A Stingy First

Hello and welcome. 🙂

Today will break the streak of 4 consecutive exclusively isopod posts! But even though something non-isopod will be featured this time, will our crustaceous friends be left out all together? You'll just have to find out. 😛

In late April, I started up a conversation with fairly long-time buddy, Anthony Molnar. I was looking to get a hold of two select species from him, but once I was enlightened more about one of them, the chase for it ended. I was about to hold off on the other species due to this as I had planned on getting a combo, but then Anthony remembered something. He actually had another intriguing variety available in the same (phylogenetic) order as the one I had begrudgingly passed on. 😮 It checked just about all the boxes for what I was looking for, so that decided things - it would be mine. 😙 The two species entered transit and before I knew it, they had arrived. The 1 Liocheles australasiae and 10+ Armadillidium peraccae were all alive! 😊 Let's dig deeper into both the scorp and pods, shall we?

Liocheles australasiae is known as the Dwarf Wood Scorpion. As the common name suggests, it is a small animal with adults only having a body length of about 1 inch. Being parthenogenetic, males are rarely, if ever, reported and adult females produce young (usually a brood of approximately 20) by themselves just fine. From what I've seen, they are one of the least defensive scorpions that exists and would much rather revert to playing dead than attacking. They inhabit both terrestrial and arboreal habitats in nature - basically anywhere that has tiny crevices for them to squeeze into.

I'm keeping my (suspected adult) girl in a 16 oz. container with a fair amount of large pinholes in the lid for ventilation. The substrate is coconut fiber, which I keep moderately moist and at about half an inch in depth. Besides that, there are 2 pieces of bark in there for hiding.

Lil scorp, flat scorp, attack scorp. 

Likely mature female

Enclosure

Armadillidium peraccae is a roly-poly that mainly jumped onto the scene last year. It is possibly the most textured Armadillidium species in the hobby at the moment being covered in abundant, tiny tubercles. Additionally, it has a rather large projection in between it's eyes that is strikingly similar to that of Armadillidium nasatum, but more oblong. They start off light in color and slowly develop into a darker and darker shade of grey.

I'm currently keeping my budding colony in a 64 oz. container with a good amount of large pinholes around the rim for ventilation. The substrate is a mix of compost soil, topsoil, perlite, and cypress mulch, which I keep lightly moist and at around an inch and a half in depth. Besides that, there is a piece of eggcrate in there for hiding, some dead leaves for hiding/consuming, and a baby carrot and piece of cuttlebone for munching on.

Bumpy is the new beautiful!

Large individuals

Smaller individuals

Mixed-size individuals

Enclosure

I hope you guys enjoyed how things were mixed up today and I'll meet you right where I always do - next post. 🙂