmatian P. scabers then I'd expect to see at least some offspring with it. I'm not really sure what to suggest besides keeping the non-pied offspring from the pied individuals separate from the other non-pied population and hope it pops back up in the next generation.

 

[Hisserdude]

That's really strange. If pied were just a recessive trait like the dalmatian P. scabers then I'd expect to see at least some offspring with it. I'm not really sure what to suggest besides keeping the non-pied offspring from the pied individuals separate from the other non-pied population and hope it pops back up in the next generation.

Yeah, I've been culling out the normal ones that get produced, really hope they start having pied babies soon. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Chris52]

Interesting. Here's what I did with the wild isopods I caught. Also, is that isopod frass on the leaves and wood?

 

[blacksheep998]

That's poop alright. With large populations the frass will make up a majority of the substrate after just a couple months. I just dump it in my garden and give them fresh compost and oak leaves when that happens.

 

[Chris52]

That's poop alright. With large populations the frass will make up a majority of the substrate after just a couple months. I just dump it in my garden and give them fresh compost and oak leaves when that happens.

Cool. Thank you!

I also received my package from Peter Clausen today. He included some freebies as well, so as of now I have 9 very small Armadillidium maculatum, 30 dwarf whites, and 15+ orange Porcellio.

 

[Chris52]

Caught one of my wild-caught isopods molting today.

 

[Chris52]

Found yet another spot with plentiful isopods. I even found some peach-colored ones.

 

[Chickalo]

Okay. I will search our local woods. Thank you!

When searching the wood, be careful when you pick up rocks and logs! I got stung twice by an underground-wasp colony while searching for local isopod species!

 

[Chickalo]

Here on the east coast I've never had any issues finding isopods.

Kicking over any random rock or log will usually turn up a couple Porcellio scaber or Armadillidium nasatum. And with a little hunting I can generally find Armadillidium vulgare and Philoscia muscorum too. Sometimes if I'm lucky I'll find Oniscus asellus, Trachelipus rathkii, Porcellio spinicornis, or Porcellio laevis.

Those last few are pretty rare though. I have a specific place I can almost always find T. rathkii and P. spinicornis, but I'm not sure I've ever seen them anywhere else.

I wanted to start a colony of O. asellus last year, and in an entire summer of hunting I found only 6 of them. That was enough though and they're breeding nicely now.

And I don't think I've seen a P. laevis in a couple years.

Where I live, the local woods next to the elementary school, has barley any isopods (gotta search harder, I guess!), searched under rocks and logs, only 1 salamander, and plenty of leaves. A few isopods, but was to slow-minded. I found alot of wasp nests, though!

 

[Madnesssr]

It depends on the species somewhat, but I find most isopods under boards or rocks, especially in shady/moist areas. In my area (Utah) these days, they are mostly Armadillidium vulgare...I used to find Porcellio scaber, but I don't see them much around here anymore.

Ditto - I also look in my compost pile. It is loaded with them. It has A. Vulgare, A. Nasatum, Convexus, scaber, and Pruinosus.

 

[Madnesssr]

I added my isopods to my millipede enclosure (as "janitors"), which wasn't my original plan, but hopefully they still breed. So far, the potato trap hasn't done anything except attract the occasional slug, but that could be because of its location.

The isopod could harm the eggs or millipede while molting. I use springtail in all my cultures to help keep mold down. But I keep my millies and Isopod separate.