It All Started in 2016

Hello and welcome. 🙂

I've recently completed the oddest trade in my career as an arthropod keeper. There was no shipping or anything and, in fact, it didn't even involve anyone outside my household. Got your attention? Thought so. Let's jump right in.

The chain of events started in 2016. Invertebrate Dude was digging around in his Oniscus asellus colony and discovered 3 little gems. These individuals had black blotches and electric yellow flecks on a white background. As quick as he found the first 3, he found another, coming to a total of 4. These proliferated nicely and soon the gorgeous morph "Mardi Gras Dalmatian" (name given per the suggestion of Laura Mae Riepl; she will come into play again later) was isolated! Alan Grosse always has the goods, so one of the first releases of the morph was to him through trade. From there, it made its way to the aforementioned Laura Mae Riepl. In late January of this year, she held a contest for a free giveaway of 15 individuals on her business's Facebook page. Of course, not having them yet, I entered, but with around 100 other entrees, my odds weren't spectacular. The time came for drawing the winner and while I was on the edge of my seat, the results came in. The winner was…...my mom! 😶😦😮 Yes, she entered as well to provide a better chance of getting ahold of them. lol I assumed she would just give them to me, but apparently she was serious about getting into isopods as when the box came, she did not. 😐 Luckily, they bred prolifically for her and sometime last month, I was finally able to trade for a dozen of my own! Since the morph has already been defined, here's a little overview of the species itself.

Oniscus asellus are originally from Europe, but like many isopods, have been introduced to the ecosystem of the U.S long ago. There is also a subspecies, O.asellus occidentalis, that is generally smaller and more colorful, but it is unconfirmed if it has made it here as well. The normal asellus are one of the largest terrestrial isopod you can find in the U.S with few rivals. It is usually brown with electric yellow flecks and white skirting, but there are special mutations around like the topic of this post and one in which the normally brown coloration is replaced with orange. Not to mention many more which are still in the works. Compared to most isopods, it is especially sensitive to higher temps and dryer conditions and is known to quickly perish when these things come into play.

I have my now medium-sized individuals housed in a 64 oz. container with an average (for my isopod enclosures of this size) amount of small pinholes poked around the rim. The substrate is a very moist mix of compost soil, cypress mulch, and perlite, which I have at about an inch in depth. Besides that, there is a moist clump of sphagnum moss in one of the corners for moisture regulation, two pieces of bark for hiding, some dead leaves for hiding/consuming, and a baby carrot and piece of cuttlebone for munching on.

MGDs. ⬇️

Medium-sized individuals

Enclosure

I hope you guys enjoyed the tale of the unlikely journey this morph took from their original isolation a few years ago to my "isopod closet" today. 😁 That's all for the moment and I'll meet you right where I always do - next post. 🙂