What the Helleria?!

Hello and welcome. 🙂

I had my eye set on a certain species of isopod since I first gazed upon it. It was in few collections in Europe and even fewer in the United States. Months, months, and mooooonths went by, but it was with great excitement and accomplishment that I was finally able to hold it in my hands earlier this year. Read all about my journey in acquiring this beast among other Isopoda right here. ⬇️

Back in April, I went about my seemingly monthly pestering of Alan Grosse. I always wanted to check in on his availability for one thing or another that was listed as out of stock on his site or try and get a sneak-peak at some newcomers. I inquired about one isopod in particular, the holy grail of roly-polys, Helleria brevicornis. I had already been doing so periodically over the course of maybe the last 2 years and the timing seemed favorable for him finally having them available. I got a reply saying that he would dig up the colony the next time he fed them and then silence for about the next three weeks. At last, in early May I received a message saying that he had done a check on the colony that day and discovered that he had two cultures available!!!! 🙂😀😁😂 I quickly locked a group in with a partial payment and forked the rest over in a couple days time. They were sent out and I eagerly awaited the arrival of my prized pods. The day had come and they were heeeeere! 😃 I hastily unboxed everything and although a few seemed unresponsive, it wasn't long before they moved and I was assured that each of the 8 little guys were a ok! In the midst of this celebration, something very disheartening reared its ugly head. By some mad turn of events unknown to me, one of these largely immobile, clumsy creatures had escaped me. 😫 Greif was massive that day and I still have not found the body of that individual anywhere, but there's no choice in situations like this but to move forward and remember the positives. Minus this event, all members of the colony appear to be trudging right on along and slowly growing to this day. 🙂 This is all great and dandy, but now let me explain to you why I wanted this species and why I never lost focus of acquiring it.

Helleria brevicornis is the only species in its genus and is part of the family Tylidae, which also includes the genus that holds some of the largest volvating isopods in the world, Tylos. As for the volvating species currently being bred in captivity, these are the largest in length and by an even more dramatic margin, girth. Unlike pretty much all isopods in culture, the cast-off exuviae are oddly transparent instead of white. Almost all of their time is spend under the surface of the substrate as they are very subterranean in nature. With this lifestyle has came some very neat characteristics differentiating them from many other non-aquatic isopods. Physically, the plates on their pleon are fused together resulting in a single large one and they seem to lack uropods entirely. Behaviorally, they display something very similar to Macropanesthia rhinoceros of the roach world; the male actually finds a nearly mature female and stays by her side until she finally molts and they can copulate (a behavior I've heard referred to as the "nuptial ride"). Patience is a requirement for keeping/breeding the species as they take 1.5-2 years to mature on average. They are supposedly semelparous and only give birth to around 6-10 mancae. This combined with the slow growth rate insures that they will always be relatively rare in culture.

My individuals are presently about half-grown to slightly less than that, so I'll be having to wait a good while before I can witness their massive full-form. That said, they are already about as large as my biggest roly-polys. LOL I'm currently keeping these guys in a 6 qt. Sterilite container with 11 1/4 inch ventilation holes on each end for ventilation. The substrate is a mix of compost soil, topsoil, perlite, and cypress mulch, which I have at a depth of about 3 inches and keep moderately moist. Besides that, there are a couple piles of leaves for consumption/hiding, a piece of bark for hiding, and a baby carrot and piece of cuttlebone for munching on.

THE BULBOUS BULLDOZERS THEMSELVES!

Smaller to medium-sized individuals

"Nuptial ride" reproduction behavior

Enclosure

I look forward to propagating and spreading this brilliant animal around the hobby and I hope this post has sparked an interest for you to try and breed your own as well! Happy isopod culturing and I'll meet you right where I always do - next post. 🙂