Fillipinodillo sp. 'Leopard Bee' Isopods (Filipino Giant)

Of all the big Filipino Giant isopods, this is the show-off. It is the most heavily patterned of the genus, kept for the spectacle rather than as a workhorse cleanup crew. Fillipinodillo sp. 'Leopard Bee' is one of the so-called Filipino Giants, a large isopod from the humid forest floors of the Philippines, and it earns both halves of its trade name at once.

The base colour is a bright amber, and across it you get two pattern styles running together: a scatter of leopard-like spotting and a set of bolder horizontal bands, the spots giving you the "Leopard" and the bands the "Bee". Most isopods settle for one motif; this one carries both cleanly on the same body. Better still, it holds that colour and pattern into adulthood rather than fading as it matures, so an established group looks as vivid as a fresh batch of juveniles. It is a big animal too, commonly 15 to 20mm with larger individuals pushing past 30mm, and like the rest of the family Armadillidae it conglobates, rolling into a tight ball when disturbed.

You keep 'Leopard Bee' for the display value. It is the most elaborate member of an already striking genus, and it sits naturally in a focused Filipino Giant cluster alongside the Giant Banahoa and the Nakar Fillipinodillo, both siblings you will find across the wider Fillipinodillo collection. Unlike many secretive premium tropicals, these are active foragers that work the surface and the substrate layers in plain view, so you actually see the colony rather than just knowing it is in there somewhere.

This is a showcase species of moderate-to-intermediate difficulty, and its one real demand is the balance between humidity and airflow. Keep the enclosure at 22 to 27°C, which for most of the UK year means a little supplementary warmth. Aim for 70 to 80% humidity with a clear gradient, most of the surface damp like a wrung-out sponge but never waterlogged, and pair that high surface moisture with medium-to-high ventilation. Getting those two in step is the whole game: right, and they breed away happily; wrong, and the colony stagnates and struggles. Give them a deep substrate of leaf litter and rotted white hardwood to forage through, enriched with flake soil for structure and nutrition, and top it with a generous layer of hardwood leaves such as oak, beech and magnolia. Keep calcium available at all times, whether cuttlebone or crushed oyster shell, since animals this size have a real appetite for it when moulting, and add protein once or twice a week to match their bulk. Cork bark laid across the moisture gradient gives them cover and encourages that natural layered foraging.

Breeding follows the same rule. Get the surface moisture and ventilation balanced and 'Leopard Bee' establish readily, throwing off juveniles that already carry the full leopard-and-bee pattern and keep it as they grow. Leave a new colony undisturbed for the first few months while it settles, keep the calcium and protein coming, and a small culture of springtails tucked into the substrate will keep mould in check and tidy up any uneaten food.

Every order is packed with care, settled into a ventilated tub of damp sphagnum inside a double-walled box so the animals travel warm and undisturbed. We send captive-bred stock out Monday to Thursday by tracked next-day Royal Mail, aiming for delivery by 1pm, and every parcel is covered by our live-arrival guarantee with a small overcount added as standard.