More Armadillidium!

Mitch Belville Shipment Series, Pt 4/4

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Back onto isopods, let's talk about the last of the isopods Mitch sent me, two new Armadillidium species! 😃 

Let's start with Armadillidium gestroi. This species is one of the largest Armadillidium in culture, and they are beautiful to boot! A lot of isopods look much better in person than in photos, and this is definitely one of those species. Pictures (mine especially) do not do them justice, and this honestly might be my favorite of the Armadillidium I've kept. 😄

I've got my dozen or so individuals housed in a moderately ventilated 1 gallon shoebox with a thin layer of moist coconut fiber as the substrate. I've got bark, eggcrate and paper towel rolls for hides, and leaf litter on top for their staple diet. I'll offer dog food as their supplemental diet, and will keep them at around 73F°. 

Here are some pictures of mine:

Quite a charming species, hopefully they'll thrive for me!

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Now onto a species that seems awfully underrated to me, Armadillidium corcyraeum. To me they look a lot like A.maculatum, just with very irregular white markings. They don't seem to be as commonly kept are as sought after as maculatum, but I really love the look of them.

I have my ten or so individuals set up in a moderately ventilated 1 gallon shoebox, with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate, two thirds of which I'm keeping humid, the rest bone dry. I've got bark pieces, eggcrate and paper towel rolls for hides, as well as leaf litter for their staple diet. I'm also offering dog food for their protein and other dietary needs. I'm keeping their temps at around 73F°.

Here are some photos of a group of mine:

When immature they almost look like A.nasatum with white markings, but as they get older they darken up and loose a lot of that patterning, quite an interesting transition. Hopefully these breed well for me and I can try and make them a little more commonly kept in the hobby! 😁

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this little series of posts, once again a HUGE thanks to my friend Mitch Belville for this lovely package that he was generous enough to send, he will likely start selling stuff publicly next year, and I highly recommend y'all hit him up for some top quality inverts and great packing! 😉 Well, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all in the next post! 😄